WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Thursday, July 6th, I conducted the third Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip of the 2023 season.
Joining me today were Mrs. Janea Smith and her two boys, Alex (age 14) and Corbin (age 7).
The boys’ father, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the military intelligence branch, passed away unexpectedly in January of this year at the age of 47.
ABOUT SKIFF: This fishing trip, like all SKIFF trips, was provided to this military family at no charge. This program began in May of 2009. It is funded by the donations and fundraising efforts of the Austin Fly Fishers and other organizations they have partnered with. S.K.I.F.F. provides the children of military personnel separated from their families due to duty commitments with the opportunity to go fishing. SKIFF trips are also provided, free of charge, to Gold Star families who have lost their service member while he or she was on active duty. In mid-2019, SKIFF also began providing trips to dependents whose parents are bona fide disabled veterans. I coordinate and conduct these 3.5 to 4 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, just outside the gates of Fort Hood in Bell County, TX, year ’round. Call or text 254.368.7411.
Here’s how the fishing went…
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Here’s an up-to-date calendar so you can check availability: https://holdingthelineguideservice.com/available-dates.php
Next available dates are July 24 & 31 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Alex Smith holds the third Stillhouse Hollow white bass exceeding 15″ to come aboard this week alone. Alex caught the fish using an MAL Heavy with white tail fished with a sawtooth method in around 34 feet of water.
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Corbin, Janea, and Alex Smith with a pair of fish we took early on in the trip. In the summer months, I don’t place fish taken from deep, cool water in the warm water of the livewell for photos later on as they tend not to do well.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 06 July 2023 (AM)
HOW WE FISHED:
First, I’ve got to hand it to the boys’ mom, Janea. Not only is she raising two boys on her own with all the every-single-day demands that come with that, but, she had the boys up and arrived early despite their 5AM wakeup in the midst of a lazy summer-break non-routine!
Alex was already familiar enough with both casting and spinning gear to “validate” my normal introduction, but Corbin definitely benefitted from it.
Once the mini-lesson on how to retrieve their baits was complete, we set out to hunt fish. We started off with downriggers down to help search out active fish. Before we could get the second downrigger set out for Alex, Corbin’s ‘rigger went off with a double. We routinely took singles and doubles over the next 75 minutes or so until we’d tallied 18 fish and found our first large, somewhat stationary group of fish on sonar.
We quickly transitioned the boat from downrigger fishing to presenting MAL Lures by bringing the downriggers in and swinging the boom-arms out of the way, Spot-Locking atop the fish, putting the Garmin LiveScope tranducer pole in the water and firing up the Garmin monitor, putting MAL Heavy-equipped rods in the kids’ hands, and then letting these baits down to bottom to effect a “smoking” retrieve in an attempt to get these fish to chase, overtake, and strike these baits. Then, when the LiveScope revealed that the fish beneath the boat were waning, I checked H’bird side-imaging to see which side of the boat (if any) held additional fish. If we saw fish, we worked our baits on that side of the boat horizontally with a sawtooth method.
So it went — we downrigged to find fish and then used MAL Heavies vertically & horizontally to take advantage of what we’d found until the fish finally gave up around 10:25. During this time, we found a total of three large, fishable schools of fish to park over and present to.
By the time four hours had come and gone, my crew landed 74 fish including 72 white bass and 2 largemouth bass. Of this catch, only 1 white bass was “short” with yet another TPWD “Big Fish” — a white bass over 15″ — landed by Alex.
TALLY: 74 fish caught and released.
See a tutorial on the smoking tactic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSvfXgrAUE
Here is a tutorial on the Sawtooth Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ
Find the entire family of MAL Lures here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS: Minor largemouth bass schooling activity observed. Here is the temperature profile measured on Stillhouse on 03 July:
0 feet, 85.9F
5 feet, 86.2F
10 feet, 86.4F
15 feet, 86.4F
20 feet, 86.4F
25 feet, 85.9F
30 feet, 79.4F
35 feet, 72.7F
40 feet, 69.0F
45 feet, 66.3F
50 feet, 64.7F
55 feet, 62.9F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 6:25A
End Time: 10:25A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Elevation: 14.37 feet low, 1 CFS flow
Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S8-11 all morning
Sky Condition: Light blue skies with 50-60% white cloud cover
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 87% illumination.
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Stopped to “smoke” white bass at Areas: vic SH0059G, vic SH0041C, and vic SH0222G – used MAL Heavy w/ white tails after finding fish in these areas with sonar and downrigging
Bob Maindelle
Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service
Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
254.368.7411 (call or text)
Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle
Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle
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