HDS 7 Touch First Time Out - Not a Clue - Help Interpreting Appreciated

First time out with any technology. Hoping these 13 show up ok. Please let me know if this is too many at once for the forum. Don't want to abuse the site. These are not in any certain order. I was playing with settings, color, fish on, etc. Still have a long way to go. Not sure what I am seeing in most other than maybe brush piles and few stumps. Is it best to use the "fish signs" or just hope to see arches. Also, any suggestions for which pallete setting(s) might be best. The deepest water I ever fish in is 30 feet at max. I usually fish Lake Conway, Little Maumelle River, and the Arkansas River to the East of Murray Lock and Dam.

These were all taken yesterday (Sunday) from 1:15m till 4:30pm on Little Maumelle River around the two dock areas. Rained most of the time. No fishing - just trying to test new equipment.

Paul

Man those look pretty good to me!!!!

thanks, I think the pictures are pretty good, but I am not sure I know what I am looking at. I did take two with the "fish indicator" or whatever Lowrance calls it on with the alarm on. I noticed it beeped at the same time the ones with the fish pictures were on the screen. Have read somewhere that once you learn what you are doing you should not use the "fish pictures", but instead, learn to read the arcs.

Do you think any of them show fish, or just possibly shad or what?

I don't have anything that fancy on my boat. But, I would venture to say that #6 is crappie stacked on a condo. And, they will not bite anything. Can't tell you how many times I have seen that with my electronics and couldn't get bit. I had a well known guide pull up to one in his boat one time and did the same thing. DP

It is good to use fish icons sometimes. Esp if they have different color fish icons for which "cone" they are caught in. It tells you a little more of where the fish is located relative to the boat.

Also the fish in the pics may not always show a perfect arch. In fact most of the time it doesn't. If there is a perfect arch, that just means the fish remained in the cone throughout the entire scanning.

wow, that was all some great info. thanks for responding. next time out, I might try to put the ole jig over the areas that look like they are holding and see if I can pull anything out

OK.......I fish the same places you do cause I live in Maumelle. Those pics look like you may possibly have been in test mode for the unit. Or I just miss that nice spot every time I go....lol ...If it is a spot I sure would have wanted to fish it. As far as arches they do not apply on SI. dots are usually fish unless a shadow is right next to them then it could be rocks. Small cloud or mini dots are bait fish. They will be dark white and sometimes look like little lines. Google can really be your friend on learning to read the unit. Some good u tube videos as well.:fish

I'm no expert, however the one thing I got out of the sonar class at crappie academy from the humminbird field rep is that the arch indicates the the fish has moved into and out of the sonar cone, either by swimming or the boat moving. Fish that are still in the sonar cone will be a line. He said the arches look good for marketing the units but it's not what you want to see, lines indicate that they are still under the boat.:twocents

thanks sss. not in test mode, hehehe. perhaps you are on the wrong side :dono

good info, thanks.

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Originally Posted by Superslabslayer

OK.......I fish the same places you do cause I live in Maumelle. Those pics look like you may possibly have been in test mode for the unit. Or I just miss that nice spot every time I go....lol ...If it is a spot I sure would have wanted to fish it. As far as arches they do not apply on SI. dots are usually fish unless a shadow is right next to them then it could be rocks. Small cloud or mini dots are bait fish. They will be dark white and sometimes look like little lines. Google can really be your friend on learning to read the unit. Some good u tube videos as well.:fish

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the very last pick is the stump that sticks out of the water on the right side when going west past the next to the last set of boat stalls.

Big arches are big fish. Crappie don't make big arches.

ok, so then what I am hoping to find is white dots on my side scan and straight lines on my downscan?

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Originally Posted by ibmack

ok, so then what I am hoping to find is white dots on my side scan and straight lines on my downscan?

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Most guys look for bait balls and such. With time on the water, you'll learn to distinguish crappie and how they relate to the bait, cover, and the structure (I call structure the topography of the lake bottom, not cover).

Crappie usually stack vertically in the water column. If they are are tightly grouped they may look like a small vertical bait ball. If they are more spread out, you may see a bunch of red dots (on 2D sonar) because the signal is weaker. You'll figure it out with the TOW I mentioned earlier.

Did you get the unit from Cabelas! Did it come with the bundle? Thanks. I want one BAD!

thanks for all your help and advice Bill and all others. Will get some pics when, and if, I Actually catch some fish on something I have located. Paul

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Originally Posted by blackfish

Did you get the unit from Cabelas! Did it come with the bundle? Thanks. I want one BAD!

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actually, I got mine from Bass Pro. it was the bundle. it had a $200.00 rebate and they had a spring special for $100.00 immediate off if you used their bass pro credit card. I signed up for one at the counter and made the purchase with it and got the hundred off in addition to the Lowrance rebate. what a sweet deal (and got all my BP points on top of that!) :biggrin. it was $1,199 less 200 rebate from lowrance, less $100 using BP credit card (which I will just pay off and then cancel) for total of $899. it is the hds7 gen 2 touch bundle. comes with everything you need except screws and a mounting board if you want to use one. you might find a better deal, but I am happy with my deal. good luck. had a lot of help from the guys on here while figuring where and how to best mount it on my small 14' jon boat.

I have a HDS7 Gen 2 from Bass Pro and love it. I have been using it on Ouachita marking brush piles and Game and Fish attractors. Getting ready !!

I watched some youtube videos on the HDS7 Gen2 when I first got it. Some were very helpful..

In 2d, you want to see this. These are actively feeding fish. Notice the line from the jig and the fish coming up to get it.
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On DI you can look for this. The green arrow is a 1/2 ounce weight. The red arrows are pointing to crappie holding tight to underwater timber that has lost it's limbs. The lowrance DI will be bunches better than the below.
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If you open your cooler and it looks like this, your sonar and operator are working as they should.

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RCC; How did you get all of the fish to look the same direction in the first shot? DP

They were all facing upstream:Rofl