12 inch Crappie on Down Imaging (sry for crummy pic)

I've been wanting to do this, but just haven't taken the time to do it. I took a freshly caught 12" crappie and securely hooked him(her) and let it sink under my Humminbird Helix 5 DI in about 12 feet of water. It appeared larger than I thought it would, possibly because it may have turned on it's side. Sorry for the blurred pic, old Iphone and old eyes. The beam of the DI is narrow front to back and relatively wide side to side. I find DI more useful in indentifying fish, and SI (I have a Helix 9 SI on console) better for finding structure. Much clearer in Arkansas waters than in Louisiana mud. I also noticed that very quickly after dark, the screen lit up like a thermocline. Maybe shad or emerging insects? We had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, and after that the fish were on the bottom. I was fishing a BnM crappie rig with minnows and all the fish were caught on the bottom hook(below the weight. There is so much I don't know!! At any rate I was able to catch a few in a couple hours. The shad have moved back into the back waters, so fishing should get better now.Attachment 312408

The wide continuous line is the fish. I moved it up and down so I was sure of what I was looking at. Also the weight appeared like a pencil thin bright line if I moved it up and down.

I will try again to get a better pic. Maybe on the Helix 9, although the 5 has a DI tranducer. Maybe I can plug it into the 9.

That is pretty cool.Thanks for posting it.
Nice fish!

I had thought about doing that also, but I would like to see it on 2d Sonar to see if shows up as fish symbol or arch....depending on settings.

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That was a great idea!

When I do my experiment, I'm going to use a fish, a weighted balloon, and a short piece of weighted 2X4. All will be in the 2D Sonar cone. I will also be in open water with no other fish around. I just want to see what I see!!

Awesome post....now I’m going to have to try. Aha


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Units these days are pretty decent out of the box....may have to tweak a few settings.....if all is right should be no issue seeing your jigs/shiners on sonar or down imaging as long as its within the signal/cone/beam of the transducer.....when i'm drifting i can see all 4 of my jigs on the line and able to watch the fish....

Fishing on the red?


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Yes on the Red, Pool 5. Had to wait at the Marina to get shiners because the Bossier Sheriff was towing a sunken boat back. All hands safe and sound, the boat, not so much.

It will only make an arch if you are moving, or the fish is moving through the sonar beam. The arch is caused by the first signal to get to the unit is slightly further away, then the boat moves directly over the fish, so it is as close as it gets, then as the boat moves away it is slightly further, until it leaves the angle of the beam. More pronounced arches on wider angle transducers. I need to learn how to record it on my unit, and do it with the Helix Mega 9. Hard to stop catching fish to do an experiment!! Good info on Technological Angler and Doug Vahrenberg (Humminbird) on youtube. You would be amazed if you went up to a clear lake in Ark or Ok!!