Pete and Repeat – 40 Fish SKIFF Trip

CLIENTS: On Saturday morning, 28 Feb., I ran the season’s third Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip. Joining me was 7-year-old Thomas R. of Killeen. If you’ve followed my posts lately, you’ll likely realize this is the twin brother of William R. I took out just two days ago.

Thomas is from a U.S. Army Gold Star family — the family lost their dad/husband while he was serving on active duty. With twin boys to raise, William’s mom thought that having the boys do something outdoorsy, but separate from one another, would be good for all three of them, so, I honored her request.

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, and VFW Post 4008 in Belton, TX.  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, and kids of bona fide disabled veterans.  I conduct these 3.5 hour adventures on Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir year ’round.  Call or text 254.368.7411 to make your reservation. In these 17 years we’ve provided trips for over 650 children, and those kids have landed over 14,000 fish.

TODAY’S DATE: 28 February 2026 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 3-5 March (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Thomas R. used a variety of tactics while aboard with me this morning, resulting in a 3.5 hour catch of 40 fish, including 38 white bass and two largemouth bass. His mom, Sherril, took care of the homefront (and Thomas’ brother, William) while he and I spent some shoulder-to-shoulder time in the outdoors.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/


WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

Having fished with Thomas’ twin just two days ago, I was able to observe what William did well and what he struggled with. Assuming these things would hold true for Thomas, I adjusted my approach to play to Thomas’s strengths with good results.

First, we got going a bit earlier because, as I scouted the evening before, I observed that several schools of white bass were pushing shad around in shallow water. I wanted to hit these areas before the sun illuminated them too greatly and pushed these fish out.

So, as we began up shallow, I put a pair of crankbaits in the water (1 Storm Smash Shad and 1 Storm Wiggle Wart) and ran them back to where they’d both track level in about 11-12 feet of water. This allowed us to catch fish as I searched for even more fish by running side imaging.

Once I found the kind of concentrations of fish I’d hoped for, we switched over to casting White Bass Mini A-rigs horizontally and retrieving with a sawtooth method. We took six fish by trolling.

This steadily put fish in the boat right up until around 9:30A. By this time, the skies were very bright and a lot of boats were moving around, telling me that others were beginning to struggle to find fish. By this time, Thomas had landed another 17 fish on the A-rig, including one double.

At this time I employed a tactic I did not use with Thomas’ brother. The night before I netted threadfin shad intending to fish them with a “tightline” tactic if/when I encountered fish in deep water which were lethargic/reluctant.

We spent our final hour fishing with this live bait and could not keep two rods baited. We dropped back to just a single rod and Thomas had a grand finale, adding 17 fish to his tally in our final hour on the water — and that was at about a 60% hook-to-land percentage as Thomas worked through the learning curve on when to set the hook. Words cannot describe how helpful Garmin LiveScope was for this approach.

At 10:20 we headed back in to meet Thomas’ mom and include her in our photos, just as we’d done for William.

RESULTS: 40 fish, all caught and released

TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

OBSERVATIONS:
-noted greater numbers of shad in water under 16 feet today. This is the first time I’ve observed this this season.

-fish are definitely on the move to the spawning grounds, albeit in no big rush thanks, in part, to low flow in the Lampasas River – the river isn’t all that low, it’s just not flowing all that much with next to no release ongoing through the dam.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:

Taken on Stillhouse Hollow on 25 February 2026…

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