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Muskie Fishing -> General Discussion -> Seeing muskies on sonar?
 
Message Subject: Seeing muskies on sonar?
169sportsman
Posted 4/14/2015 12:34 AM (#764778)
Subject: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 99


Just curious has anyone ever seen a muskie on their sonar? And been lucky enough to catch it? You would think with all the side imaging etc that people would mark muskies on sonar but I have not read or seen screen shots of anyone who has.
flyingfish8604
Posted 4/14/2015 4:24 AM (#764784 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 300


I've seen fish on the sonar. My wife and I were lucky enough to fish LOTW, and several times we'd mark fish,band then have them follow.
BNelson
Posted 4/14/2015 7:35 AM (#764789 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Location: Contrarian Island
has happened lots of times over the years...especially with suckers... mark em on the sonar and they chow the sucker.... we were drifting off a rock hump last fall getting ready to move to the next spot and we saw this one down on bottom..I grabbed the sucker out of the livewell, lowered it down 20 feet to the fish....and felt it wack it w the rod in my hand...handed it off to buds little guy and bingo...

Edited by BNelson 4/14/2015 7:39 AM



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muskie! nut
Posted 4/14/2015 8:37 AM (#764792 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 2894


Location: Yahara River Chain
Say....that kid looks like a champ
IM Musky Time
Posted 4/14/2015 8:44 AM (#764794 - in reply to #764789)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 243


^^^ Yep, has happened several times. Fun to call your shot when you see them on the graph. I marked one a few years back and worked that fish for 6 hours off and on before she ate---48.5" out of a small lake. She never left the spot and I could see her every time I made a pass.
vegas492
Posted 4/14/2015 9:44 AM (#764804 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 1023


Yes. I've seen many fish behind suckers on the graph and then...POW!

Called my shot once when there was a friendly guide right next to me. Told him to have his client cast at my bow because there was a fish below it on my sucker. His client made the cast and halfway in, the fish ate the sucker and we stuck the fish. That was a fun fish.
Shep
Posted 4/14/2015 9:50 AM (#764808 - in reply to #764804)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 5874


Great kid pic!

Yup with suckers happens all the time. Trolling the deeper waters, too. Haven't fished with the side imaging, but I'm hearing that you can see the fish quite easily.

achotrod
Posted 4/14/2015 10:23 AM (#764810 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 1283


I havent on mine, but I have seen them on a guides graph. Didnt catch it though.
Junkman
Posted 4/14/2015 10:30 AM (#764812 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 1220


The easiest way to get used to seeing the muskies is on the regular sonar display up front on your bow-mount while you vertically jig bait pods in open water. It's a question of learning to make certain the bait's inside your cone, the boat's moving slowly enough, you have enough sensitivity applied in the sonar menu, and your chart speed is dialed down to match your fishing. As you refine this process, you will begin to see yourself lift and drop your bait very clearly on the graph perfectly. When you first begin, you may not see a darn thing. After you get the idea of how to create the proper settings, you'll see the big blob when she shows up. Don't look for a "hook" because the boat is not moving fast enough to make a hook. At a low speed a fish will be a horizontal line or, hopefully a blob-a-saurus. It becomes a hook with speed and then a vertical line with more speed. This won't be a waste of time for you, if you are doing it around pods of bait fish. By the time you see a musky, you'll have already used the net a few times when they swam up too fast to notice.
Will Schultz
Posted 4/14/2015 10:33 AM (#764814 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Many times, in fact my largest to date was marked on the graph and eventually caught about an hour later. It's really cool to see them while vertical jigging come up and hang with the bait for a minute then go back down and come back and eat. My favorite was seeing one in a friends boat on the side imaging and a few seconds later the planer board rod on that side went off.
dfkiii
Posted 4/14/2015 10:39 AM (#764816 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Location: Sawyer County, WI

I've seen what I believed to be musky or larger pike, but I apparently don't have the experience to differentiate a 35 inch pike from a 40" musky.

So, aside from "big arc = big fish, biggest fish in lake is musky, therefore big arc = musky" how does one really know what it is unless you're using a camera ?
ToddM
Posted 4/14/2015 11:56 AM (#764833 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 20173


Location: oswego, il
Yes and the best one was with my kids in the boat on Webster. My olderst was in the back, I seen the fish on the graph, told him to make a back cast, 44" ate his bait boatside.
169sportsman
Posted 4/14/2015 12:46 PM (#764839 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 99


Nice! May have to give the jigging thing a try. Doesn't seem real popular around here. I just got side imaging. You would think that you could see muskies if they are hanging around points humps etc.
IAJustin
Posted 4/14/2015 12:46 PM (#764840 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 1964


all the time on suspended fish, caught a 46" last year trolling the basin ...tight bait ball , nice arch...said to my partner "there is a muskie chasing bait right there" , 10 seconds later the reel is screaming
sworrall
Posted 4/14/2015 2:23 PM (#764848 - in reply to #764840)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 32761


Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin
This one was on the sucker, swung out away and smoked it on the run.


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Shep
Posted 4/14/2015 3:26 PM (#764855 - in reply to #764848)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 5874


I see.

I saw.

I have seen.

lpeitso
Posted 4/14/2015 3:32 PM (#764856 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 633


I won a guide trip, and took my son with me. We were going between 2 points dragging suckers. The guide, and I were talking, and we were looking at the graph. Nice arch at 12 feet with suckers at 6 feet. We both stood up, and start looking at the suckers. Saw the fish come up, and nail one. We handed the rod to my son, and got a nice 42" fish.
dfkiii
Posted 4/14/2015 4:39 PM (#764862 - in reply to #764855)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Location: Sawyer County, WI
Shep - 4/14/2015 3:26 PM

I see.

