Sonar Sessions Really “Catching” On!!

This week I had 3 more opportunities to help fellow anglers out by working with them on the water and on their own boats to get their sonar units tweaked to be as effective and understandable as they can be for our clear, limestone lakes here in Central Texas.

On Thursday I worked with George Feagan of Temple.  George is a U.S. Army veteran who now serves fellow veterans in his work at the Veterans’ Administration.  George and his wife are very active lay ministers in their church and have fished with me once before on Belton Lake.  They are super decent people and I’m glad that I could help them out.  George has a simple, functional 15 foot aluminum center console equipped with a Lowrance Elite 5 HDI sonar unit on the console and a bow-mounted Garmin Echo 100 black and white sonar unit on the trolling motor.

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About 2 hours into our session, all the pieces fell into place and George was able to find fish with sonar, hang with the suspended hybrid we’d worked to find, and effectively present a bait to them.

 

 

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If you look at the sonar screen, you’ll see the entire lower half of the water column is filled with the yellow and red-colored streaks given off by the hybrid stripers George and I found with his sonar.  The fish he’s holding to the left and right of the screen came out of this school.  Once we released them, we both went right back to catching them out of this same school!

 

On Tuesday afternoon I met up with Jay Stidham of Waco.  Jay is the director of national and industrial accounts for CHS Crop Nutrients and is an avid couples’ bass tournament fisherman.  Jay, believe it or not, found a really nicely equipped Ranger bass boat on e-Bay not long ago.   He has upgraded the electronics with a Lowrance HDS 9 on the console and an HDS 7 on the bow, which share StructureScan capability through a LSS “Blackbox”.   Before launching we made some basic adjustments to the transducer positions, then launched and tweaked the units screen by screen, focusing on the colored sonar, the StructureScan, and the charts, in that order.  By the time we were done, there was little left for Jay to do the next time out but turn the unit on and recall our interpretation lessons.

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Jay Stidham — a satisfied sonar session student and fan of the “Easy Button”.  Please don’t ask me where to find that button on your Lowrance unit!!


Last, but not least, this past Tuesday morning I fish with Jason Weisberg of Walburg, TX.  Jason is by far the most advanced participant I’ve had out on one of my sonar sessions.  Jason has a real analytical mindset and really began taking his fishing seriously after booking a sonar-intensive fishing trip with me in the heart of winter last year.  Despite terrible conditions, we boated fish, all thanks to the locating properties of sonar.  From that point he went from an occasional, bait-dunking night fisherman to a very intentional angler, fishing mainly on Georgetown and Buchanan.  Jason has a deep 21′ Wellcraft center-console with a Lowrance HDS 9 Touch and HDS 7 on the console, and an HDS 5 on the bow — all networked together, and connected to a Motorguide Xi5 GPS trolling motor with an NMEA gateway to connect the trolling motor motor with HDS units for the sake of positioning by GPS.  Additionally, Jason has an LSS-2 StructureScan / factory transducer along with an Airmar P66 transducer able to be “seen” by all networked units.  Jason really did not need any tweaks to his equipment, as he had done lots of research, played with his units, and used them in “real life” scenarios.  What he wanted was someone to look over his shoulder and “verify” that all was set as he thought it was, and to help verify his interpretation skills.  I was able to help him in that regard.

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See that grin??  That’s because of that mixed school of white bass and hybrid striper showing between 30 and 40 feet on Jason’s bow-mounted HDS-5 which we were able to watch our slabs fall into and hook fish from.  This scenario played out multiple times over a rather slow morning on the water with bright, calm conditions.

If you are reading this and are thinking about having me come out with you, just give me a call.  I charge $90 for 3 hours on your boat working with your sonar on either Belton or Stillhouse.  I have openings available during weekdays up until Spring Break when I’ll need to get back to fishing 100% of the time.

Give me a ring at 254-368-7411.  Looking forward to helping you get the most out of your Lowrance, Humminbird or Garmin unit.

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

Sonar School Graduates 2 More! 20 Jan. 2015

I conducted two “Sonar Sessions” yesterday on Belton Lake.  My morning session was spent with Mr. Brad Hall and my evening session was spent with Mr. Ronnie Mathis.

