Fish Finder Training – Screenshots & Interpretations

[nathanhooper]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one laughing at that one. LOL!

Sorry Nathan........it's just the inner-teenage boy still in me. hahaha

You don't know how I chuckled when I had originally wrote it. I had to change the wording a few times till it was a little more 'pleasant' to read. lol

[nathanhooper]

I wonder if those pictures of the thermocline and that junk could be large gizzard shad or something? They look like very distinct arches, but I have pulled through them before and never got a bite off anything I pulled. Compared with some of the other arches they are small, but could be 8" or so fish like shad can get to huh?

[J-Doc]

Without spending a lot of time on this.......I see a lot of white bass and some trees. Your "fish shot" image shows a brush pile with some fish on it.

I'll provide more analysis later when I get some time (unless F&F beats me to it first which will probably occur) :-)

I think you have some good images overall and anytime you spend on the water and learn something is a positive thing and experienced gained. Try not to worry so much about catching fish rather than try to learn to enjoy the scenery, the time away from the daily grind and the time with friends. I know once I did that, I started catching fish regularly. :-) Enjoy the sport and don't let it ruin you on the sport.

[nathanhooper]

Oh, I do. I know on my other thread I sound a little frustrated, and I would be lying to say that I don't get that way. But I do enjoy the time out there and I do learn each time I go out. I do need to stop worrying, maybe focus it on interpretation of my surroundings.

I sure would not have minded catching some whites. And the a-rig I was pulling should have been the ticket for that if it was coming close to them. I know I sat there and watch a guy slay the whites earlier this year with that same rig set up and trolling manner. May have been too far, or they may have not been in the mood at the time.

[J-Doc]

Ok, here are my thoughts. Someone can correct me if they disagree.

In this photo (reading from left to right), I see a group of bait on the far left, misc. bass or possibly small stripers in the middle, a hump/rock with possibly a lone catfish behind the rock and Kentucky bass suspended above it while smaller bait are suspended to the right of it. Also, I see smaller fish below as the ledge falls off with possible floating debris below.

In this image, I see a mixture of bait schools. Some appear to be a mix of white bass? Also, in the bottom right I see trees (not brush piles as traditional sonar makes all stickups look wider than they really are)

In this one I too see probably gizzard shad. Not sure what happened on the bottom left? Looks like fish moved down to cover as you went over?

This image shows a couple of small tree stickups and possibly a brush pile. Note the fish behind it on the left side and possibly catfish on the bottom going up the slope. I'd say it's bass suspended in the middle. Short fat bodies.

This looks like a group of bass to me sitting on the bottom. Maybe smallmouth? Not sure if that's a rock or brush pile on the far left. I'm guessing brush pile.

[nathanhooper]

Good calls. Couple of things I can point out. 3rd down would be fish going up, not down, if they are fish. Sonar reads from right to left so it was picking them up low at first then higher if that makes sense.

Last picture was interesting when I played it back this morning. I am almost absolutely sure that's a rock, but I could be wrong. I think I have a better picture of it, or of another one by it. Ah, I just went back over the recording. That first picture is the same area as the last picture, I had just crossed at a different angle. I know that I had picked up that boulder(s) early in my trip and then again at the end. Maybe it is a brush pile and my settings on the sonar are just too high and showing up as a rock. I'll take a picture of it next time I am out.

So then my thoughts wonder about how high I should have my sensitivity set and everything like that?

Ah ha! I just figured out how to run my recorded chart on the LMS-322c demo sonar you can get. Its supposed to be so you can work the settings on the unit just like you would on the boat. Its showing somewhat the same picture, but I don't have the time to try and tweak the settings, plus it has the updated software on the simulator and I have the old software on the unit itself.

Oh well. Its interesting to see anyways. After looking back, I may have been dragging my stuff too deep. Go figure, that would explain a lot.

[nathanhooper]

Actually, its called an "emulator". It looks just like your looking at your sonar on your boat. Just pushing the buttons with your mouse instead of your fingers. Pretty neat.

[Feathers and Fins]

Keep your balls out of it lol. Im serious you are running your balls through the fish and that will spook them. Put a lure on that has the diving depth you need to get where the fish are and let it out 100 ft behind the boat and raise you balls up.

If I am running a bait that has 0 diving depth I will let out as much as 300 ft of line behind it to try and counter the ball wash but prefer a bait that will run at least 10 to 15 ft below the ball.

As to the pictures Looks like someone found a bunch of bass and possibly walleye. At the depths they are at drop-shot and spoon time

[Mitch f]

I met a kid and his father a few years ago as I was doing a demonstration on a high density laser scanner. The kid was brilliant and had just received a full ride scholarship to MIT. He (the kid) was taking a average priced Humminbird fish finder with GPS and grabbing the output signal and turning it into a 3D plot of the bottom of the lake. The purpose was to review the bottom density composition for the purpose of silt removal by dredging. He was fully aware that fisherman would love to have a 3d plot of the bottom of the lake. I took his data file and loaded it into my PC and was able to rotate it around and zoom in on brush piles from all angles. He was basically stitching the 2D sketches and extruding them into 3D by way of a GPS. He could ramp up the frequency for more detail. He was able to completely map the area of a lake at the rate of about 40 acres in 20 minutes.

[Old plug]

Geezzzzzzz Mitch you lost me after the word doing in the first sentence.