Ok, so I've go fish on my sonar. Now what?

[Hookup]

I'm pretty new to using sonar/electronics... I'm curious about what people do when they have a fish/suspect on their electronics.... I'm talking boating, not ice-fishing...

Do you turn the boat around immediately? Break out the drop-shots?

Scenario 1) Say you've found 3-4 targets in ~15feet of water sitting at about 3-5 feet from the bottom.

Scenario 2) You've found 1-2 targets in 10 feet of water around somewhere around 2-3 feet from bottom near what looks like weeds.


How do ya'll approach this? Me, I seem to drive right by... but i'm not sure this approach is catching fish. Sure, If i found 5 or 6 targets, i'll try to throw a jig at them... (unsuccessful so far)...

Should I GPS mark the spot, coast on by, and use the foot-controll to get back to them???


Understanding your sonar is the most important first step, but I'm missing the obvious next step... How & When to attack.

[Jimmy_1]

Interesting topic for sure!

Nothing hurts more than trolling muskies and seeing a PIG of a hook on the finder and.....and......NOTHING!

[Geos]

Can you narrow down the requirements.
What species? Some spook more then others
Are they suspended fish in the summer?
Is the fish finder showing pretty fishy icons or proper hooks to indicate direction.
Are there bait balls showing up anywhere?

I play with my fish finder on the Ottawa on the first big drop 10 to 100 and will mark nice hooks 45-65 down that I think I have proven to be catfish so far.

[Hookup]

Can you narrow down the requirements.
What species? Some spook more then others
Are they suspended fish in the summer?
Is the fish finder showing pretty fishy icons or proper hooks to indicate direction.
Are there bait balls showing up anywhere?

I realize some people swear they can tell the species of a fish by the shape of the return, but i'm certainly not there yet....

Hooks show direction? I did not know that...

No bait-balls... (I've yet to identify one on my sonar)...

But feel free to go into any scenarios where you feel the tacit/approach is different do to species, direction, bait-balls, etc..

[almontefisher]

If I am trolling for lakers then the obvious thing is to keep trolling as the bait is still 100+ft behind you from where the fish was marked.

[Geos]

I cant tell the type of fish but many hours jigging everything on those hooks produced 5-6 catfish so thats my assumption, I was thinking they where sturgeon for awhile.

There is not a lot online about interpreting hooks on a fish finder that I can find.
This was ok for a start.

"Understanding this concept is critical in getting the most from your fish finder. The shallower you get, the less likely you are to see a fish displayed on the screen, simply because of the restricted coverage. As you idle through a shallow area chances are you will spook a bass before it is displayed on the screen. It is extremely important, while in shallow water, to note bottom changes, cover, or structure that is likely to be holding bass. Chances are you will not see a bass on the screen in shallow water, but that does not mean they are not there. You have to fish the likely areas and assume that the bass are present.
A fish arch forms as the fish moves through the sonar beam. Due to the transducer beam angle the distance to the fish decreases as it moves into the beam, and increases as it moves out. When the chart window graphs this distance change, an arch appears. Boat speed and movement of the fish greatly affect the shape of the arch. When moving slowly, a fish creates an elongated arch. When moving fast the arch appears shorter. A partial arch forms when the fish does not move through the entire cone. The longer a fish stays in the cone, the larger they will appear. A big bass may appear smaller if it is only on the edge of the cone. Also, a smaller bass may appear larger if it is stays in the cone longer. In other words, the size of the arch does not necessarily correlate to the size of the fish."

[Geos]

This looks like a very good read
[url]http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/Sonar-Tutorial/[/url]

[Tomcat]

Here's another web reference to some excellent information on using and interpreting depth finders - see http://fishinweb.com/

[Hookup]

Thanks Geos and Tomcat... I'm really looking to find out what people do after they spot fish... if all we do is drive on by, then might as well leave it on shore and save weight...

Do people kill the engine, jump on their rods and try to catch the little arches? Do they just remember it for later? Do they (like me) marvel at how cool sonar is and drive on by looking at the cottages?

[bradford2]

For me it really depends on what I'm fishing for. I've only had decent sonar for 1 season and really find it's invaluable for somethings and just a depth finder other times.

Anything shallow I I ignore it. I'd say anything under 20 feet. Most bass fishing, pike fishing.... I use them only to tell the depth.

Where it really shines for me is deep water jigging. I caught my biggest laker last year after getting the boat on plane...... marking a fish on bottom..... stopping the boat.... throwing it in reverse.... dropping the bait and shake shake shake....... bam.

Basically, with lakers if I mark fish on bottom I will always stop and jig for them. A fish on bottom is more likely to be stationary. If I mark fish suspended I will only stop if there is bait on the screen as well. Otherwise the suspended fish are likely cruising around......

The other times I've relied heavily on the sonar is fishing for smallies... jigging and dropshotting..... mark a fish catch a fish

[Tomcat]

OK I'll try to better address your question. I'm primarily a walleye fisherman. And during the day, I usually bottom bounce looking for walleye. Many times, when I spot a couple of walleye hanging out together close to the bottom, I make my pass as usual. Then once I think I've trolled the lure/bait well past the walleye, I'll simply reverse direction and run the lure/bait past them again. Sometimes, I'll throw out a marker buoy to mark the approximate area. Probably what you do will have a lot to do with how difficult it is to mark fish in the area/lake you're fishing (e.g. if you're not having any difficulty marking fish in an area, you might just continue a complete run before trolling through the same area again).

You might also benefit from reviewing the information on the "dead zone" in sonar units - see http://vexilar.com/pages/support/suppor ... e_006.html

[Hookup]

Thanks guys. That type of info helps. Please keep it coming if others can add.

The funny thing is, I see all bass boats with at least 2 units, if not three on them, yet to my knowledge no one uses them to mark fish. It's all for bottom depth and possible structure identification. Which don't get me wrong is good, but if you look at fishing for bass, often times it's shallow water where polarized glasses are effective, or heavy slop... both do not have any advantages over sonar.

Kind of back to Geos statement about what kind of fish....

So what the heck do bass fishers use sonar for?

What about Walleye's? I really like what tomcat wrote, makes a bunch-o-sense.


Maybe a better question is what does your Sonar tell you and how do you use that information?

[Out4trout]

One more point...
If you are stationary jigging, and you see fish "rise" from bottom toward your bait, quite often the fish is actually not rising at all, but travelling laterally.

Reason it "appears" that they are rising is because the distance straight down from the sonar to bottom is equal to the distance (angled) from the sonar to the fish that are not directly below your sonar... so as the fish approaches from the side, on the screen it will falsely appear that it is rising.

Be sure to keep your bait up a bit in that situation - as fish that are not directly below your sonar are often higher in the water column than it may appear on the screen.

I use my sonar mostly for depth and location of structure... unless still fishing eg jigging Lakers - when I will target a specific fish on the screen..

[bucketmouth]

So what the heck do bass fishers use sonar for?

Bass aren't always up shallow. Like Brad eluded to - dropshotting or dragging a tube for smallies over 20'+, or to find roaming largies over deep flats, or to find structure the same way you'd be looking for structure/drops for just about any other kind of fishing.

Alot of these big screened units on bass and walleye boats are also for running GPS don't forget.