sonar....? crappie primarily

[fishinwrench]

Seriously though, I haven't seen anyone's catch rate increase noticeably since spending the time/money to drastically upgrade their sonar systems.

[J-Doc]

Well up until the last several trips I've made, it definitely helped me. Drastically? No. But an increase? Definitely.

If I were on a smaller lake, I wouldn't worry about it. But when you're covering a 30,000 acre lake where the fish move overnight and sometimes within hours, I like having sidescan. It's not like looking underwater......but it's close if setup correctly.

If I fished water like where you live up there on the north end of LOZ and the shallow water that you typically fish.....sidescan would not help me all that much. For me, 15ft is shallow. Sometimes I'll go shallower but not all that often.

[Terrierman]

I recently bought a boat. Lowrance Elite Chirp 7 is what I settled on.

[fishinwrench]

Yeah I reckon. But if 15' was as shallow as fish could be caught I wouldn't enjoy fishing near as much as I do.

[J-Doc]

Yeah I reckon. But if 15' was as shallow as fish could be caught I wouldn't enjoy fishing near as much as I do.

I cast up to 1ft but most of the time the fish are in 8-10ft or 10-15 depending on time of year and such. For crappie, they can be shallow under docks but most of the time, I'm sitting in 15-20 or deeper.

Yeah, I got spoiled fishing with you on your end. Shallow water and jig bass. Man I could do that every day. Literally. :-)

[Old plug]

J Doc---- I agree with you. I know you are as expert on graphs as anyone on here. Sometimes I forget the real world most of these on here live in. When your younger and have a job and family to support the graph is a great tool. I understand this very well. I know what it was too support and raise a family back in the day. I can only imagine those pressures now days. You just cannot get out there and get a lot of experience without sacrificing other areas of your life. I have had my selfish moments in the past in order to feed my compulsion to fish.

As to graphs I came from the period before Graphs. I can remember clearly the first Green boxes. We thought they was a total miracle. But I also found over the years that in many cases they will interfere with establishing the pattern. That was the thing we all learned more than anything in the days of before the graphs. Really I believer thats what catches the fish.I just do not think people should forget about that. This day in age it is very to do with graphs and so called miracle lures and other fish in things being hawked like crazy.

[J-Doc]

^^

Could not agree more if I tried.

And I'm learning to pattern fish now. It's not easy on my lake. But if I can pattern fish here, any lake in the country should become easier. Lol! (Kidding)

[Seth]

Seriously though, I haven't seen anyone's catch rate increase noticeably since spending the time/money to drastically upgrade their sonar systems.

I caught plenty of fish before side imaging and there are many trips when I don't use it at all. Finding brush piles and hard bottoms away from the bank is so much easier with side imaging though. Sure, if you fish the same area a lot then you will probably figure this all out in due time, but I can go through and find it in a matter of minutes now. Having that ability can really help a guy out when fishing new water. I'm no longer limited to fishing visible cover only. There are a lot of honey holes hidden beneath the surface that you probably go right by all the time.

Last spring was a perfect example of my side imaging saving a trip. Dad and I went to PB2 crappie fishing. The fish weren't on the bank nor could we get a dock bite going. I ended up going to some random coves, scanning them for brush piles, marking them on the GPS and eventually pulled two limits of crappie off a few of them. If I only had 2D or no graph at all, there is no way I could have marked that many brush piles that quick. This was all in an area where I'd never fished before so I had no prior experience to go off of.

Side imaging is also the bomb diggity if you like to snag for paddlefish. There is no guessing involved when you mark them on the side scan.

You have to be honest with yourself if you are in the market for a good unit. Are you going to spend the time to learn how to use the new features so that you can actually use them to your benefit while on the water? If not, then you may as just get a 2D unit with GPS and mapping. GPS is always nice to have.

[fishinwrench]

I guess I just don't like the feeling of being dependent on stuff like that.

Brushpiles or other sunken irregularities aren't hard to find. A few parallel casts with the right bait will tell you real quick if there is something there that's holding active fish. Quicker probably than making multiple boat passes then circling back to "fish it".

Being able to see exactly what it is might cause me to fish it longer than I should since most of the best looking cover/structure doesn't consistently produce squat.

[J-Doc]

Being able to see exactly what it is might cause me to fish it longer than I should since most of the best looking cover/structure doesn't consistently produce squat.

So true.....

And to play devil’s advocate and switch to the other side of the conversation, I tend to agree with you and Old Plug.

Not fishing the conventional way and fishing by feel and learning the bottom by retrieving baits several times doesn’t put fish in the boat. You can’t catch fish without having bait in the water. So you can motor over an entire flat, not see anything and miss out. You also miss out on learning how to fish cover thoroughly, as Old Plug said learning the patterns, and most importantly, you don’t learn which angle of approach is the “majic angle” that gets the fish fired up. I’ve heard many times, you had to present the bait at a particular angle and when you did, 3 out of 5 casts they would kill it. At any other angle of approach, they would ignore it.

Feathers&Fins and Yakfm were catching stripers (big ones) earlier this spring and the entire day, never marked the fish on the side scan or sonar. They were like ghosts. Just appeared. And if you can’t see a 45lb striper on side scan……..they are either moving too quickly and showing streaks or your settings are off. J

So I understand your concerns and agree with it. It’s a tool in the hands of the right person. I’m learning how to use them however, I’m not learning as much about fishing in more detail and what produces as much as I would like. So there are drawbacks as much as there are positive aspects. When you find that balance between the old school and new school however……….that’s a good combination.

Then again you and just throw chartreuse colored dynamite and we can wrap this whole conversation up and put it to bed.