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.

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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

I just bought a Hook 4x. Just learning how to use . I think I am intellectually challenged!!!!!White Flag Icon:bash

I'm still learning my sonar units. Well I know the Piranaha Max 220 pretty well. However I am still learning all the features on my 899SI. I too won't fish a spot unless I mark fish, and then sometimes I still won't fish that spot. Usually because its looks to be the wrong species of fish. I haven't mastered the look of fish on some cover yet, and may still fish it to confirm that there are no fish there. While fishing I will mark spots that look good for another time of the season. Like deep brush/trees for summer months, or brush/trees in transition areas during the migrations. Then come back and fish them. I try to spend an hour or so looking for new spots. Recently I had the thought to use that hour to search for spots that would be productive during the next crappie season. This time of year I should be looking for some deep water to shallow water transition routes. If they haven't started moving, they will be soon.

I have a HB 999. I spend time looking for fish each time out. I'm pretty good at finding fish in 12' of water or deeper. I still can't figure out how to find fish shallower with the SI. So in 12' or deeper I don't fish unless I see fish. Shallower than that I look for structure and fish it. I wish someone had some pointers on how to find shallow fish out to the side of the boat with an SI unit.

Montana boy, I have the 998 so a little older one than yours and with my settings adjusted right I will find bluegill and crappie during the spawn in less than 3 fow. So yours should definitely be capable of finding them shallower. I typically scan with about 40-50 feet on each side of the boat unless Im specifically scanning the bank then I just set my screen to the side of the bank I'm scanning and I will be in 3-4 fow of water and I can see fish stacked up on the banks. Depending on how thick the weeds are you can even see them in the weeds, but if there isn't any weeds I can see them really good and they will have a hard time hiding. A school of crappie I got into the other day were in 5 fow and buried in some fairly thick weeds but I could still see them on my si, to bad all of them were small ones though. There is lots of videos out there on YouTube on setting up your unit and also another thing is your transducer setup is extremely important as well to get your images coming out really clear where you can see fish up shallow.

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Absolutely use them before I even drown a minnow unless it's the spawn and that's only because I know the wood. Watch lots of YouTube videos!

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Originally Posted by birdman

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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Birdman-
the first screenshot- is that a tree with no fish?
the second screenshot - the area to the right of the cursor (target symbol) is that a tree with fish on it? And the yellow/orange dots to the left of the cursor, are those fish?
Thanks

The first screenshot is a stump that's on a drop off and the backside of the stump is rotted out. All the dots (blobs) you see coming down the drop are crappie. This was spring time this year on the ville and was in about 3-4ft of water. The second screenshot is some standings timber with structure in the standings timber as well, only you can't see the structure because of the incredible amount of crappie stacked in it (littler dots) while the bigger blobs are actually buffalo that seem to always be present in this area. On the left side of the screen is just a small reflection of the right side and some remaining fish. Notice the black line on the left in the orange middle screen, if you look directly across the screen you will actually see the standing tree that's causing the shadow on the left


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I never quit looking for fish, I love good finders and I am always amazed at what is down there.

Birdman- wow. Thank you very much ! A Very good detailed description. It looks like I really need to focus on saving for a si unit!

I spend some time every outing looking for fish or new cover. I usually pick a depth I think might be holding some fish, and move slowly. if i'm looking for fish that really hug the bottom, like walleyes, I might fish a good spot even if I don't see fish. I've taken a lot of fish that way. I just got a new hb helix 9 si. got everything working, and I really like the brightness of the screen. i'll be out most of the coming week, trying to get all the settings just right, { and trying to catch some fish} ..... as far as using si in shallow water, it will work great, just don't set it for too far out, and if you have one on the trolling motor, that works best, because the transducer is right in front of you , and when you see the picture start to come on the screen, what you see will be just about where the front seat is. if you are getting the picture from the transducer on the back it will be behind you, and a little harder to mark.

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Originally Posted by djcoop52

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

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LOL. Story of my life.