Quote Originally Posted by mattbowen61990 View Post
Maybe someone can help me here.. I have the elite 5 DSI, just updated it to the 3.6 today... I do a bunch of cat fishing as well as crappie fishing. I have the hardest time catching shad with this unit. I tried it on a bridge one day, and it does not show anything on the screen until I get about 15 ft away from the bridge going slow. I never seem to be able to time the throw with a 6' net to catch any shad. VERY FRUSTRATING.. anyone know how to speed up the scroll speed so I could get a better idea of where the schools actually are?
Matt ... the E5DSI is a down imaging unit only, and therefore only puts out a fan shaped sonar ping that is a few degrees thick by 45-75deg wide (depending on which kHz setting being used). It has no scroll speed setting. And it also does not tell you on which side of the transducer the screen image is coming from .... only a SI unit will do that.

I use a cast net with a 6' diameter, to catch Shad ... but, being that small of a net, it's only useful if the Shad are on or very close to the surface. If you are trying to catch Shad that are several feet deep, you might need a larger diameter net.

Only other suggestion I can give is to move across the Shad school a little faster, mark a waypoint as soon as you see the bait ball coming on the screen, move on off several boat lengths past them & turn around, then change the unit over to the map screen or a horizontal split screen (map/DI) and zoom the map down as far as it will go, then head towards the waypoint and cast your net when you get within throwing distance of the spot. But .... mind you .... this will only work if the Shad school isn't moving. And it still may not work if the Shad are very deep, because they'll have plenty of time to dodge the falling net.

The smaller the mesh on your net, the slower it will fall. I use the 1/4" mesh for small Shad, and have a 3/8" mesh for the larger Shad. The only thing I know of to do, to make them sink faster, would be to add a bunch of 1/4oz split shot sinkers around the perimeter of the net ... making sure to put them equally spaced all around, so that you won't have a heavy spot that would keep the net from mushrooming out and falling correctly/evenly. Or you could lace on a nylon cord with 1oz or 1.5oz barrel sinkers on it ... spacing them out evenly around the perimeter of the net. Of course, depending on the cost of these sinkers ... it might be cheaper to buy a larger net

... cp