Serious Mode: Activated — 25 Fish for Young William, age 7

CLIENTS: On Thursday morning, 26 Feb., I ran the season’s second Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) trip. Joining me was 7-year-old William R. of Killeen.

William 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. We’ve provided trips for over 650 children, and those kids have landed over 14,000 fish.

TODAY’S DATE: 26 February 2026 (AM)


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

PHOTO CAPTION: That’s 7-year-old William R. and his mom, Sherril. This young man worked for 3.5 hours to land 25 fish. He stayed enthusiastic and optimistic the entire time.

PHOTO CAPTION: I wasn’t quite sure until I firmly gripped the lower lip of this fish whether the fish was coming in the boat, or whether William was going in the lake! That’s a big bass for a small boy.

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


WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:

My children’s fishing trips go for a maximum of 3.5 hours (if the kids stay interested that long) versus 4+ hours for my standard trips. So, this morning we had 3.5 hours to do all we could to keep little William engaged and successful.

Things got off to a terrific start, in fact, I texted his mom a photo of both a solid white bass and another of a solid black bass within 15 minutes of her leaving the parking lot.

But, soon after sunrise turned the fish on, an unforecast fog set in and shut the fish right back down. We lost almost an hour to the fog as we found fish which simply would not fire up and chase. After the fog lifted, yet another unforecast weather scenario befell us — calm conditions. This was all on a morning we were to have a nice 8-11 mph north wind with a bit of cloud cover all morning.

Well, eventually a bit of a northerly ripple developed and the fish finally turned on, leaving us with a long way to go and a short time to get there.

Even though the start was slow, William kept on plugging away with a good attitude and good technique.

Each time I turned off the outboard and got into position over a new group of fish, William would say, “Okay, Mr. Bob, I’m going into serious mode now.”.

We fished these sluggish fish vertically all morning with white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs. At our last stop, when the fish were most aggressive, I even dropped an MAL Original (silver body, chartreuse tail) down alongside William’s slab and was pleased to see the fish willing to chase it upwards, despite the slightly faster retrieve required to keep the blade spinning well.

When all was said and done, William reeled in exactly 25 fish, including 23 white bass (all legal with a few surpassing 13″), and two largemouth, the largest of which went 3.125 pounds.

RESULTS: 25 fish, all caught and released

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

OBSERVATIONS:

-Water temps dropped back a good bit (2-3 degrees F) thanks to cold nights on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The surface temps dropped back below 60.

-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