Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun (SKIFF) – 45 fish w/ Jack H.
CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, June 23, I conducted the fifth SKIFF trip of the 2026 season. Joining me was 9-year-old Jack Horal of Harker Heights, Texas.
Jack’s dad, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Tom Horal, currently serves as the Deputy Commander of Patient Services at Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood. LTC Horal was most recently separated from his family while on assignment in Arizona.
Jack’s maternal grandmother, Susan Conrad, came along as chaperone while his mom, Sara Horal, tended to his two siblings.
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, The Great Place Spouses’ Club, The Great Place Thrift Store, 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 660 children, and those kids have landed over 18,000 fish.
TODAY’S DATE: 23 June 2026 (AM)
NEXT OPEN DATES FOR FISHING: 15-17 July 2026 (AM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Although the white bass were in a very reluctant mode this morning, we picked up three on downrigged Pet Spoons after leaving a stubborn bunch behind and returning to them later.
PHOTO CAPTION: Jack got the hang of watching his float and setting his hook early, and that really paid big dividends. He landed 45 fish in all this morning.
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Summertime fishing is typically tough and this season it has been made tougher by late spring flooding sufficient to cause USACE to run water through the dams on both Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow. The fish simply have not really gotten into a groove, although the promise of stable, hot, dry weather ahead gives me hope that perhaps they soon will.
We spent a bit of time looking for white bass this morning while Jack was most energetic and enthusiastic, but found the white bass quite unwilling to move vertically or horizontally. I quickly set that aside, we went up shallow, and we spent the lion’s share of the trip targeting all manner of sunfish in shallow, visible cover.
Jack landed bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, and longear sunfish as well as a few juvenile largemouth bass and one warmouth (which are pretty rare on Stillhouse).
With about an hour remaining in the trip, and with the sky conditions now a good bit brighter than at the trip’s start, we went back to where I’d found those uncooperative white bass earlier, put down downriggers with Pet Spoons, and quickly came up with a single on one downrigger and a double on the other. Despite this early success on our second attempt, I could tell the fish were still not enthusiastic. As I watched schools of white bass on sonar as my downrigger balls passed over them, the fish did not move upward to them nor chase after them, so we wrapped that third chapter up rather quickly.
We finished up the trip with one last shot at sunfish in shallow water. Jack added a final six sunfish to his count bringing his morning, one-man total to 45 fish landed, including three white bass, two largemouth bass, and 40 sunfish of various sorts.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir
RESULTS: 45 fish, all caught and released by clients
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW WORK AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY:
OBSERVATIONS:
-I found the white bass very reluctant to respond to both vertical and horizontal presentations this morning. Small schools of 15 to 30 fish were spread over an area about a quarter-mile square, but just stayed put as I downrigged over them, and they could not traverse the bottom to come into the splasher.
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE:
Taken on Stillhouse Hollow at approx. 6:20AM, 23 June 2026…
0 feet 85.9F
5 feet 86.1F
10 feet 86.1F
15 feet 85.9F
20 feet 85.6F
25 feet 85.5F
30 feet 85.3F
35 feet 82.5F
40 feet 78.4F
45 feet 75.6F
50 feet 73.9F
55 feet 72.0F
60 feet 69.8F
65 feet 67.9F
Taken on Stillhouse Hollow at approx. 6:15AM, 19 June 2026…
0 feet 87.0F
5 feet 87.0F
10 feet 87.2F
15 feet 87.0F
20 feet 87.0F
25 feet 86.5F
30 feet 85.6F
35 feet 82.3F
40 feet 78.4F
45 feet 75.7F
50 feet 74.2F
55 feet 73.0F
60 feet 70.7F
65 feet 68.8F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7A
End Time: 10:40A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 77F
Elevation – Stillhouse fell 0.06′ in the past 24 hours down to 2.47 feet above full pool; release rate was 593CFS
Water Surface Temp: 85.9F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: S11-13 all morning
Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud coverage, steadily decreasing to 60% white clouds on a light blue sky by trip’s end
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 68% illumination
GT = N/A
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area SH0121C- 17 sunfish, 1 bass, 1 warmouth on visible cover
Area 1256 – 16 sunfish, 1 bass on visible cover
Area vic 2507 – center of mass for a trolling grid resulting in 3 white bass on Pet Spoons behind ‘riggers
Area 1948 – 6 sunfish on visible cover
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: https://www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle