CLIENTS: This past Saturday afternoon, Feb. 8, I welcomed two sets of brothers and their moms aboard for the 2025 season’s second Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip.
Joining me were Alex and Devin Yang, the sons of Warrant Officer 1 Yining Yang and his wife, Ziyu. The boys are 12-year-old twins.
Also joining me were Tim and Ryan Chen, the sons of Specialist Kenny Chen and his wife, Leann. The boys are ages 15 and 12, respectively.
Both fathers have been recently deployed to eastern Europe
ABOUT SKIFF: SKIFF trips have been provided to military families at no charge since May of 2009. SKIFF is funded by donations from Austin Fly Fishers, The McBride Foundation, & Austin Subaru. S.K.I.F.F. provides kids of military members separated from their families by duty commitments with the opportunity to fish. SKIFF trips are also provided to Gold Star families who have lost their service member. In mid-2019, SKIFF began providing trips to kids of bona fide disabled veterans. I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round. Just call or text 254.368.7411 to set one up.
DATE: Saturday, 08 February 2025 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES: 18-21 February (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: From left: Ryan Chen, Alex Yang, Tim Chen, and Devin Yang all proudly display a few of the 80 fish they landed during their 3.5-hour “SKIFF” trip provided at no charge to military kids during times of separation from their parents. Before this trip, none of the boys had ever caught a fish before.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
RESULTS: 80 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO DO “SLOW SMOKING”: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO SNAP-JIG: Click here for tutorial
LURES USED SUCCESSFULLY ON THIS TRIP: We used crankbaits and the white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab to catch our fish this trip. Find all MAL Lures and Hazy Eye Slabs here: https://whitebasstools.com/
OBSERVATIONS:
1) At times this morning and again this afternoon I saw fish up in the middle of the water column where the water is much warmer than near bottom, thanks to an 8-day warming trend.
2) As was the case in the morning, the majority of our fish this afternoon were caught as the light level was low.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Here was the water temperature profile for Stillhouse Hollow, measured with a FishHawk TD device around 7:00AM on Monday, 03 Feb. …
5 feet 51.7F
10 feet 51.6F
15 feet 51.4F
20 feet 51.3F
25 feet 51.3F
30 feet 50.9F
35 feet 50.8F
40 feet 50.5F
45 feet 50.0F
50 feet 49.5F
55 feet 49.0F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 2:30P
End Time: 6P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 82F
Elevation: 2.78′ low
Water Surface Temp: 56.7F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSW13 at trip’s start, falling off steadily to SSW8 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: Light blue sky all afternoon with <10% white cloud cover
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 85% illumination.
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT: N/A
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
Area vic 118 – 14 fish flatline trolling
Area vic 234 – 27 fish on slow-smoked white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs
Area vic 754 – 39 fish on slow-smoked white 5/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs
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