Has anyone used the side scan to actually find fish beds or is this just a marketing gimmick used by the Sonar manufacturers?
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Has anyone used the side scan to actually find fish beds or is this just a marketing gimmick used by the Sonar manufacturers?
Mine new gen 3 is ordered but not delivered yet but I don't expect to spot beds in shallow water - too much clutter to see much of anything I would guess. It would be nice to hear from those who have tried tho.
it is my understanding that side scan is not good at locating fish, it is for locating structure. after the structure is located, you then can either use down imaging or 2d sonar, based on the quality and capability of your equipment, to actually locate fish on or around the structure. I have never actually seen where the manufacturer's have stated the side scan is for finding fish.Quote:
Originally Posted by OnDaHill
i have a lowrance hds7 touch with side scan and it is excellent for what it is supposed to do.
Not to find fish, but fish beds. Some of the photos I've seen show indentions indicating the beds.Quote:
Originally Posted by ibmack
My 997 shows gill beds very well. Was cruising in 4ft water looking for them and found them very clearly. Me and my brother had a good time catching them.
oops, my bad. read it as finding fish, not the structure of the beds.
that is good to know, never have really thought about trying to locate actual beds, but I am usually hunting for crappie structure, not brim beds.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaunc
What was the clarity of that water chaunc? I am wondering if I can spot cypress knees in 4' of really low vis water.
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps397a7d04.png
You can see fish in fish beds ... If the SI Range is set to a low enough value that the white dots can actually be picked out in the image ... See the white dots in these beds below ...??
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps48ccf128.png
Rickie
YES U CAN SEE BRIM BEDS AND FISH IN THEM,IT IS GOOD AFTER SEEING BEDS TO MOVE CURSOR OVER BED AND BLOW UP THAT SPOT,BUT SI IS ALSO R SEEING FISH IN BP AND UNDER DOCKS,I HAVE A 998
Its not a gimmick. I'm not very good with sonar, etc. but even I can find beds with mine.
Telling you what species of fish made em is a whole 'nother story but its not hard at all to see em.
Yep, I can find and view beds easily with my 899 as well. I can make out hard bottom and soft bottom on SI easily as well also. Adjust your settings to the desired look to see the beds and hard bottoms better.
Yep +1Quote:
Originally Posted by genec
I have an 899. I find gill beds all the time! Sometimes in 10+ feet if water. It will also find fish too! Have to play with settings on each trip to different water. Sounds like a pain but after 2 minutes its dialed in for the water you are currently looking at.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaunc
I have marked hundreds of beds on 5 bodies of water since getting my 899 one year ago. After the initial spawn there will be less and less Gills in the bed each month. But with si I can tell whether to fish a bed or not...it will clearly show the Gills that are left in the beds. No gimmicks at all. If folks knew how easy it is to use an si unit for this they would rush out and buy themselves one.
Regards
Side imaging works great for finding blue gills, in there beds.they show up best when there out to the sides of your scans, we're there's a shadow cast over there beds.If you go strait over the beds, the beds under the boat won't cast that shadow . doesn't matter tho, after you run over them there going to scatter(if you get a 360, after you find some beds with si , stop your boat and scan with the 360 and you will start finding more isolated, smaller beds close to those big bedshttp://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps92ad5082.png
that what I'm doing when I took this shot.It was after lots a people had been hitting the gills really hard so I was scanning beds looking for the ones that still had gills in them.http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...psy8frwhm8.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by Alphahawk
How did you get a split 360/SI shot ... ??Quote:
Originally Posted by kosmo
I thought when 360 was activated ... The unit shut off the SI transmitters ...(to prevent crosstalk) ...
Rickie
Pic 1 - I use SI to find the beds.
Pic 2 - I use 360 to set up on it and me persist casts.
Pic 3 I reap the rewards.
Use it to find the deep water beds the go mostly unmolested like the shallow beds.
This one isn't mine but it has a fish in just about every bed ...
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...pshiw4pd6q.jpg
Rickie
what your saying is true for the humminbird core units, but this shot comes from an onix10.the onix will display 360/si/di all at the same times.......here's another shot ...you can see blue gills on the left side of the si....http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...pspf2piqbq.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by rnvinc
This is interesting ...Quote:
Originally Posted by kosmo
I learn something every day ...
Rickie
I experienced the same thing with my 899. The water was muddy so I wouldn't have seen them without the side scan. There was no mistaking what it was on the screen.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaunc
The si/di needs to be set to 800khz while the 360 is running.If si/di are set to 455khz while the 360 is running , it's usable, but there will be interference showing on the screen.The same thing applies for getting the best si.while running si on 455khz, run the di on 800khz or the other way.wway.works the same.Or just turn one or the other off, if it's not being used at the time.once the 360 is turned on, it doesn't take long to figure out if there's another 455khz running also.Quote:
Originally Posted by rnvinc
Amazing how clearly those fish show up in the beds! I am excited to see that kind of screen clarity in such shallow water. Maybe I can look under those Cypress knees after all.Quote:
Originally Posted by rnvinc
How about a couple more fish beds:biggrin The chart speed was wrong as I crossed them, so they are elongated. Also notice that I was in 3 or 4 feet of water. I could have narrowed the width of the scan and adjusted sensitivity to get a more "level" color rather than extremely bright in the middle and dark out on the edge.
I'd like to get SI , but it would have to be off my troller. I run a 40 tiller off the back. Really no where to mount screen or ducer in the back.
Thought about using an old troller shaft and mount to put the ducer on off one side at the front so turning the troller won't effect it.
I've got side imaging on my trolling motor.i like it there, it's not very hard to get good images with it mounted on the trolling motor.Quote:
Originally Posted by tcounty
Really appreciate all of the great input. I will definitely be getting SI on my next unit. We have a large population of Shell Crackers here on my home lake but it is very hard to find there beds, maybe with the SI I can be a little more successful this spring.
I think it would really improve your chances of finding them.Quote:
Originally Posted by OnDaHill
Without an si unit would have never found this prize. In TN deep water Gill beds mean trophy fish. You now where I will be come April-May. I have more pics but you get the idea.
Regards
Amen to all the guys with SI! Takes a little tuning, but the unit really works! It took a lot of negotiating with the wife and savings to pick up the cheapest model Hummingbird offered (598SI/DI/2D). Where I live, DFG don't even put in the effort to stock/grow crappies like they do in the midwest. Because of the lack of crappies there are, I was still able to locate two piles them with my SI unit in a reservoir have fished for over 20 years. Get this though, I just did not find them, but I found crappies in the hot summer of September in NORTHERN CALIFORNIA in 25 feet of laydown logs I never even knew existed and could see them clearly on the SI. To many Californians, it is not common to crappie fish in summer because they are near impossible to locate. We could have limited out but only took enough home for the dinner table. Anyways, here were the results. That is my nephew who had a blast first time jigging for slabs:
Attachment 194249
That's Great, thanks for posting. I'm already working on the wife. LOL!
This is a great thread with some great pics.
Everybody likes pictures.......[URL=http://s826.photobucket.com/user/kosmo012/media/S01073_zpsa60658fe.png.html]http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...psa60658fe.png[/URLhttp://i826.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps33812b16.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by wahanlin
I love shellcrackers. Kosmo, what are those three lines going upward off to the right side of your boat?
We could make that a quiz ..... I have some ideas, and I thing the horizontal shadows associated with those lines gives another clue.
I'll wait awhile before I tell Yaw what it isQuote:
Originally Posted by BobB
My guess is where a anchor drug the bottom