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Posts: 177
| What percentage of your time on the water is spent purely looking at electronics vs actually fishing? Do you go by every spot with the side scan before fishing it? Do you scan a couple spots around the lake then fish if you see something? Do you map weedlines on a home lake one time so you know where they're at the rest of the season? I'm trying to improve my use of electronics but have a hard time actually spending any time with it. Difficult to spend an hour or two looking at the graph when I've only got a weekend to fish. |
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Posts: 106
Location: On Lake St Clair Michigan | Only an hour or two, that is a good start for each day. If you're on the water each I could see scouting for 30 minutes each day to keep the shad schools nailed dow . |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | I'm Fishing 85% of time on the water,
10% of the time going from Spot to spot...
4% of the time looking at electronics..
1% of the time opening Beer bottles.... Ha !
While casting,... I am looking at the graph every once in a while just to see where I'm at or heading.... That said,.... I haven't bought any "new" electronics for 6 yrs.
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Posts: 359
Location: SW Ohio | I spend a great deal of time using my side scan. On my home lake I look of stuff that changed from the previous year...logs, fall downs that may have shifted, new grass, landslides, etc. In the fall and early winter it's to locate baitfish. On new lakes I use it locate structure and confirm what the chart or paper map is showing me. If I catch or see a fish, I use it to see why they were in a particular spot, especially on lakes I'm not familiar with.
I also use it while casting to locate likely ambush spots, rocks and the occasional fish. Definitely use it if I'm jigging. Trolling I use it a lot to watch the bottom contour, mark baitfish and/or feeding fish.
I predominately use SI but have started using down imaging more last year. I have SI transducers on both the trolling motor and the transom. |
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Posts: 386
| I can honestly say the only time I don't have a bait in the water is if I'm running between spots. If I'm checking out a new area I almost always have a bucktail going behind a planer board, or a shallow crankbait, or a spinnerbait. Time spend looking at your screen and not fishing is time wasted imo. |
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Posts: 1220
| Okay, I’ll cop to mostly using my screen to avoid hitting the bottom of the lake with my prop. That said, however, I did take two all-day classes with Dr. Sonar and can likely now use 20-25% of what my unit can do when I try. I’m thinking the smarter students are really benefiting if they can do more. It’s sort of like “measuring twice and cutting once” in my view. I’m also guessing the guys who spend the extra time on their screen catch more fish even though it may have meant less time actually fishing. |
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Posts: 1937
Location: Black Creek, WI | Interseting question. For me, it all depends on the situation. If I am exploring a new body of water, I'll invest a significant amount of time marking structure (icons) and laying trails to allow for efficient boat control when I return to actually fish a spot. On familiar water, I'll usually just start fishing my historical trails and icons... being observant at all times (traveling and fishing) for baitfish, weed growth, etc. and make adjustments as needed. I think you should always be gathering intel from your electronics and the less famililar you are with an area the better investment your time spent NOT fishing and gathering intel beccomes. |
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Posts: 591
Location: Duluth | Pat Hoolihan - 1/23/2019 9:34 AM
I can honestly say the only time I don't have a bait in the water is if I'm running between spots. If I'm checking out a new area I almost always have a bucktail going behind a planer board, or a shallow crankbait, or a spinnerbait. Time spend looking at your screen and not fishing is time wasted imo.
Going to steal this tactic.....seems like a no brainer now. |
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Posts: 386
| CincySkeez - 1/23/2019 10:27 AM
Pat Hoolihan - 1/23/2019 9:34 AM
I can honestly say the only time I don't have a bait in the water is if I'm running between spots. If I'm checking out a new area I almost always have a bucktail going behind a planer board, or a shallow crankbait, or a spinnerbait. Time spend looking at your screen and not fishing is time wasted imo.
Going to steal this tactic.....seems like a no brainer now.
Have at it! Send me a PM if you have any questions. |
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Posts: 408
Location: MN | Before the season I spend some time scouting, at least on my local lake. During the season, I have a hard time spending time just scanning. If trolling or pulling suckers, I'm already scanning while fishing. If casting, I'm also watching the side scan and any visual clues as I move through spots. Typically, if I'm on the water, it is at a time that I suspect they will be going, and I'd hate to be scanning while a window is open. Occasionally if conditions are poor or a window has clearly passed I'll put the rod down and just do some scouting. On brand new water, if I want to get a feel for how it's laid out I will just troll.