I saw.

I have seen.



Here's one for you Shep.


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zombietrolling
Posted 4/14/2015 6:55 PM (#764874 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 246


I usually see them after they follow and hang out deep under the boat. Frustrating.
Bondy
Posted 4/14/2015 8:05 PM (#764879 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: RE: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 718


Very common when vertical jigging. I shot this when jigging Bondy's on our home waters. You can see the bait hoping along and then a musky comes into the picture and...the blood starts flowing.


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Jerry Newman
Posted 4/14/2015 8:16 PM (#764880 - in reply to #764874)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Location: 31

It took a while to develop a feel for it, but I'm confident I've seen muskies on the Lowrance side scan, and then caught them at 3-4 MPH. It’s always way cool, and it would be easy to jump to conclusions even though there's really no way to be certain.  However, it's happened so many times now that I've ruled out coincidence, now whether we would have caught the fish without seeing it first is another story.  

One that really comes to mind is from a couple years ago when I pointed out what appeared to be a decent sized cruising muskie to my boat partner Phil, and we both started watching the planner boards on the starboard side closely.  The boards never flinched, but one of the reels went click-click-click very slowly, and if we weren't watching it so closely, we would have wrote it off as a weed. However, I instinctively turned the boat hard port and canned the 9.9 just in case… bang fish-on, and we ended up catching a decent fish that we might not have caught otherwise.

For me it was one of those defining moments when everything just kind of came together in the boat, the high tech system worked crazy good and everyone was where they needed to be. Afterward we just kind of looked at each other like… wow, did that just happen?  

My theory is the fish swam up and closed its mouth on the bait, swimming right along with the boat until we sped up, either that or it missed the bait and then came back and hit it… either way being dialed into the technology has been credited with that catch.

If you watch Wicked Tuna, they call them out almost every time anchored with live bait.  

mastical
Posted 4/14/2015 9:17 PM (#764890 - in reply to #764879)
Subject: RE: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 568


Location: Lake St Clair
Bondy - 4/14/2015 8:05 PM

Very common when vertical jigging. I shot this when jigging Bondy's on our home waters. You can see the bait hoping along and then a musky comes into the picture and...the blood starts flowing.


Very cool!
169sportsman
Posted 4/15/2015 1:04 AM (#764904 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 99


I see what ya did there! That darn see saw seen gets me every time. Lol
Bondy
Posted 4/15/2015 3:50 AM (#764908 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 718


You can see that jig going downriver and how much water you can cover in a day. If we weren't drifting it would look alot different.
ShutUpNFish
Posted 4/15/2015 11:53 AM (#764970 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 1202


Location: Money, PA
All the time....St Clair is classic for just that!
muskyhawk66
Posted 4/15/2015 9:58 PM (#765053 - in reply to #764789)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 37


My fishing buddy and I were looking at what we thought was a musky on sonar. He left his lure in the water and suddenly it crushed it. Needless to say we had to do a little celebrating after that. His first muskie too!
Zib
Posted 4/16/2015 9:40 AM (#765116 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: RE: Seeing muskies on sonar?





Posts: 1405


Location: Detroit River

Several years ago I took this kid (21 yr-old who was a little slow) out pike fishing on LSC. We were drifting in about 8 fow & the kid is looking at the sonar & said, "What’s that?" I said, "Either a big musky or a sturgeon". The kid then proceeds to cast a bass spinner bait over his left shoulder then starts staring at the sonar & not bothering to reel his bait in. The next thing you know this upper 40's ski comes thrashing out of the water with the kid's spinner bait is in its mouth & the kid's pole bent in half. He ended up losing the fish & I was in total disbelief at what had just happened.

BigMo
Posted 4/16/2015 9:59 AM (#765121 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: RE: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 617


Location: Clintonville, WI
I've only seen this a few times, but my electronics weren't that good and I wasn't using them to their fullest capabilities. That said, I've upgraded electronics and have done more homework on using them, with improved results (d'uh). However, I can't say that I've caught a fish that was identified on the electronics - yet.

Tom Gelb showed some photos of his screens at a recent seminar of his. Holy smokes.....talk about huge bait pods and monster arcs showing up. He spoke about many instances when fish caught were ID'd on the screen first.


Millsie1
Posted 4/16/2015 9:59 AM (#765122 - in reply to #764833)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 27


ToddM - 4/14/2015 11:56 AM

Yes and the best one was with my kids in the boat on Webster. My olderst was in the back, I seen the fish on the graph, told him to make a back cast, 44" ate his bait boatside.


Same thing happened with my wife in Canada. Saw one on the locator in front. Said we just went over a musky and cast behind the boat. She was just humoring me, but a mid 40" grabbed her spinnerbait, went airborn and tossed it. She was so suprised she didn't set the hook.
BrianF.
Posted 4/16/2015 10:23 AM (#765131 - in reply to #764778)
Subject: Re: Seeing muskies on sonar?




Posts: 284


Location: Eagan, MN
Surprised folks are NOT seeing muskies on sonar. We commonly see them and drop a bait to catch them. Cool to watch them approach the bait just like when ice fishing for other species - as shown above by Jon. Granted, a majority of the fish we see on sonar don't strike, enough do to make this a very exciting thing. Have lots of stories, but won't bore you with them other than one. I had the pleasure of losing a monster fish 2X on one cast; the second time being right at my rod tip. The fish went straight under the boat, directly under the transducer and sat there, wondering what happened. We got to see what a monster fish looked like on screen and, let me say, it was a rather impressive 'mark'.
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