Finding fish with side imaging

Guys I was just wondering if you only fish structure that you see fish on with side imaging or all good structure? Also wondering if you only fish where you see fish with your electronics or you fish random spots?

For crappie, I want to see them on the sonar most of the time.....there are exceptions, such as when they are right on the bottom.

If fishing for other species, you may not always be able to see the fish....such as when fishing big rocks or boulders. Walleye can usually be seen on si and often just off the bottom with regular sonar.

I use both,
if I'm already there and I've caught there in the past, I will spend 5 minutes there, I'm still learning my system.
next time, if I know brush is on my right, I will use si on right, to scan, di makes me go right over the brush

Sometimes fish are difficult to discern in SI for the simple fact that the image ratio is so much smaller in the SI image...

This is largely determined by the SI range setting....scanning farther out to the sides requires the the unit to "squash" more data into the same size screen ....making individual echo returns even smaller...

This can be overcome to a certain degree by scanning shorter ranges or scanning 1 side only ...which, in effect, allows the unit to "spread" the data out across the display more ...making individual echo returns larger ...and easier to pick out...

One idea is to find structure using the SI and set a waypoint on it...then reposition the boat to effectively fish the structure with the 2d sonar or the DI sonar...

Another idea is to recognise recent success in similar structure...if fish have been found successfully in brush in 15ft of water...finding a "new" piece of brush with the SI in similar 15ft water depth would indicate a good possibility that fish "should" be present in the "new" found structure...(so maybe a little more time should be spent probing this new found structure just because they "should" be there...even tho the fish echoes may not be evident in the image...)

Rickie

Rickie is giving some great advice there. This time of year on my home lake, the fish aren't suspended above the pile! They are in the pile, you may not see them. If the pile is the right depth, spend 5 minutes and try it!

Redge,
where is your home lake?

over time i have built confidence in my sonar and if it doesn't show me fish then they are probably not there, i can see how fish could hide down between big rocks but i don't fish lakes like that, as far as brush go over it with di and it'll show you the fish in the brush, heck sometimes you can count the number of shad in a school. i have found and caught fish i saw on si but it is rare, like was said before everything is so condensed it is hard to see a few crappie on there, mine is a 898 and i run mine at 100' most of the time and have recently went down to 90', i can see and tell if i am in them big time but small scattered fish are hard to tell. i use the si, di and 2d along with my gps to hone in on them rascals, the 898 is the best unit i have ever had and can honestly say it has helped me catch more fish, i only wish i could afford a bigger screen.

fish on the si will appear as a much brighter small white streak, and unless they are right on the bottom should have a shadow and you can roughly tell how high they are in the water column but how far away the shadow is. once fish are found i switch over to 2d to hone in on there exact depth.

Brett Lake Tenkiller, Oklahoma

so, what's the water temp there.
we are about 80 in sc

84-87 degrees