Figuring out where things are under your boat that you see on your fish finder?

Well I am venturing out into the world of fish finders I figure it will help me find the crappie allot better. I have ran into a problem though I can be trolling along with my trolling motor at a low low speed and my fish finder will be showing stumps and trees and dips under my boat. Then no joke about the time I stop moving or turn and go back to where a stump or whatever was showing whammo there is nothing showing there and its flat as a pancake on the fish finder lol. Or Ill see a schoolof fish (not a ball of baitfish) and Ill stop to try and find em and all of a sudden my fish finder shows 0 anything . Maybe I jsut need some schooling on reading it in regards to my boat positioning. Thanks guys

Im in the same boat that you are ....punn intended

I miss the days when I didnt think about crap so much and make it very technical. I remeber jsut going out ith a bucket of shiners and my zebco 33 on a little ole pole sitting on the bank and jsut slaughtering crappie ! Now Im allot older and I guess I am trying to read into stuff to much or over doing it lol cause I havent had a coller full of crappie in years I need to make it happen I hope once I figure out how to find where this stuff is under my boat Ill get back into em!

In shallower water, the cone of a typical transducer isn't very wide, so you have to be pretty accurate to get on a spot. Pus, if you aren't moving you are only going to get returns fom a fairly small area and even if there is something under you it will be just a line.

The best way to return to a spot is to have a marker buoy at hand and just chunk it over the side as close to your transducer as you can get it as soon as you see something. You'll be amazed the first time you get distracted for a second and realize you are 150ft from the buoy.

Here's a short video showing how 2d sonar works....

One important item the video does not explain....

*The unit xducer is "pinging" (sending) the acoustic sound pulse thru the water at several times per second....
*The processed reflection data from each single "ping" is displayed along the right vertical edge of the 2d screen (about 1 pixel wide)....
*Then the next ping's processed data is also stacked on right vertical edge of the 2d screen pushing the previous displayed ping data to the left....
*This "stacking" of each ping's data at the right of the screen and pushing the previous ping's data to the left .....creates the "scrolling" effect seen on the 2d display...

So, in effect...only the very right-most vertical edge of the 2d screen is actually what is directly under the xducer....everthing else displayed to the left on the 2d screen is "history" and what the xducer has already passed over....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=YczeSnXjKd4

Rickie

Hey thanks guys The marker buoyis a real good idea lol Ima have to rig me some up and keep em in the boat! So if yall see some coke bottles floating around in the lakes don't worry its not trash lol it will be a marker !

If you use anything round for a marker buoy, wind and waves could cause it to unroll more line therefore pushing the marker farther off the structure and resulting in you fishing "dead" water. Make them out of foam and cut them in an "H" pattern that is harder to unfurl and use a heavier weight to make it unfurl better and also hold position better..Attachment 113639 I had an old archery target that I no longer use so I just cut the sizes I wanted and wrapped 40 ft of nylon cord onto them and made me some 6 oz needle weights (using the preheat hollow in one of my jig molds). They are dark enough to not be easily spotted by passing boats, although in todays age with side imaging and TV quality graphs, nothing is hidden anymore.