When do you stop and fish

What determines when you get on the lake to how you use your 2D sonar. Do you ride until you see fish or just start fishing in hopes of running into the fish. How do you decide what depth water to search for fish. Do you just look for structure or just look to see fish on sonar. How many fish do you have to see at one time to decide to stop and try them. I Just would like to know how different people do it or did it with older sonar. Now this is just for the old type sonar as I don't have the down or side imaging sonar and I do understand that fish can't hide from side imaging sonar but that don't make them bite. I know that most everyone at one time had this type so maybe I can get some good feedback. Thanks for the help.

I asked pretty much the same question on the side imaging forum. For me I typically try locations that worked for me in the past, set anchor, start fishing and watch the 2d for signs of fish. Since this is mostly river fishing there are usually visible signs on the shoreline that indicate the topography below the water such as points and bends. The tide will determine which side of the point to fish. Would like to get to the point that I'm utilizing sonar more to locate fish before the actual fishing begins but as of now I'm still fishing the same way as I did before sonar.

I leaned towards fishing spots that "looked good", were similar to places I'd caught fish before, were places I'd caught fish before, or were places that fish should be in considering the season & prevailing conditions.

Use of 2d sonar was mostly for depth reading ... as I never really trusted the "fish icons" to actually be showing me real fish, and I was rarely ever moving fast enough to create a "fish arch". Also, I wasn't always (or even usually) fishing below the boat, so what was under me was of less interest than what was visible.

Now, mind you, I was mostly into casting (Bass & Crappie), having transitioned from tying the boat to a tree & tightlining minnows or easing around a stand of trees/stumps and dipping a float/minnow as my primary way of catching Crappie.

Understanding that the 2d cone @ 20deg was only giving me a circle (on the bottom) that was 1/3 as wide as the depth of the water, gave me pause as to how much info was really being shown on the screen. That, in itself, probably influenced my way of using the depthfinder "mostly" to show me the depth of water I was sitting over. Yes, I did use it to find contour changes, some submerged cover, baitfish balls, and the occasional school of fish ... but, primarily it was for knowing the depth of the water, when running on plane or when moving along down the banks, casting to visible cover.

And also understand that I started out with a flasher unit, and my latest/greatest 2d unit was a Eagle Magna II ... up until I bought my most recent boat, which had a Lowrance 2d on the bow & a HB LCR 2d at the console. I sold the Lowrance & replaced it with my current Lowrance DSI, and the HB 2d died last year & will be replaced with a HB 560. I'll still use the HB 2d sonar for depth reading while motoring around, but it will also be used by the back seat partner as their window to the world below them ... while I watch the DI and relay any upcoming info of interest for them to be watching for.

... cp :kewl

I say it helps to have a topo map and use that to find a starting point along with time of year before scanning.

The reason I asked about this is that the way that the simulator on the sonars is nothing like what we really see on the sonars. We are led to believe that we can just buy a sonar and the fish will be seen like the advertisement or simulator. This is really misleading as whether using with or without fish ID anything floating between the bottom or top of the water column will show up as what possibly could be a fish or just floating debris. I have 3 sonars on my boat a a hb 565 and a hb 717 on the front and a 581i at the console that I recently bought to have GPS. I am trying to be able to believe what I see on them more. I have started to use the 581i to find my fish habitat and to see whatever I come over and then stop and fish. I turn off the sonar at the console then I turn the 565 on which is on the trolling motor and the 717 which is on the back transom. That way when I go over things that show up on the 565 as fish or structure I can also see it as the back 717 sonar goes over it also. This gives me more insight to whether or not it was possibly fish or structure. I keep a log of the fish that I have caught the past 2 years. I put down the date, places that most were caught that day, the water temp., weather temp, wind speed, direction, number caught and a picture. Then email it to myself to place in a folder under (fish) in my email. That way I can go back to the past two years and it gives me a starting point to go by. Now this doesn't work just like I would like it to but it is better than going blindly out to catch fish. Yes sonar has came a long ways since my first flasher back in the early 70's and I still place fish habitat every year so that I will have a backup plan in case nothing else works. I am in a learning process so anything fishermen can add to what I am doing or take from what I am doing is appreciated. We only have so much time on the water so anything that helps find and catch fish is a plus. I bought my sonars on ebay bidding and have had good luck so far as I was able to buy them cheaper that the price that one would have cost. Maybe as the new side and down scan gets older and new technology comes out I will get a good deal on one of them. Although I will still need to be able to understand and interpret these sonars also. Well this is the way I have started to use sonar to determine when to stop and fish. I would like to know more from other fishermen. Thanks for the past feedback and all future feedback.

