Kim City - April 18 - Topwater & Swimbait

[Dock-in-it]

Fished this morning and was able to find a good deep bite with topwater being the best bait followed by underspin and 3.3 swimbait. 

First stop had plenty of shad in 20 to 30ft and caught a few on swimbait. 

Second stop had small pods of surface shad and the fish were postured about 5 to 10ft below the bait in 30 to 70 FOW.

Had about 20 keepers that were mainly pre-spawn with some post spawn mixed in. 

The FFS picture shows the surface shad scenario. The fish under the shad preferred a sexy dawg Jr walking bait. They would smoke the walking bait and just slap a wake bait (surge shad). The underspin and 3.3 worked OK but the topwater really triggered them. I should have used the topwater exclusively to maximize the number of bites

WT 60-61

[Bill Babler]

Beautiful fish Doc, thanks for sharing.

 Your graph picture illustrates the difference between the Garmin and the Lowrance. The fish are vertical on the Active Target and Horizontal on the Livescope. 

Fish on the livescope are a bit more defined and don’t shadow.  You can also see quite a bit more movement of the fish with in a school or singles. 

With the Active Target the fish compresses as he either attacks or follows your bait, and it too is easy to see that the fish is interested. 

I like them both. I think it comes down to which trolling motor you prefer. And I will say that Phil’s 2D with the Clear View Down Scan overlay kicks the Garmin’s butt right out of the water. 

Lowrance has been and still is the absolute KING of 2D sonar. Throw in the down imaging with the overlay and Katy Bar the Door. 




 

[Dock-in-it]

Bill, you mentioned that active target shows the fish as vertical and that is true. But here is the scoop (and this is not exact), envision a diagonal line thru the graph from upper left to lower right and have the forward setting at 100ft. The fish near the boat will display as 'fish' and those away from the boat will display like a vertical stick (like rice standing up).

When you fish vertical for deep fish, they will appear as rounded objects. Some vertical fish (perhaps down to 20ft will display with tail movement). But look away from the boat and they appear as vertical sticks.

 

[Bill Babler]

3 minutes ago, Dock-in-it said:

Bill, you mentioned that active target shows the fish as vertical and that is true. But here is the scoop (and this is not exact), envision a diagonal line thru the graph from upper left to lower right and have the forward setting at 100ft. The fish near the boat will display as 'fish' and those away from the boat will display like a vertical stick (like rice standing up).

When you fish vertical for deep fish, they will appear as rounded objects. Some vertical fish (perhaps down to 20ft will display with tail movement). But look away from the boat and they appear as vertical sticks.

 

Yes I agree as I mentioned they compress and become more vertical. I like it. Let’s you know you’re not fishing in a bathtub.