Using a fish finder 101

[Big Cliff]

I had a really interesting talk with my son the other day, he was having trouble with his fish finder and couldn't understand what he was doing wrong. We spent a long time talking on the phone about it. He wasn't doing anything wrong, he just didn't understand how to interpret what he was seeing. That prompted me to post this!

 

How many people REALLY know what they are seeing on their units? When should you see an arch, when shouldn't you? How big a target can you see, what's the proper scroll speed, why is there a solid line a foot or so off bottom when I'm still fishing..... The list is endless!

 

A few of the things we discussed are learning how to interpret what you are actually seeing; when I got my Lawrence HDS 5 the first thing I did was take it for a boat ride. I found a nice deep spot, stopped the boat and dropped the anchor over the side and let out about 15' of rope, then I played with the settings until I could see the anchor. Then I dropped the anchor to the bottom and started working with jigs until I could see a 1/8 oz jig head..... ok, you get the idea, I learned to understand what I was seeing.

 

Next, I dropped a weight with a line attached and a float so the float was about 10' off the bottom and I trolled back and forth over it so I understood what the arches meant. In short I spent a good part of an afternoon simulating what I might see in real life, the result was I could read that sonar as if it was a book, weed clusters, hard bottom soft bottom, larger fish, bait clouds, that unit and I became best fishing buddies and there were plenty of times I'd go out and pound them while other guys would be catching a fish or two.

 

How many people mount them, turn them on but never really understand what they are seeing? Got some tips? Post them!

[ketchenany]

How many people mount them, turn them on but never really understand what they are seeing?

Are you crazy, this is a family show!

[G.mech]

Lance Valentine has a very detailed instructional video....it's a bit long but very in depth. It is kind of based on Lowrance equipment but the same principles apply to all makes. Probably not the best for a beginner but youtube has lots of those. The sonar interpretation video can be rented or purchased at:

 

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lvsi

[kickingfrog]

There is a site called sonar doc (or something along those lines) and he has some great info for that next level stuff. It's helped me with the interpretation.

[PUMP KNOWS]

I never owned one but I would like to learn what I'm seeing on the screen

[aplumma]

Time on the water with a controlled environment is the key. I actually took a fish and put 4 oz of weight and lowered it thru the transducer field to see what a fish looks like vs floating debris. The other key is to be able to grasp the concept of what the bottom is made of by reading the strength of the returns and what adjustments are doing. I have spent countless days just reading the water looking for future spots to fish based on the environment rather than looking for fish.

 

Here is a great link to read http://www.defender.com/html/fishfinder_info.html

 

 

 

Art

[Pigeontroller]

And knowing how to adjust things, ping speed, sonar cone angle...

[Sinker]

Ive fishing is an awesome way to learn what your graph is telling you.

[Smokercrafty]

Great thread Cliff.... although I like to believe I can read my units, I'm probably way off, so this is a great thread for guys like myself, to jump in and check out. I could see things that are new to me, old to me, and frankly, things I've never known about. Looking forward to this one. Maybe one day Cliff, I should have you in my tinny, for a tutorial!

[GBW]

Great thread Cliff.... although I like to believe I can read my units, I'm probably way off, so this is a great thread for guys like myself, to jump in and check out. I could see things that are new to me, old to me, and frankly, things I've never known about. Looking forward to this one. Maybe one day Cliff, I should have you in my tinny, for a tutorial!

Same!!!

I got a new to me (was a new display unit at a retail store) Lowrance Mark-4 at the end of the soft water season and I'm yet to test it as I haven't even made it on the ice this year to even try and tinker with it. *sigh*

[manitoubass2]

Once you have a decent grasp and want to learn ping speed etc, try fishing heavy current? you'll learn pretty quick what the functions on your until can or won't do

[Freshtrax]

I fish lake ont. mostly. Graph is just to keep an eye on the thermocline and adjust probe accordingly. We rarely mark the fish we catch . Just the bait and thermocline. Thermocline e looks like. Junk in the water 30 to 80 ft down .