Well I went fishing today after lunch. The GPS on the HB 581i that I bought on ebay worked just fine. I was able to put the lon.and lat. from my handheld of where I had dropped a few fish habitats. The GPS took me close enough that after trolling around I was able to see them. But there was no fish on them so I had to look for the fish and after about 2 hours of trying this place and that place we found some crappie. They were in shallow water 4-5' deep and a lot of lake moss. My wife and I fished about 2 more hours catching 30 crappie and throwing back 15 of them, keeping 15 filleting size. Would like to say I could see fish on my sonars but at 4-5' feet deep I just saw the bottom and the moss when it would get thicker. I bet the side imaging sonars would have found those crappie a lot sooner. We were fishing with minnows under corks about 3' to 31/2' deep. Before we left the lake we saw a older lady fishing from the bank and offered her our fish. She said she thanked us as she was wanting a good mess of fish to fry.

I mainly look for structure. The crappie will either be there or not. I barely see them on my 899. I can at times make out there are fish but other times I see nothing but still catch fish. Not sure how it works but it does. I just figure if the structure is there the fish will find sooner or later.
Now there are times I can drive around and see lots of fish but can never catch any. Can't figure that out either.

I used to have a HB570 I got to the point I could call out to my buddy Get Ready and Bam nailed them, Now I have a 1199 Si I love it and after a while I was able to start calling the bite again. You learn your unit learn the bite you'll be alright. Now the mans question pertained to going to a new lake for the first time, I just installed a 999 on the console and all the other gizmos to make it talk to the 1199 and the ipilot that being said I like to cruise around on a new lake looking for structure and drop off's and of course fish with the Si After marking said locations I then go back and fish each spot With the 999 on the console The time spent searching should be reduced as I can now use the big motor to cruise and what ever I mark on the 999 is shared with the 1199. Presto Chango I can jump up front drop the ipilot hit go to and sneak in on them. I like to pull cranks when searching with the TM this locates the aggressive fish whether they bite it or just slap it either way you can cover a lot of water looking for the fish. Structure isn't always needed I've caught many in 20-25 fow with a flat soft bottom cranks running 5-8 feet down watch the unit catch a fish swing back through see what was holding the fish there. It's a lot of fun for sure. At least I like the challenge Hope this helps

This helps with the SI units. Attachment 195525
Took 10 minutes to find these crappie in Jan. And caught over 100 off that spot.
This spot full of bait fish and caught over our 2 limits out of these.
Attachment 195526Only time I got these fish to bite. Check on it every time I put in at the State line boat ramp. And go by the fuel docks. And have never caught fish like that again. White spots in the side scan is crappie. Also shows a few crappie mats there also.
Attachment 195527Big white side to the right of the SI shot is a hump and you can see all those crappie beds on it and around it. Found those in 15 minutes and had been all over it with the old no Side scan units.
Also when my humminbirds show a fish symbol its a fish as it will also show an arch under the fish. And I have caught fish that showed as both .
Attachment 195529 Shows my bait and fish and hooking one where it shows the last fish. That was a 2 lb+ crappie.

[QUOTE=Gobob;2937402]I used to have a HB570 I got to the point I could call out to my buddy Get Ready and Bam nailed them, Now I have a 1199 Si I love it and after a while I was able to start calling the bite again.

Gobob; how did you have your HB570 tuned out? Were you using fishID or fish arches mostly. Were sensitivity max out would like to know chart speed you used did you change any depth settings how high you set clutter setting. If you don't mind I would like to know because I can't read mine worth 2 cents and sure can't tell anyone when to look for a bite.Thanks for the help

I have a hummin bird 788 and 550 both of which have switch fire. When turned on you can see your bait on the graph. Fished in a tournament in February of this year. Was having trouble finding any good keepers that day. Seen fish all over the place but could not get them to bite. We were fishing standing timber in 25 ft of water and had the switch fire turned on to see the bait. Fish would come up to the bait and look but not take it. Got back to weigh in and out of 8 boats no one had a single keeper crappie that day. All the technology and no fish for anyone. I normally fish the spots I can see and the ones I know about already and just use the sonar to tell me if there is structure and fish around. I don't depend on it always telling me if the fish are near by as I don't normally fish under the boat. I do use it if I have fished a spot for awhile and have not gotton bit. I will then roll over the area I was casting to and check it out. This tells me if the spot holds fish or not and if it is worth coming back to on a different day or time.

I guess I'm a little different than the rest that's replied as I really depend on my sonar. I'm a longliner and before I will put lines out I want to atleast see bait if I cant see the arches of fish. Therefore, sometimes I do alot of riding and idling around in likely places looking for activity on my 2D sonar. I use arches instead of the fish symbols and I've learned to use and "trust" my sonar. Seldom will I look in water deeper than 20' as I have a hard time trying to get my jigs deep enough to catch fish in water that deep. I can usually find fish in 20' or less most of the year...it's just up to then whether they'll bite or not. And if I am in fish and they wont bite then I dont stay. I'll move and look for other fish in hopes that theyre biting in another part of the lake.

In past years I kept logs of my fishing trips so I can look back now at see where I found fish at which locations when the water temps reach higher or lower levels and which colors, weights of jigs, and speeds worked best. In my logs I always reported lake and temp conditions too. Lastly...One good rule of thumb I ALWAYS go by.....find what theyre feeding on and the fish wont be far away.;)