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?
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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
Good job, Rickie...Quote:
Originally Posted by rnvinc
Rite on Rickie.
This is how I use mine. IMO setting the range to 150+' looks good on screen shots but is not much punkin' while actually on the lake even on the larger screen units.Quote:
Originally Posted by rnvinc
Or you can not worry so much about actual fish but use your si on 100 to 150± to locate fish holding areas such as humps, points,turns in a creek followed by large flats and such. By doing this and leaving other less appealing areas to fish later.you save a lot of time doing this and for the most part will be the best or most productive areas anyhow.(there's just some structure that no matter how good it looks it will never hold fish just because of its location in relation to the areas that i mentioned above.)if your already familiar with an area then i would say that to scan no more than 60ft. In water lets Say maybe twenty ft.or less would work great.also something else that is helpful,once your done scanning at long range using the 455 if you'll change to the 800 while scanning the closer range that i mentioned,the 800 will make fishes stand out better than 455 would.see how these fish stand out using the 800khz http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps7d809f59.png
Here's another using 800.see how bright it makes the fish returns look. http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps0ceeafd5.pngthe fish on the left side are the most obvious, but look on the right side out close tothe edge.there's fish showing out there
Kosmo.....were you going 5mph when you did those?
I tried using si for seeing fish in brush today, short range, one side, absolutely no good at all
That's where that fantastic DI Lowrance has comes in play...Quote:
Originally Posted by brettw
Set a waypoint on it and scan with the DI...
Rickie
no i proberlly was idlling .that second picture is in ky. Dam marinia. You can tell by how much turbulence that can be seen at the top of the water column in my shots.in this picture Im going fast enough that my boat is starting to riseQuote:
Originally Posted by BobB
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps5bf5eaf9.png
I agree, I was attempting to scan into brush via si to avoid going directly over them. I wouldn't mind so much if I was using the TM but I can't easily do it that wayQuote:
Originally Posted by rnvinc
I'll post pictures of my attempt
brettw, I was able to find fish this morning with the SI hanging over that old boat I found. This makes twice were I was going down the lake and spotted them off to the side. All the times I've been out without SI...wonder how many more fish we could have boated.
May not give posting pix but the sharpness really pulls them out IMO. Did you get to try it out yet on the HDS?
yes, no luck here, good job
Buddy of mine has one, I'l. l ask him about it. He is the one that got me hooked on a SI unit.
You got DI down pat though best pix I've seen
what unit does your buddy have?
I tried to pm you, I got a link you may benefit from,
Not seen a PM from you come in. He has a 9. When I asked him about the unit something I noticed was he sounded like the boat speed was not able to be matched to the unit. (let me know if this is not the fact) If I'm going 5mph I can set the 898 to that chart speed of 5. If I see something and want to go slower I can drop them both down and make another pass.
I can also have boat speed at 4 and up the chart speed to 5 or so and spread the brush or bottom out to see stuff within. Learned this over on BBC and a vid they had up.
Maybe kosmo or one of the others can help out on this. I may be doing it wrong lol
boat speed should be automatic on the 9
I can see where 9 wouldnt give much time really check stuff out. I just got into humviewer with mine. Took time to figure it out. man does stuff really stand out there.
When i first started with it I thought it was a joke but after getting the settings set right its a great tool.
HB allows chart speed setting changes...
Lowrance allows ping speed setting changes..
I want both ....as usual...
Rickie
Greedy. I was always told that the Pig gets fat and the Hog gets SlaughteredQuote:
Originally Posted by rnvinc
rotfl rotfl rotflQuote:
Originally Posted by wilbur
Rickie