[GBW]

Once you have a decent grasp and want to learn ping speed etc, try fishing heavy current you'll learn pretty quick what the functions on your until can or won't do

NEWB HERE! I had a "sonar" from the dark ages on the boat and the ONLY time I ever turned it on was for surface temp ideas so I could try and decide to fish from "my new to the area knowledge" vs what I knew from the past of "where and I more than likely to catch a fish". I'd love more info with my new toy. And yeah I have been in a few fully rigged boats but just did my "thing" and kept up with the graph watchers while fishing. So setting info for the most common senerios I'm all game folks. Again, my fish-finder is "oh that line tree about 20' off from that dock of the 'A' Frame cottage" is how I have fished forever... Cheers

[Smokercrafty]

NEWB HERE! I had a "sonar" from the dark ages on the boat and the ONLY time I ever turned it on was for surface temp ideas so I could try and decide to fish from "my new to the area knowledge" vs what I knew from the past of "where and I more than likely to catch a fish". I'd love more info with my new toy. And yeah I have been in a few fully rigged boats but just did my "thing" and kept up with the graph watchers while fishing. So setting info for the most common senerios I'm all game folks. Again, my fish-finder is "oh that line tree about 20' off from that dock of the 'A' Frame cottage" is how I have fished forever... Cheers

Lol, the "shoreline GPS" model. I laughed in my mind of course, every time I was out on "old schoolers" boats, and watch them align their boats with certain landmarks. Made for a good chuckle each time. Then, the best part was if they'd catch fish, they'd claim "BINGO! I told you this spot always produces". Meanwhile, we've drifted 400 yards from their proclaimed honey hole.

[Acountdeleted]

Soooo much to learn. I had one that showed the 'fish' rather then the arch. I learned quickly that the size of the fish was relative to the depth. So a 'massive fish' in 2 ft of water may have been a sunfish.

 

Same thing with my flasher. Took me forever to realize what were marks, bubbles, interference. Etc.

[dave524]

One thing that many get wrong, especially open water trollers for suspended fish like Lake O. is that the units measure depth, THEY DO NOT, THEY MEASURE DISTANCE FROM THE TRANSDUCER. You have your transducer mounted at the stern along with a down rigger, letting the ball out on 100 feet of cable will show that the ball is at the 100 foot depth but because it is angled back because of the resistance of the water and the speed of the boat it may actually be at 85 feet. It is the same with marking fish, depending on the frequency of the transducer the area of the cone it sees will vary, so, it may look like the fish are scattered between 80 and a 100 feet deep, but in actuality they may all be precisely at 80 feet with the ones dead centre in the middle of the cone marking at the true depth and those at the edges of the diameter of the cone marking deeper than their actual depth.

[Sinker]

One thing that many get wrong, especially open water trollers for suspended fish like Lake O. is that the units measure depth, THEY DO NOT, THEY MEASURE DISTANCE FROM THE TRANSDUCER. You have your transducer mounted at the stern along with a down rigger, letting the ball out on 100 feet of cable will show that the ball is at the 100 foot depth but because it is angled back because of the resistance of the water and the speed of the boat it may actually be at 85 feet. It is the same with marking fish, depending on the frequency of the transducer the area of the cone it sees will vary, so, it may look like the fish are scattered between 80 and a 100 feet deep, but in actuality they may all be precisely at 80 feet with the ones dead centre in the middle of the cone marking at the true depth and those at the edges of the diameter of the cone marking deeper than their actual depth.

This is a very important point for any of you "new to graph" guys to understand. Well said.

 

S.

[AKRISONER]

after watching Aaron wiebe on Uncut Angling, I would argue that there are few people who can work a sonar like he does. Well aside from pros that is. I wish i could read side imaging as well as he does.

 

For the most part the tech in my boat is primitive, so the sonar is used to find structure, depths and temperatures. For the most part the spots we fish we are watching the depth and contours to see what the structure looks like.

 

Basically any time we fish, we first check the charts for variation, im a very very firm believer that fish hold to structure with options. I.e. Shallow with deep water near by and places to hide with something to eat close by.

 

I will say that it is rare for us to mark bass on the unit...however when i really think about it 2 of my most impressive moments fishing were literally both due to my ability to notice something on the graph.

 

The first one was fishing in november for smallies. We came across a spot that had produced before but I think for whatever reason we never took note of the structure there...sure enough on the edge of a deeper basin we saw a distinctive hump that came up sharply from 30 feet to 20 and had one of the biggest bait clouds I had ever seen fishing shallowish structure. We tossed swimbaits out over the hump, let them sink down to bottom and then proceeded to swim our swimbaits up over the hump...what happened was a 20lb bag in my next 5 casts.

 

Second time was this fall we drove towards a reef with 30FOW of water around it and sure enough 10 seconds into our troll around the reef to look at the structure we marked an arch so big that it had two fish icons on it. Stalled the boat and dropped the drop shot right down to bottom...within seconds tap...tension...hook set and i caught my PB pickerel coming in at 9lbs. I can honestly say that without the graph on both of those occasions we may have not caught the fish at all without electronics.

