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.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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)

 

 

Leave a Reply