A “Sonar Session” is a 3-hour, on the water block of instruction that I offer to those who own modern Lowrance and Humminbird sonar units.  The Sonar Session is intended to do several things: 1) ensure that all transducers and wiring is proper installed, 2) ensure that all units have settings appropriate for our deep, clear, rocky Texas Hill Country lakes, and 3) use the units in real-life fishing scenarios in order to make sure basic functions are understood and to introduce advanced functions.  I ask $90 for such 3 hour sessions.  I typically conduct these on Belton Lake or Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir, and ride along in the student’s boat using their sonar.

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Brad Hall shows his “diploma” from Sonar School this morning.

Brad and Ronnie are tournament fishing partners and co-workers at McLane’s in Temple.  As they met up at the 2015 Central Texas Boat and Outdoor Show for a pre-tournament captains’ meeting, they sat in on my seminar, the topic of which was selecting, using, and interpreting sonar.  They agreed they would be well-served by on on-the-water session.

Brad had a Lowrance HDS-7 Gen 2 on his console with the transducers (1 for colored sonar and 1 for StructureScan) mounted on his transom, and a Lowrance Elite 5 DSI on his bow-mounted trolling motor.  The most valuable lessons learned today for Brad were the use of the down-looking mode of StructureScan, and how the thin-sheet sound array emitted by the Elite 5 DSI was reducing his chances of seeing his bait and fish when fishing vertically.  A much more appropriate unit for the bow is a traditional colored sonar unit with a standard transducer that emits sound in a 3-dimensional cone shape.  As you can see above, Brad was able to connect all the dots and, ultimately, connect with fish for his “final exam” (vicinity Area 1353).

In the afternoon, I met up with Ronnie Mathis and his son, 4-year-old “Little Ronnie”.  Ronnie’s bass boat is equipped with a Lowrance HDS-9 Gen 2 Touch with both transducers on his jack plate.  On the bow he has a Lowrance Elite 5 HDI.  Ronnie was already very familiar with the basic fishing features of his HDS-9, so, we focused on some other areas, including the use of trails vs. routes, sonar logging, side-imaging interpretation, sonar frequency selection, and fish identification in a number of scenarios.  Ronnie also had his unit in “auto” mode for a number of features (sensitivity, depth, colorline) so we switched these over to manual to lock them in.

Towards the end of our trip, as we motored slowly with our noses in the sonar screen, we approached a fairly well-defined creek channel with a bit of timber on the breakline from the old bank down into the channel.  The screen began to get “busy” as we saw shad and a few suspended fish up in the trees.  As we combed over the area more closely, we identified very distinct markings showing schooled white bass and hybrid striped bass among the limbs and bait.  We put the boat into a hover as I worked the trolling motor from the front as Ronnie tracked his lure and the fish using a side-by-side comparison of sonar/down-looking StructureScan in split screen mode.  We boated a number of white bass and hybrid stripers as we precisely worked our slabs slowly through these fish suspended at 30-40 feet over a 50 foot bottom.  As icing on the cake, Little Ronnie landed his personal best from out of this school of fish, boating a nice 4+ pound hybrid striper on his slab fished on a closed-face outfit (vicinity Area 1519).

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Little Ronnie landed his personal best fish tonight as dad learned to get the most out of his sonar units.

If you own a sonar unit but feel you are not getting the most out of it, I would be glad to help.  Just give me a call and we’ll set up a mutually agreeable date to make it happen.

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

 

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)

 

 

First Trip for SKIFF 2015 – Stillhouse Hollow – 3 Fish, 19 Jan. 2015

This afternoon, January 19th, I fished with Aiden Guyer and his mom, Danielle Guyer, of Killeen, TX.  This was the very first SKIFF trip of the 2015 season.  SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trips are provided free of charge to families whose children are separated from a parent due to that parent’s military service, thanks to the Austin Fly Fishers and a network of supportive individuals from all over the U.S.  All it takes is a phone call from a parent to me at 254-368-7411 to reserve a date.

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Aiden Guyer and his mom, Danielle, attended the first SKIFF outing of 2015.  Cold water and calm conditions limited our catch, but the 70+ degree, sunny day was a nice break from the cold, gray days of late.

