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Fished for a few hours for the stripes. Got one pull down but it didn't hook up. Did mark a ton of crappie in Flat Swamp. I mean a ton. Large schools holding to flats or on the edge of drop offs at about 20 feet. Saw a few chasing them... pushing jigs... but not many.
Water looks good in flat swamp to almost the train tracks. Might change with the coming rain. Thought I would share.
Thanks sundance. Might try to get up that way later this week.
Thanks for the report!
Great report. Glad there is some clear water.
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Made it out to Flat Swamp by 1:30pm today. Road around in the boat at least half the time just looking at the Helix. I saw lots of bait and some fish, I think. I don’t troll, but saw a few folks out there. Seemed pretty slow from what I could tell.
Water looked better than I expected. Almost “normal” - Brownie/Yoohoo colored. Abbott’s looked muddy coming over the bridge.
I did stumble onto a few right at dark in about 20ft near a dock.
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Nice fish. I've been aiming to put a card in my helix to do some captures but just don't seem to think about it till I'm on the water. I wish I had. Crappie are easy to see on the Helix. They're going to be larger than the little "dots" that make up a school of shad and not as tightly grouped together. I took a couple pics with my phone. Here is one of some crappie chasing shad in the side imaging.
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I have the hardest time understanding what I’m seeing with these. I guess if I owned one it would be easier. I see the ribbon looking pattern which I assume is the school of shad???
The black area is the area below the boat where the side imaging doesn't reach the bottom. The dashes or little specs are crappie above the cut off of the signal. The "ribbon" is a school shad that are strung out in a line and partly cut off due to the fact they are deeper than the side imaging will scan. In this picture, most of the fish and shad are below the scanning of the side imaging. You can use Down imaging to see them or use your regular 2D sonar to pick them up. This pic does show there are crappie chasing shad in the fact the school of shad are strung out and broken apart in places. Wind or current can do the same thing to shad but there was no wind or current at the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave336
the way I understand it is with side scanning is...
The sonar goes from the side of the boat in a cone shape with the smallest part of the cone at the boat and all the black you see is where the cone does not see the bottom .
All objects seen in the black are either fish or structure of some kind... Correct me if I am wrong because I like to learn
Sounds right to me. Theyre calling for flooding of the Yadkin up around 64. There is a lot of water headed into the lake.Quote:
Originally Posted by greenchicken
Actually, for side imaging, the beam is thin and sweeps down and out to the sides. How far to the sides is adjustable. So, the black in the middle is the water right under the boat. The first edge of the return on each side, is the bottom right close under the boat. Then, the further to the right and left on the screen is area to the right and left. If fish are close to the boat, they will show in the black. Anything in the colored areas to the right and left could be on the bottom or suspended. If it is structure, looking at the shadows will help determine how deep or big it is. For me, it is much tougher to see the fish to the right and left, but I’ve only used mine twice and may need to dial in the settings a little more.
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The underwater coverage area is usually represented as a cone of coverage. It is more accurate to say the side imaging is thin and angled based on the auto range of the beam. I leave mine in auto range mode and usually get about 100 feet left or right in 30 feet of water. I have a Helix 10. It looks better the bigger you go but I'm constantly zooming to take a closer look. If you move your cursor and zoom, you can see the separation and if they are suspended close to bottom. Sometimes you can make out the shape from a shadow cast on the hard bottom return. Here is a good explanation.
https://www.humminbird.com/learn/imaging/side-imaging
Just to be clear, the black area return below the boat is not a detailed scan right below the boat from the side imaging. You're getting a limited return from the side imaging signal frequency. You'll get much more detail and deeper picture from Down Imaging and 2D. I usually troll with all three on display. Top side, left bottom 2D and DI right bottom.
Me too :)
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