Stillhouse Fishing Guide Report – 19 Sep. 2009 – SKIFF Trip #9 — 8 Fish (AM Trip)






I fished a half-day morning trip today on Stillhouse with 2 young men — Lavar Fogle of Belton and Nick Samano of Killeen. Lavar’s dad, George Washington, and Nick’s dad, Thomas Coons, are both deployed to Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division. This was the ninth SKIFF Program trip that I’ve run. SKIFF stands for Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun. SKIFF trips are funded by donations both given by and collected by the members of the Austin Fly Fishers. AFF has commissioned me to take the children of soldiers deployed in harm’s way and the children of soldiers killed while on active duty on guided fishing trips.

Nick S. with twin whites taken a few minutes apart early this morning on Pets.

Capt. Lavar mans the wheel as we search the deep for fishes.


Start Time: 7:30a

End Time: 1:15p

Air Temp: 69F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~79F

Wind: Winds were light from the NNW at trip’s start, swinging to the N. by trip’s end. Skies continued to be clouded due to Gulf moisture being drawn in by the persistent upper level low that has dominated our weather for the past 9 days now.

We had a tough trip today, capping off a tough week of fishing all week this week. The low pressure system that has controlled the weather for the past 9 days has maintained winds out of the N to NNW with damp, cloudy conditions. This makes for predictably tough fishing and today seemed to be the toughest of ’em all. But, we took lemons and made lemonade and had a great time on the water even if the wait time between the fish was lengthy. Our trip scheduling today was a bit crazy and gave me some insight on what the wives of deployed soldiers deal with when trying to provide opportunities for their children when dad is away. Today I fished with Nick from 7:30a to 11:30a and with Lavar from 9:30a to 1:30p. Why? Because between the two boys there’s a total of 11 other siblings, grocery shopping to do, a slow leak on a tire to fix, a sleepover to attend, football practice to make, a park to visit, a band instrument to buy, church to get up and get ready for, and the list goes on. One of my goals is to give moms a break, so the least I could do was flex on the trip timing for their sake.

Well, we started our morning looking deep, as that is where life appear most consistently on sonar as we got underway. There was very little boat traffic, zero bird activity, zero topwater activity, and the majority of the weekend bass fishing crowd had cashed in their chips by around 9am and were headed back home. We downrigged the entire trip today and very consistently located gamefish at the 38-40 foot mark in several areas but, so many times, as we passed over fish postured in such a way that would normally guarantee a bite as the baits passed by, the fish just refused to strike. Realizing about 90 minutes into the trip that this was going to be a tough one, I did all I could do to keep the boys engaged, including allowing them to drive the boat from spot to spot, and showing them how to execute a trolling grid over a spot once we got there using GPS. They really did well at that.

Another skill I introduced them to was interpreting sonar. I was amazed at how quickly the boys’ minds grasped the concept of sonar, and I made mention of that to them, telling them I often have men on board who never really get the hang of sonar even after an entire trip. To that Nick said, “Yeah, old people who are like 50 or 60 are used to things in black and white so they don’t get this high tech stuff.” I about busted a gut after hearing that.

Yet another manly outdoor skill I introduced the boys to was that of snack-swapping. Both boys’ moms packed enough groceries to feed the Chinese Army, but some of the snacks were things the boys didn’t care for. I told them that’s an opportunity to work out a win-win trade wherein you offer something you don’t care for in trade for something you do, trying to find a common ground with your trading partner. They made some good deals and definitely didn’t go home hungry.

After seeing the effort both mom’s made to get the boys to the dock on time, have them dressed appropriately, and pack them lunch, etc., I asked the boys if they appreciated their moms. One of the boys said, “Yes … except for one thing.” I waited for the other shoe to drop … “I really don’t like when I’m at the bus stop with all the other kids and she drives by, slows down and says ‘I love you Nick!'” He continued, “I just lower my head and hope the kids don’t know she’d talking to me, but, that’s when I see my student I.D. around my neck with my name on it in big letters.”

Well, back to fishing. We boated 8 fish today including:

1 largemouth and 4 whites out of 38-41 feet in the vicinity of Area 517

1 largemouth and 1 white bass out of 40 feet between Area 452 and 495. It was in this area that we found the most promising sonar returns with fish appearing every few yards both singly and in small schools of up to 4 fish. There was no bait present and it was really like pulling teeth here.

1 drum from beteen Areas 464 and 191

All of these fish came on Pets.

TALLY = 8 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








Belton Lake Fishing Guide Report – 19 September 2009 – 39 Fish (PM Trip)






Fished an evening half day “Kids Fish, Too!” trip with Andy M. and his kids, Trent (8th Grade) and Molly (7th Grade), all of N. Austin. They’ve just moved to the area from the Cincinnati area and wanted to sample some late summer Texas fishing.

From L to R: Trent, Molly, and Andy. Trent is holding Molly’s fish as she was a bit timid about doing this at first — by trip’s end she was slingin’ ’em back in the water all by herself

Start Time: 2:35p

End Time: 7:45pm

Air Temp: 85F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~80.1F

Wind: Winds were barely moving from the NNW the entire trip at 2-4 mph.

Skies: Skies were finally clearing out as the stubborn low pressure system prevalent the last 9 days finally released its grip on the weather and the fishing. It was partly cloudy with a hazy appearance to the patches of clear sky.

We finally got a break on the weather this afternoon. On the heels of a very slow morning trip on Stillhouse, I moved our afternoon trip to Belton which did not experience a dramatic water rise with the heavy rains of last weekend.

This afternoon we found fish progressively shallower, with our first fish caught in 41-44 feet of water and with fish caught around sunset found in 16-18 feet of water.

As we began the day, We put ‘riggers down and searched out fish. We found gamefish with no bait (not a good scenario) in the vicinity of Area 474. We boated 4 white bass and 1 hybrid and lost another hybrid here, all in the first 45 minutes of fishing. Things looked promising given this action in the early hours of the afternoon.

We then searched a few other deepwater areas without success and then headed to Area 187 and to the NW of it. Right up on the highest part of this feature sonar revealed a nice congregation of fish. No sooner had I mentioned what I’d seen on sonar to the kids than a rod went active. We boated a nice hybrid, then continued trolling and picked up a nice white bass. Another pass and another hybrid / white bass combination. The next 40 minutes we continued to comb over the area and regularly picked up white bass ranging from 11 to 12.75 inches — just nice, steady fishing — just right for kids. After a total of 22 fish pulled off this area, we saw nothing more on sonar and moved on.

We relocated on a similar area (Area 150) and were fast to a hybrid and then a white bass as we made our initial approach. The sonar showed such good readings that I buoyed and set everyone up to vertical jig, but, but the time the jigs got down the fish had gone. We never got another fish by any means on this area.

Within 75 minutes of sunset, we were patrolling a NW to SE swath in the vicinity of Area 84 to 147 and were picking up good sonar returns from abundant suspended fish here in ~25-27 feet of water. We ran the downriggers about 2-3 feet off bottom right above the fishes’ heads and began to steadily catch fish. Although we twice saw briefly appearing schools of whites dimple the surface, the weather still wasn’t quite right for topwater to breakout. We stuck with our downrigging regimen and were rewarded with a total of 10 additional fish in this area by nightfall, including 3 hybrid (2 legal, 1 short) and 7 white bass, all of which went better than 12.5 inches.

TALLY = 39 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