Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 03 Sep. 2009 – SKIFF Trip #7 — 32 Fish






I fished a morning half day S.K.I.F.F. trip (#7) today with Khayman and Jayden Koop, the children of Jeremy and Hillary Koop of Killeen. Mr. Koop is deployed to Iraq with the 89th Military Police Brigade. This and all S.K.I.F.F. trips are sponsored by the Austin Fly Fishers. S.K.I.F.F. stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun and is a program available to the families of deployed soldiers wherein their children can participate in an all-expenses-paid, professionally guided fishing trip of about 4 hours in duration.

During this trip we had two very memorable moments. First, Jayden caught the first fish of her life (she’s 7); it was a bluegill sunfish. Then Khayman caught a record-breaking bluegill sunfish on flyfishing gear, doubling the weight of the former record. In all, we caught a mixed bag of 31 fish.

Khayman’s pending lake record bluegill taken with fly gear


Is that enthusiasm, or what?!?

Start Time: 7:00a

End Time: 11:30am

Air Temp: 73F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~83.3F

Wind: Winds were from the SW the entire trip ranging from 6-11 mph.

Skies: Fair the entire trip


Mrs. Koop was right on time at 7:00am dockside, just a few minutes before sunrise. I covered all the safety basics and then, since neither child had much fishing experience, we started our day off fishing for sunfish to get some basics down and to allow for some immediate success and confidence-building. We had our best success at Area 189 on the mix of wood, rocks and aquatic vegetation found there. At this location, we boated 18 sunfish including 17 bluegill and 1 longear. Khayman took 3 of these by flyrod, and the siblings split the rest equally on bream poles baited with worm under a float. One of Khayman’s fish on the flyrod went 0.25 pounds and 5 1/8 inches beating out the current Jr. Angler fly rod record of 0.13 pounds.

After that positive experience, we searched some similar areas (195, 513, 514, and 515) but found only this year’s hatched fish in those areas with no adults or older juveniles evident.

By now it was around 9:00am and the sun had risen and brightened sufficiently to get the deep bite going. We headed over to the stretch of water between Area 460 and 196 and began sweeping with sonar to find some schools of white bass to downrig for. The wind was at its peak for the morning now, around 11mph, and just producing some whitecaps, so topwater was very difficult to see. We did find fish in this area, all at 28-31 feet. We got a combination of lure sizes down on 2 ‘riggers including a single #13 Pet on one and a #12 Pet / Licker combo on another. Khayman really took to the downriggers well and was rigging everything himself after only 2-3 tries. In less than an hour’s time, we boated a nice mixed bag of 7 fish including 2 largemouth bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 4 white bass. Around 10:35 I spotted some topwater action in the vicinity of Area 485. We checked it out, but I didn’t find the action frequent enough or dense enough to put the kids on it, so, we took our act on the road and downrigged once again at Area 056 just out from the 25’ contour. We found fish a bit shallower here in 25-27 feet and ran the same spread in front of these fish. We put 6 more fish in the boat here including 1 largemouth and 5 whites, one of which went 14 1/8 inches. By now our winds were tapering off, the atmosphere heating up, and mom was returning to the boat ramp for the kids, so we wrapped it up, got back to the dock, took all of the required measurements and photos for Khayman’s new flyrod record and parted ways.

The Austin Fly Fishers have been kind enough to provide me with “goody” bags for each of the SKIFF participants including a laminated fish ID card, a fish ID book, a learn-to-flyfish book, a SKIFF t-shirt, and more. The kids really enjoyed receiving this as they departed.

If you follow this blog and know of a family with kids where mom or dad is deployed or if mom or dad died on active duty, please pass along my information so I can get them on the water.


TALLY = 31 FISH, all caught and released


Bob Maindelle, Owner, Holding The Line Guide Service and Kids Fish, Too! Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide, Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Lake Georgetown Fishing Guide, Walter E. Long (Decker) Lake Fishing Guide. Offering Salado Fishing, Killeen Fishing and Ft. Hood Fishing








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