 

All said fishies got lip piercings and went back to get even bigger.

 

 

When fishing open water trolling with downriggers...if you dont have your graph you are basically aiming blind and praying...we find the thermocline and put the balls to it. checking the depth of the balls using the sonar to ensure that we have the thermocline encased both up and down with lures. If you start marking fish, we are trying to hit them with the ball.

Edited March 7, 2017 by AKRISONER

[Old Ironmaker]

Fishing for suspended fish here on Erie I am not looking for "hooks" as much as I am looking for bait balls and then I try to get my line into it. Fishing for Bass amongst structure I always have my old backup Garmin finder set up a bit differently so I don't have to adjust the settings for shallower water. The older my new combo got, that once would show my downrigger ball and line, the less sensitive I found it. From getting a tip I believe here now when I tow the boat I will tape ankle socks over the transducers, of course a colour that matches the boat. Imagine how much road rash you will get on the bottom of a sensitive transducer going down a highway and back roads. Also, especially when the boat is in her slip on a gungy creek, I will wipe off the bottom of them before heading out. Your sonar is only as good as the transducer.

[John Bacon]

This is a very important point for any of you "new to graph" guys to understand. Well said.

 

S.

And not so new to graph guys too. Most people probably don't think of this.

[blaque]

i think i used to be somewhat proficient at reading my old units. However........for the kayak, i just snapped up a Helix 5 G2 with GPS, Side Imaging, Down Imaging, CHIRP sonar, AutoCHART Live etc..... Its going to be quite the learning curve me thinks to get efficient with it come spring.

 

Its a very easy thing to want to just turn it on and go when youve got limited time to fish and ur on the water gettin ur fish on

[adempsey]

I just run mine on demo mode and pretend I know what I am doing.

[Big Cliff]

One thing that many get wrong, especially open water trollers for suspended fish like Lake O. is that the units measure depth, THEY DO NOT, THEY MEASURE DISTANCE FROM THE TRANSDUCER. You have your transducer mounted at the stern along with a down rigger, letting the ball out on 100 feet of cable will show that the ball is at the 100 foot depth but because it is angled back because of the resistance of the water and the speed of the boat it may actually be at 85 feet. It is the same with marking fish, depending on the frequency of the transducer the area of the cone it sees will vary, so, it may look like the fish are scattered between 80 and a 100 feet deep, but in actuality they may all be precisely at 80 feet with the ones dead centre in the middle of the cone marking at the true depth and those at the edges of the diameter of the cone marking deeper than their actual depth.

BINGO, we have a winner! This is the kind of thing I'm talking about "Understanding what you are seeing". so, Why do fish show up as an arch when you are trolling? The transducer picks up the fish at a distance = lower signal further away. You get closer = stronger signal and less far away, and as you move away from the fish the signal lessens and becomes farther away. (weak WEAK weak). Good job dave524!

 

Fishing for suspended fish here on Erie I am not looking for "hooks" as much as I am looking for bait balls and then I try to get my line into it. Fishing for Bass amongst structure I always have my old backup Garmin finder set up a bit differently so I don't have to adjust the settings for shallower water. The older my new combo got, that once would show my downrigger ball and line, the less sensitive I found it. From getting a tip I believe here now when I tow the boat I will tape ankle socks over the transducers, of course a colour that matches the boat. Imagine how much road rash you will get on the bottom of a sensitive transducer going down a highway and back roads. Also, especially when the boat is in her slip on a gungy creek, I will wipe off the bottom of them before heading out. Your sonar is only as good as the transducer.

Again, right on the mark! Know your transducer and take care of it.

 

There are lots of other good ideas already, but I just got in from a long day and haven't had supper yet. Keep em coming guys!

[G.mech]

The older my new combo got, that once would show my downrigger ball and line, the less sensitive I found it. Your sonar is only as good as the transducer.

 

Transducers have a lifespan, it may be time for a new one. The Lowrance ones especially need to be replaced every 3 years or so if you use them a lot. It's kind of like getting a new pair of glasses; you don't realize how bad your old ones were until you put on the new ones.

Edited March 8, 2017 by G.mech

[Terry]

I find with the newer units I don't go through transducers like I use to
They don't use the same power to get the wattage to the ducer so they don't heat up. And because they don't get that hot the ceramic does not come loose
well that's my findings

Edited March 8, 2017 by Terry