Thread: SI pics at 5 mph

You liken the blue screen better? I like the Amber 2

I think it is personal preference (like blondes brunettes) (Can I say that) but I can spot the fish better with the blue. But I am forced to the amber2 when the sun is bright.

I can see them pretty good near the bottom. That's what I did that day was ease around for about 45 minutes til I saw a pattern on where the fish were located. Then sho nuff, they were right where they showd up on the Hbird
1st pic is T Day and they were a lttle deeper than prefish day. That's the 2nd pic but they were still just off the bottom

Here are some things I have come up with. The really bright fish you see are not crappie. Every time I have fished for the bright whites, I call them, they were those trashy stripe, hybrid, white bass whatever. Minner can tell you what they look like at Pickwick..
The crappie I catch most often are not in tight big schools but look like the ones above.
If I see numerous crappie on a tree that make it look like leaves they will be smaller crappie.
If I see several fish like on this top picture relating close to a cover I can catch some of them most of the time.
I am to the point now that if I scan a stake bed or brush pile and see no fish I just go to another one. Grass is another story. Can not see them most of the time.
I do not claim to know it all but these are the parameters I work inside now from the hundreds of trips where I only fished for fish I could see on SI. That is how I learned.

Here is something else you can look for. Spring when crappie head to grass i figured out that when the boat traffic got heavy and fish got hard to catch they have just moved out a bit. See them here? Easy to catch trolling.
See that interference on the left side? A real pain in the tail to get fixed. If it looks like this it is not electrical or blockage. It is water turbulence blocking the signal. Got it fixed but took forever to diagnose.

It's a slow process for sure on learning what is what. I've had mine a year now and just now starting to figure out whats what. Those bright spots are most times tops of stumps or rocks. I look for isolated fish alot when trolling. that is unless I see something stacked on a ledge or brushpile, then I'll stop and try 'em. Havent' dealt with grass yet, haven't needed to

I found when I've passed over something, the turned around and gone right back over the same spot that the prop wash will fool ya at times if you don;t know to look out for it. I thought I'd hit the mother load the first time I did that. LOL

These look to be poles were they sticking up out of the water?