No idea if that is optimal or not. I know a couple people who spend significant time with their sonar checking areas out before fishing, and they do catch fish. Would they catch more if they just fished the whole time? I don't know. |
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Posts: 330
Location: SE Wisc | On a week long trip to new water I will spend between half a day to a full day scouting that first day of the trip. I will fish those last two hours of light and then into the night a few hours(if it’s a summer trip) to try and determine if there’s a Night bite. Then I adjust my fishing and sleep schedule accordingly. Bigger the water=more time on graph early in trip. I believe you’ll learn more that way then just fishing every time you come across a fishy looking spot, and it will pay off by the end of your trip. |
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Posts: 246
| This is some good information and has got me wondering. I have a HDS8 for GPS, HDS5 for depth find on the front of my boat and a HDS7 at the counsel. So first, what do I need to buy for side scan? Second, I have the units networked with the NEMA and ethernet cable, is this all that is needed to see the display on whichever unit I choose?
Steve |
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Posts: 177
| Junkman - 1/23/2019 9:42 AM
I’m also guessing the guys who spend the extra time on their screen catch more fish even though it may have meant less time actually fishing.
This is what I'm worried I'm missing out on, but it's so hard to do without previous success you can directly attribute to the electronics. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | When casting my sounder is turned off but Ive fished the local lake over 35 years.
When trolling I have one eye on the 3 units on the console one full screen chart, one full screen sidescan, and one splitscreen downscan & 2D sonar. Most trolling is on the Larry.
Edited by horsehunter 1/24/2019 3:31 PM
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Posts: 10
| Steve (Musky Junkie)
Your side scan opportunities will depend on your HDS units. If you have HDS Gen 3 units you can buy the LSS-2 Ducer and hook it to a unit that is Gen 3 or higher If they are Gen 2 you will also need to buy the Lowrance 3D Structure scan to read the Transducer, then it will display on a Gen 2.
If you have a HDS Gen 3 unit the technology to read the LSS 2 is built in, and 3-d imaging will share across your network if you have the Yellow Ethernet cables attached to the devices you wish to see sidescan on. The NEMA network works for sharing waypoints and settings, but not Transducer communication, this is handled by the Ethernet cable. If your HDS 7 is a Gen 3 i'd run the LSS-2 to that unit (has a seperate connection than normal ducer). Then once you have the Ethernet cables installed the HDS 8 should see the signal from the HDS 7 and you can choose which Transducer you like to use.
I have a Carbon 7 in the dash, an HDS 12 Gen 3 on top of the console and a HDS 5 Gen 1 upfront. I can see side scan on all the units. Let me know if you have any more questions. I spend WAY too much time on Electronics but enjoy helping others outfit there Vessels.
Edited by drburke182 1/25/2019 12:58 PM
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Posts: 1220
| I’m not swearing to this, but I’m told the SI technology belongs to Hummingbird and Lowrance is licensed to make it, but not the best version of it which Bird retains for its own advantage. I’ve also seen photos where ID of specific species on the newest and best birds is like an unmistakable reproduction of an almost photo-like quality. You should know however that these kind of images depend on an almost perfect speed and settings. Still, when done right, it’s clearly like cheating! |
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Posts: 612
| Use the fish finder to locate the spot. Then fish w/o looking until next move. When using the trolling motor to follow weed edge, neck down's or dropoff's looking at the fish finder quite a bit. How do Y but a % on this couldn't begin to tell you.
It's nice on occasion to go in my buddies boat so I'm not the one checking the fishfinder, controlling the boat, motor.
Edited by NPike 1/26/2019 2:08 PM
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Posts: 246
| Thanks drburke182. I have Gen 2, should have mentioned that first, sorry about that. Thanks for all the information and I will definitely ask if I have more questions. Now to do some shopping.
Steve |
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Posts: 221
| I spend a weekend or two before opener re-mapping weed growth on the two lakes I fish the most. I'll update it as the summer progresses and start over the following spring. Locating that initial weed growth and targeting those areas pays off big time. Other than that, I don't check my graph much unless I'm trolling. |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | Most people don't use their electronics to even half of what they are capable of. Learning your electronics and the lake your fishing is key to success.
I'm looking at my Humminbird all the time while fishing and guiding. Never can you learn enough to just fish a lake unless your out every day. Even then a big wind change or temperature drop with change things up day to day.
I suggest using your electronics and learning the lake as much as you can during the nonprime times. Then concentrate on the best areas during the prime times.
Edited by Mikes Extreme 3/6/2019 3:57 PM
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