I know what brush looks like with fish on it but what I have trouble with is finding crappie near drop off or suspended open water.how do you know its crappie? I wish I had for sonar images to show my examples

Sometimes you have to just catch one to know.

Gman

I am still learning too but that looks like sandbass or catfish. It is tough to see crappie on 2d and know with confidence. If you get a unit with down imaging it is much easier. Finding structure is more important than seeing the fish. Good luck

T agree with Desull. When looking at a 2D sonar image it could be any species of fish.I think 2D is better suited for finding structure while Down & Side scan give a clearer overall view of what the structure is.

Need to have the sensitivity tuned just right. Different fish have different signatures on 2D. Friend of mine who spent a lot of time reading 2D long before all the fancy stuff came out pointed out the differences.
Catfish - arch is thicker on one end than the other with thin end longer in shape and thick end usually with the red area which is the head
Stripers/Hybrids - fairly even arch that is a true arch with drooping ends
White bass - flatter arch with even ends and usually grouped tightly
Crappie - almost flat signature that is short, very little arch

like a little spaceship, a small upside down bowl. Like a WOK shape.

Ok cool I feel better about it now. I been using Google a lot and the info I just got make sense now so now I know what are crappie

I just wish I could get mine dialed in right , first time I have used it and could not make heads or tails out of it , I had everything on auto but all I got was a screen full of lines .

ok so is this crappie? I want to make sure cause what I'm looking at looks like crappie cause of the smaller echoes but I'm not sure I want to test my sonar reading skills and how do I rotate the image I tried rotating it and uploading it but it didn't work

The only way to know what kind of fish that is... is catching them. Once you learn how to associate the two, it will be easier.

Yep. Stacked like they are, I would guess they are crappie. Looks like some sand bass on the outside. Turn your sensitivity down a bit for a better image.

Gman

Looks like a huge stack of Whites to me as they are in open water.... I did not see any structure standing on the bottom.

My guess is white bass; rather tight school.

Here ya go.

Looks like fun to me... drop a spoon on them.