Educational Articles » lowrance

Understanding Fish on Sonar Posted on December 02, 2021

#1 Walleye fishing  

Side scan saved the day. the weed, sand and mud edges were easily seen. The little sand dip in the weeds is where we found walleyes. They were on the sand right next to the weeds.

No wind, clear water and sunny. Only bass shallow so we looked deeper and found some at 22 foot.

Top arrow is mud

2nd arrow is sand

3rd arrow is weedlines

Bottom arrow is weed dip

weed dip side imaging

#2 Pay attention to sonar.

 

We were using spot lock to cast for walleye and Levi said look at the sonar. I quickly reeled up and dropped my jig and caught a 4 lb largemouth bass. The 2nd photo is the bass swimming away after I released it.

4 lb Largemouth bass with sonar

4 lb Largemouth bass with sonar

#3 Fish in bait show up well.

 

Notice the 2 bright yellow arches (green arrow) in the red bait (black)

fish in bait with sonar

#4 Sonar in vegetation usually sucks.

 

I looked at lots of areas and didn't see any fish and caught fish. But here is one example where the fish showed up.

fish in weeds with sonar

Fish in vegetation, you don't have to see fish to catch them. I often don't mark fish in weeds but still catch them like this one. I spotted the fish with my Aqua-Vu and dropped my bait near the camera!

no fish in weeds

fish in weeds Aqua-Vu

Green arrow shows nice fish on down imaging but looks small on 2D. It is probably on the edge of the 2D cone and the DI cone is wider so shows the fish better.

Reason to run DI and 2D sonar. I also use Navionics on my Lowrance and LakeMaster on my Humminbird. DI (down imaging) is better in weeds most of the time.

Down imaging fish in weeds

fish in weeds 2D

#5 Difference in cones from different transducers.

 

My Garmin PS30 shows the distance to the side the fish are.

Green arrow 3 feet to the left of the transducer which is mounted on boat's mid-line.

White arrow 8 feet to left.

2D sonar only tells you how far off the bottom and that the fish in the cone somewhere.

PS 30 fish

2D sonar fish

#6

 

Red circle fish

Black arrow weeds

Green arrow small boulders on hard bottom point.

Blue arrow bait balls that create shadows on side scan.

side scan fish and weeds

This should help get started in interpreting your sonar.

 

Walleye in Weeds Posted on June 16, 2020

Choices if you fail to catch walleye in weeds.

Watch Video

by Bruce Samson under Aqua-Vu humminbird lowrance

Anglers often find fish with sonar and then they don't bite, this video explains one reason they don't. Posted on January 31, 2020

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How to level your side imaging transducer Posted on December 02, 2019

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Find the fish, fish the fish and understand sonar with Aqua-Vu underwater camera Posted on November 14, 2019

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Understanding fish and trees on sonar Posted on October 13, 2019

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sonar and fish identification Posted on October 05, 2019

Using sonar, down imaging, Lowrance, Humminbird, and Aqua-Vu to study fish

 

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Lowrance HDS pages tip Posted on August 31, 2019



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by Bruce Samson under lowrance lowrance hds

Lowrance HDS Live Quick Access Buttons Posted on December 20, 2018

This is part of the Button chapter for the new Lowrance HDS Live models. I am in the process of producing a training DVD for the HDS Live models.

 

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Lowrance Quick Access buttons

by Bruce Samson under lowrance

Understanding Downimaging/2D sonar with Aqua-Vu training Posted on September 07, 2018

What is the blue specks and what are the bumps?

understanding sonar

Watch video for Doc's explanation.

 

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