WHO I FISHED WITH: This morning, Wednesday, February 3rd, I did a combination sonar refresher/fishing trip with Mr. Ronnie Trower which many of you will recognize from the Texas Boat World staff.
Ronnie recently rigged his new Avid aluminum bass boat with large-screen Lowrance HDS Live units on the console and bow, as well as Garmin LiveScope at the bow.
In order to avoid the pitfall of fixing the Garmin LiveScope transducer to the trolling motor, and to avoid what many consider a hassle in having to handle a separately deployable LiveScope transducer pole, Ronnie uses a Rite-Hite “Turret” mount which, like a trolling-motor mounted H’bird 360 pod, holds the LiveScope transducer parallel to the trolling motor shaft and stows/deploys it along with the trolling motor. The Turret has its own slowly turning motor which allows the LiveScope to be turned and “aimed” in a ~360-degree field.
Today we continued to work out the kinks on all of Ronnie’s equipment and put that equipment to use in a real-life fishing scenario.
PHOTO CAPTION: A little “largemouth icing” on our “white bass cake” this morning as Ronnie Trower and I worked the kinks out of his new electronics setup. This girl went 7.16 pounds and took a 3/8 oz. white Hazy Eye Slab with stinger hook.
PHOTO CAPTION: Ronnie got to try his hand at working my MAL Lure once the wind came up and the fish got more active. Restraint on the hookset is a big part of converting strikes to landed fish on this customized, heavy spinner made to sink fast for vertical work.
WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow
WHEN WE FISHED: Tuesday (AM), 03 February 2021
HOW WE FISHED:
Since Ronnie is primarily interested in putting his electronics to work to fish for largemouth bass in tournament settings, we spent a little more time than I normally would anytime we found fish near woody cover, as such habitat normally yields a better chance of attracting largemouth bass. Moving less meant fewer white bass, but a better shot at largemouth.
Today, our action was front-loaded into the first 2.5 hours, with fairly slow fishing thereafter.
We focused on fish working bait on deep flats early, then shifted our focus to the channel drop in the latter part of the morning. Birds were somewhat helpful, although the probability of getting fooled by loons is high now.
We swapped back and forth between my 3/8 oz. Hazy Eye Slabs with stinger hooks (for less aggressive fish unwilling to leave bottom) and my MAL Lures (for fish which were either already suspended, or showed a willingness to chase from bottom upward into the water column).
We picked up two nice largemouth, the first at 4.28 pounds, and the second just a shade over 7 pounds. Both came in the first two hours on the small, 3/8 oz. slab.
Before we came off the water I wanted to be sure we had accomplished what Ronnie had hoped to accomplish in putting this trip together. He said the main thing was that he now felt more confident in “target identification” with the Lowrance side-imaging after observing what we did and did not stop to fish for this morning, and after simply covering a lot of water and just looking and asking questions to confirm or deny his own suspicions.
Truth be known, fishing is one of the biggest obstacles to people getting to learn their sonar better. I see this many times with those I take out for sonar training … they tend to commit too early to too little and wind up fishing low percentage scenarios, or, worse, fishing where there are no fish at all.
We wrapped up with 31 fish — a little more icing on the cake!!!
Hazy Eye Slabs and Stinger Hooks are found here: https://whitebasstools.com/
Additionally, Tightlines Premium Fishing Tackle has a few of the white 3/8 oz. and 3/4 oz. versions on the rack right at the cash register.
TALLY: 31 fish caught and released (2 largemouth bass, 1 drum, and 28 white bass)
OBSERVATIONS: Most of this morning’s feed took place by 9:30A.
TODAY’S CONDITIONS/NOTES:
Start Time: 7:00A
End Time: 12:40P
Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 44F
Elevation: 0.60′ high with a 0.02’ 24-hour fall and 1 CFS flow thru the dam.
Water Surface Temp: 52.4F
Wind Speed & Direction: S3 at trip’s start, increasing and shifting to SSW14 by trip’s end
Sky Condition: Fair skies with no clouds
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon at 64% illumnination
GT = 25
Wx SNAPSHOT:
AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:
**Areas: 338, vic 1013, 1536-1538 (best white bass action as wind came up), 1892 (scant), 390 (scant)
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
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