Aiden is a 7-year-old first grade student, and the son of U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 (CW3) Keegan Guyer and his wife, Danielle Guyer.  CW3 Guyer is now serving on his 4th deployment as a military intelligence officer.  He previously served 2 tours in Iraq and 1 tour in Afghanistan.  He is currently back in Afghanistan.  Keegan and Danielle also have a 4 year old son whom Danielle arranged a babysitter for so she and Aiden could have some one-on-one time together in the outdoors.

Our local school district had this Monday off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so, when Danielle contacted me by email on Sunday, I took a quick look at the weather forecast, saw we were to reach 70+ degrees, and went ahead and offered to conduct a trip on short-notice, knowing there would be few such nice days occurring for quite a while.

Fishing was very slow today, as if often can be on days that are “nice” for humans.  Although it was warm and balmy, it was also very clear, very bright, and very calm.  We worked hard and traveled far looking at and fishing a lot of water to put just 3 fish in the boat today.  Given Aiden’s age, I was a bit concerned about the vertical jigging I normally do this time of year being too technical for him, but, on the occasions when vertical jigging was useful, he did just fine.  We just had a hard time finding fishable populations of fish in the 48F water we encountered.

When all was said and done, Aiden landed 2 very nice white bass, both taken in 24-26 feet of water near bottom on Pet Spoons fished behind downrigger balls going <2mph.  He also landed 1 crappie that fell for a vertically jigged slab in ~30 feet of water just before sunset, so it was nice to end on a positive note.

 

TALLY = 3 FISH, all caught and released

 

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 1:30p

End Time:  5:30p

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start:  70F

Water Surface Temp:  48F

Wind Speed & Direction:  Light at S2-3

Sky Conditions:  Clear with some thin white cover moving in over the last half of the trip

Other: GT=0

 

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1309/1518 – downrigging for 2 white bass

**Area  340 vertical jigging for 1 crappie

 

 

Bob Maindelle

Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Salado, TX

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

If you vertical jig, you need to read this…

This is a copy of the 11 Jan. 2015 fishing column I wrote for the Killeen Daily Herald about a very effective addition to a standard vertical jigging setup called an “assist hook”…

This white bass was hooked solely on the Gamakatsu G-Stinger assist hook affixed to the line tie of this 3/4 oz. slab.  Were it not for the assist hook, this strike would most likely not have resulted in a landed fish.  The assist hook have definitely increased the strike-to-land ratio for me and my clients.

 

It all started with a phone call from a local bass tournament fisherman-turned-manufacturer’s-representative. He invited me to lunch to show me the 2015 lineup of lures, terminal tackle and gear that he was dealing in.

As we “talked fishing” and I thumbed through the various catalogs, something immediately caught my eye as both unique and practical — not just another “better mousetrap,” as so many things tend to be these days.

That something was an “assist hook” sized appropriately for freshwater use, called the Gamakatsu G-Stinger. An assist hook consists of a single hook to which a short loop of strong, braided line is affixed, finished off with either a somewhat flexible plastisol coating or a short length of heat-shrink tubing over the knot that joins the short loop of line to the hook.

The assist hook is designed to be affixed to the line tie on the end of a vertical jigging spoon to “assist” in hooking more fish than the treble hook affixed to the opposite end of the jigging spoon would on its own.

I was like a kid waiting for Christmas as I anticipated the arrival of my first packets of these assist hooks by mail. I opted for the size 4s to experiment with. I even designed an “experiment” to fairly evaluate the effectiveness of the assist hooks.

I began with four slabs. Two weighed three-quarters of an ounce and two weighed three-eighths of an ounce. On the two that weighed three-quarters, I took the treble hook off of one and affixed an assist hook to the line tie, giving that lure a total of one hook point to catch into a fish’s mouth. On the other, I left the treble hook in place and added the assist hook, giving that lure a total of four hook points to catch into a fish’s mouth. I altered the set of two 3/8-ounce baits in the same manner.

I headed out on Stillhouse Hollow in pursuit of white bass, equipped with four rods equipped with just these four altered lures. I found active white bass feeding under gulls and began jigging with these modified baits. I used the 3/4-ounce bait with the treble hook and assist hook affixed to it first. My aim was to fish until I caught five fish on each lure and compare my results. On this first lure, I caught five fish on six strikes quickly, with three of them hooked by the treble, one of them hooked by the assist hook only, and one of them hooked by both the treble and the assist hook.

