Locating fish

This morning while fishing kinkaid like I normally do on a typical Saturday I realized something today that I've never paid attention to and that's of all the boats I typically see on the water I never see people scanning for fish. Maybe I just don't realize it cause I'm not paying attention to everyone else while I'm out there but I see tons of people on the water with high dollar graphs that never use them. My buddy was one of these people and I always told him he had himself a 2000 dollar clock lol until after 2 years he finally let me show him how to read it. But I'm curious who here uses their graphs to locate fish, not just using them to find a brush pile and fish it to see of fish are there but to actually find fish on the graph, 90% of the time I do not fish a spot unless I can see fish there. I do have exceptions to this but the majority of the time I won't fish until I see fish and I was curious who else out there fishes like this?

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I am always glancing at mine.If I am not looking for fish specifically I am watching to find the bottom contour,new grass beds,how grass beds have changed since last I fished that spot,new wood in the water from storm damage or other causes. If I know the spot I am not going to run up on top of the fish if I can help it,unless they are deep enough I am going to vertical fish them. I am going to use the finder to position my boat in the correct spot to cast to them based on what I know the bottom looks like close to where I need to be. If I establish a consistent pattern like majority of fish are say in 12 ft of water on secondary points facing the main lake....then I use the finder to watch the contour to put me in a position to throw where the fish should be,I am not going to see the fish because I am not on top of them. I also use it to outline structure with buoys, find baitfish,thermocline,bottom type,and to find fish....what don't I do with it. And thats cheap ones. I ever get a really good one I might be a threat to a really good fisherman LOL.

I scan until I see fish the right size, that I want to catch. Then I stop and fish.

I have a HB 1198 and a 998 (just for gps/mapping) on the console and another 1198 on the bow. All are connected and have DI and SI. I spend at least 1 hour or more every trip scanning for new structure.

I like my Birds... Until I can do better...

I just started out in search mode this morning looking for whatever I could dig up. Looked hi and low even on some places I have caught fish before. Found a few didn't fish for them, I had decided to go watch the Chattanooga Crappie Club weigh in at 2pm. 6lb. won it . Prior to going to Chester Frost I decided to check a place I have always caught 1 or 2 on in the colder months, and in searching the creek channel headed to the river dump in point then bam I found some brush in 25 fow. Long story short pulled in 10 -11 crappies 1 yellow bass, 1 8lb drum and a nice eating size blue cat. all were caught on Panfish Assassins "chicken on a chain" and Strike King shad pole in Salt and Pepper phantom and Monkey Milk. sat on this one spot from about noon till 1:45 gave it a break to go watch the weigh in. Went back after the weigh in and fished it until about 5:30. The bite was slow and difficult to detect with all the teenagers in boats playing sling the fool off the inner-tube just 50 yards away. Oh yea did I mention the wind yea, it was a challenge to say the least. But a very good day in anyone's book. And I caught one of your pets Drumking!

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...911_163625-jpg

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...323-2-_opt-jpg

First ones I found

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...m-s00005-2-jpg

Was unsure Crappie or bait

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...m-s00006-2-jpg

Crappie on both sides of the point.

thttp://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...m-s00008-2-jpg
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...m-s00009-2-jpg

Last edited by MrS; 09-11-2016 at 09:19 PM.

My $0.02, Carry on fish people!
'88 Stratos 201 / Johnson 200 GT

Setup is the challenge, type of lake, depth of lake, time-of-day, etc. When to use the various features.
Just a few items I struggle with.

There are certain times they are right on the bottom and hard to see ..... otherwise, I won't be fishing for them til I see them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobB

There are certain times they are right on the bottom and hard to see ..... otherwise, I won't be fishing for them til I see them.

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X2! I went Eye fishing with a buddy. We were fishing and catching fish we couldn't see. Talking about a alien concept! Didn't compute in my brain.

Depends on the season. In the fall/winter I generally will fish a spot regardless of if I see fish in the brush or not IF I'm in 8fow or less. Most times of the year though I'm not fishing something if I don't see the fish in or around the structure. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...8cfc87ff22.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...63e21526d4.jpg


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Use mine all the time no fish on screen not wasting time on that spot. Now getting them to bite after finding them is another issue