63 Fish Later, He Accomplished that Sonar Reality Check Mission
CLIENTS: This morning, Tuesday, November 4, I fished with first time guest Jonathan Walters, who traveled in from the lake Travis area not so much to fish with me as to see my array of electronics used while in the pursuit of fish.
TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 04 November 2025 (PM)
NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 12 November 2025 (AM or PM)
PHOTO CAPTION: Recently retired Jonathan Walter came aboard today not just to catch fish, but to walk away with confirmation that the suite of electronics he has selected for his own fishing boat are in the right places for the right reasons. 63 fish later, he accomplished that sonar reality check mission.
FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/
WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton
SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Prior to linking up in person today, Jonathan and I had spent over two hours in phone conversations concerning the equipping of his bass boat with sonar on both the console and the bow. Jonathan used the occasion of this trip to see for himself how and why I have installed the sonar I have prescribed for his own use on his own boat.
To help things along, I made an intentional effort to “think out loud“ and verbalize what I was doing, and what I was seeing on sonar when I made various decisions about which fish I wanted to fish for, how I wanted to position the boat relative to those fish, etc.
Belton‘s white bass fishery is very much lending itself to deep, vertical tactics right now and so the lion’s share of our effort was invested in that approach.
I used down-imaging and side-imaging to find fish, used the i-Pilot Link connection between my Hummingbird Apex (dedicated to side-imaging) and my trolling motor to accurately position on top of those fish I found, then we used Garmin LiveScope in downward mode in order to watch fish reaction to the lures we were presenting.
Our first two hours were slow thanks to nearly slack winds. The last two hours produced the majority of the 61 fish boated this morning which included 58 white bass and 3 largemouth bass.
Although the situation did not call for it, at one point, we also got on the bow of my boat so Jonathan could observe Garmin LiveScope used in forward mode. On my bow I have the long range LVS 62 transducer, so we easily viewed 100+ feet out from the boat in 40 feet of water and tracked the fall and retrieve of an MAL Lure numerous times while also looking at bottom, game fish, and shad.
After that, we took the same technology up shallow in timber-filled water and I simply had Jonathan pan with the same forward-looking technology to see how various features materialized and disappeared as the thin beam of this Garmin LiveScope swept over those objects.
As we wrapped up, Jonathan was very satisfied that he made sound choices for the suite of electronics he has chosen to have installed on his own boat
RESULTS: 63 fish, all caught and released
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SMOKE” AN MAL LURE VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial
TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW TO FISH AN MAL LURE HORIZONTALLY USING THE SAWTOOTH METHOD: Click here for tutorial
OBSERVATIONS:
-Belton is 0.57′ low with a 0.03′ fall in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 43 CFS.
-Fall conditions are peaking with a surface temp. now at around 72F
LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Taken on Lake Belton around 7AM, Saturday, 01 November…
0 feet 73.5F
5 feet 73.5F
10 feet 73.8F
15 feet 73.8F
20 feet 73.8F
25 feet 73.8F
30 feet 73.8F
35 feet 73.8F
40 feet 73.1F
45 feet 72.8F
50 feet 72.8F
Compare to temps taken on Lake Belton around 7AM, Monday, 27 October…
0 feet 77F
5 feet 77.1F
10 feet 77.1F
15 feet 77.1F
20 feet 77.1F
25 feet 77.1F
30 feet 77.3F
35 feet 77.1F
40 feet 77.1F
45 feet 76.8F
50 feet 76.7F
55 feet 76.7F
60 feet 76.7F
WEATHER DATA:
Start Time: 7:33A
End Time: 10:50A
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 51F
Elevation: Belton is 0.57′ low with a 0.03′ fall in the last 24 hours. USACE is releasing 43 CFS
Water Surface Temp: 72F on the surface.
Wind Speed & Direction: SSE2 for about 2 hours, then ramping up to SSE12 in the last half of the trip
Sky Condition: 0% clouds on light blue sky
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous moon at 99% illumination.
GT = 25
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:
Area 657 – 2 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area B0170C– 8 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area vic B0025G – 2 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area vic 152 – 17 whites, 1 largemouth smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area B01316G – 2 whites, 2 largemouth smoking MAL Heavy Lures
Area B0171G – 28 whites smoking MAL Heavy Lures
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