I then experimented with the 3/4-ounce lure with only the assist hook affixed to it. Although I caught five fish, I missed a number of strikes and so it took nearly twice as long to catch this “set” of five fish. Next, I used the 3/8-ounce lure with both hooks attached and again put five fish in the boat in short order. This time, three of the fish were hooked with both hooks, and the other two were hooked on the treble hook only. Finally, I experimented with the 3/8-ounce bait with only the assist hook affixed to it. Again, more missed strikes, although it took less time to land five fish on this bait than on the 3/4-ounce bait with only the assist hook attached.

Through this experiment, the number of incidents where the assist hook was firmly set into the fish was convincing to me. Since that time in mid-December, I have added an assist hook to all of my rods rigged with a slab, and as a result, even as the water has cooled and the fish have become more lethargic, my clients have enjoyed enhanced success, and in many cases have landed fish that were hooked with the assist hook only. Even those novice anglers who do not yet set the hook well after recognizing a strike have seen enhanced results.

On the day after Christmas, I fished with Harker Heights High School swim team member Alex Gibbs. He was the first client aboard to use the assist hooks after I’d convinced myself they were worth it. He came aboard a novice angler with only a few prior fishing trips under his belt, and none involving catching white bass nor using a vertical jigging technique.

Over our four hours on the water, he boated 51 fish. That, in itself, is not uncommon. However, given the tough, nearly flat calm conditions, and the fact that the fish were striking very tentatively, he far exceeded an average performance under those conditions.

This simple accessory has earned a permanent place in my tackle bag. With the bulk of the winter still ahead of us, and with winter fishing demanding a slow, vertical presentation for sluggish fish, now is a great time to experiment with this new product. For you tinkerers and do-it-yourselfers, you’ll see this rigging is simple and that modifications to hook size and style and to loop strength and length are easily done.

Assist hooks literally allow the angler to place “more hooks in the water” and more fish in the boat.

 

Scouting Results: The Loons Are Here! — Stillhouse Hollow – 15 Fish

This morning I waited until the wind began to blow and then headed out for just a short while to do some scouting.  Due to last weekend’s 2015 Central Texas Boat and Outdoor Show and the prep leading up to it, I haven’t been on the water since 30 Dec.

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If you look closely, you’ll see 3 black-colored loons actually in the water beneath the white and grey gulls.  These loons were feeding on shad, both driving them toward the surface and surfacing with shad in their bills.  The gulls hovering above cash in on the dead and crippled shad the loons drop.  When spotted from a distance, it can be difficult to distinguish this unhelpful activity from gull activity that is gamefish-related.  Anglers beware!!  You can burn a lot of gas and show no results chasing such loon activity.

I put in on Stillhouse Hollow at 8:25am, and by 9:40 had no problem boating 5 white bass at each of 3 locations I stopped and checked on.

Each location was tipped off by light bird action, although there was more unhelpful bird action than there was helpful bird action, thanks to the gulls and terns now focusing on feeding loons instead of solely focusing on shad made available by gamefish feeding activity.

The white bass I found were all in small schools and were all 2 and 3 year class fish in 25-27 feet of water.

Before heading out, I was concerned that the fish would have pushed deeper (which always makes for difficult fishing when deep fish are pushed there by the cold, not drawn there by the bait).

With a 4 day warming trend in the forecast, I don’t see any immediate danger of such cold water occurring that the fishery is negatively impacted.

As for a fishing “forecast”, Saturday afternoon looks good due to a still SW breeze with some high, thin cloud cover, and next Tuesday morning, 20 Jan., is looking good thanks to a forecast windshift through the west in advance of a mild, dry cold front.

This is the time of year to learn vertical jigging in conjunction with down-looking electronics.  If you are interested in an on-the-water lesson as you catch fish, just give me a call.

 

 

TALLY = 15 FISH, all caught and released

 

GUIDE’S WEBSITE: http://holdingthelineguideservice.com/

TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:

Start Time: 8:25a

End Time: 9:45a

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 39F

Water Surface Temp: 47.6 to 48.2

Wind Speed & Direction: WNW11-13

Sky Conditions: Fair and cloudless

Other: GT=0

AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

**Area 1309 to Area 1518, & spot hopping in between the two

Bob Maindelle
Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide
Belton Lake Fishing Guide
Owner, Holding the Line Guide Service
254.368.7411 (call or text)