I'm very new to depth finders, I went out with my dad Saturday and we were playing around with his newly installed Humminbird 899 ci hd si unit.

We recorded some routes as we idled around looking at the unit and playing with settings.

For the record, we didn't see any of this stuff while we were on the lake, and I felt pretty silly after looking at the recordings afterwards.

Could someone tell me what it is, in their opinion, that I am looking at in these graphs?

Image1: Here I am seeing two trees with a few fish in them? I guess bait fish off to the left of it?


Image2: this one I'm not really sure. I think tons of bait fish, something on the lake bed and maybe fish suspended off of it to the right? Or could that be a tree next to it?


Image3: I'm thinking fish? But what species? What are they doing there? In the side view image, are the faint white dots shadows of the fish in the water column, or are those other fish?



Any input or opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks!

1. Trees

2. I didn't look that hard at it.

3. Fish chasing baitfish. The foggy patch to the upper left center is the baitfish.

Great shots. I agree with grout-scout on 1 and 3. 2 is a bunch of small bait bunches near a brush pile. On 3, I see hybrid and striper schools periodically. I'd bet it was one of those. If you're moving slow or sitting still, and you see those ropey looking returns, you need to be chunking sassy shad or slabs or flukes (depending on the time of year). They look often like that when feeding.

I wish my bird was that clear !

Thanks for the replies.

I wish my bird was that clear too!

My father debated on doing the transducer upgrade, I'm glad he opted to do so.

But, to be fair, these pictures were taken from the HumViewer program, I would have to play the recordings back on his unit to get a better idea what it actually looked like on his screen, but I do know they're clearer than the 398ci I have mounted on my kayak.

Nothing like looking back over your trip recording and seeing all the fish you missed because you were paying attention to something else.

As for the species of picture 3, the lake we were on was Lake Tyler, so must guess would be sand bass.

Should have fished where those streaks are;)