How many of you have been fishing deep brush piles loaded with fish that you can see on your electronics and after a minute or two they scatter? My transducer makes a very load pinging, you can hear it when you turn it on. I think this is spooking the fish. What do yall think? Its a Lowrance 525.

If I can fish with the sonar off, I do.

This is an associated question to yours :

If you switch to GPS mode, and position your boat with an Icon/way point on your spot and hold it there. You wouldn't need the D/F any more, will the sonar puck still omit pings while in GPS mode only ?
If it doesn't, that would create a very stealthy approach, wouldn't it ?

By selecting "Stop Chart" on a Lowrance unit you turn off all power to the transducer.

In order to be "spooked" by the sounds of the sonar the fish would have to associate that with something...above we are assuming fishing pressure.

If that is true then why not assume those same fish will associate the sound of livewell pumps, trolling motors, stereos playing, hatches closing, etc in the same way they associate the sonar?

Do I think fish can "hear or feel" sonar....yes, probably so.

Do I think fish can associate that with something....no, people give them a little more credit than they are due.

Maybe the fish scattered because they got tired of a football jig or dropshot weight consistently bouncing in their face?

I'm fishing a small very pressured lake. The brush piles are deep. They scatter very quick after 1 or 2 cast, I've tried several different approachs, every thing off, no trolling motor letting the wind drift me past my marker bouy. And its not just bass when I go crappie fishing I've noticed this to.

I think fish can associate certain noises with being hooked, caught or disturbed. The reason I feel this way is from Fork fishing for bedding bass I could drive almost on top of them with the TM and bang lids in the boat but when they heard the plop of a lure landing in the water they would scatter or move. Just a little something I noticed but after observing that several different times I definitely feel they associate some sounds to being caught.

i just started turning my sonar off on my HB, i was sitting in my boat garage looking at the maps and heard how loud the tick on the transducer was. can't help you out on lowrance, but for you HB people you can go to the main menu and turn the sonar off and it'll use straight gps

I run with it on and fish with it off.

I personally don't think it matters. I have caught fish in 5 ft of water directly under the boat with the sonar on. I would think the sound of water slaping the boat would spook them before a tick from a transducer would. Maybe the fish were chasing bait and moved with the baitfish? Just my 2 cents.

If this where a problem, would the biosonics work?

I know that the internal transducer on the Fortrex is way to loud and often turn it off when fishing shallow.

Many Lake Fork guides beleive in turniing their electronic off, especially when fishing shallow water in the spring.

Keep them on, run your tm oh high, slam the lids and jump around your boat like I see most people doing. That just leaves more fish for me.

I will mark fish on the sonar, drop marker buoys, swing around drop the trolling motor, work my way quietly up wind, take time to drift in to position, and then some jerk will come barreling in at full throttle to within 10 feet of My boat slam the trolling motor down make four cast and tear back out again, so just Fish.

my old Daddy told me to be very quite when fishing ,fish would spook
also told me that you had to hide the hook in a night crawler
so the fish couldnt see it ...

now either he was telling the truth , or ,just maybe

He wanted my little mouth to shut up , and never wanted me to "wacky rig a bait ..
go figgure ....???

Good subject. I guess I'm getting so deaf.........didnt know Transducers made noise.......lol.

Its funny, Offshore boats that make a certain engine noise catch more fish than others.

I am of the opinion its the start of stop of a trolling motor, I have never turned of electronics, I don't have a clue. I found out in clear water on Amistad, if you cast a lure to one fish he will haul but..t. If you cast to two fish, you might catch one. You cast in to 5 or 6 and they will have a foot race if they are biting to get to it.

I think lure noise, shadows and boat movement scare more fish than Transducers, but thats just my simple minded humble opinion.

My last Lowrance (LCX27 that died within 7 months of purchase and they would not warranty it) made an awful, loud, clicking noise while fishing. I could hear it on the front of the boat and it was mounted in the hull at the transom.

Haven't heard the 1197 make that loud clicking noise, but nothing could be as loud as the blowrance.

cull 1, If the bass scattered as soon as you pulled up to a spot I would say they spooked due to any factor like outboard motor, trolling motor, boat, transducer....the largest factor of which would be the presence of a 20' Bassboat directly overhead. You state the fish scatter AFTER a couple of casts. Maybe thats why its important to make those first casts count because more baits dragged through their home scares them. A study should be done on this. Bet Lowarance or Hummingbird wont do the study! I dont want to think this is a problem because its one more thing I will have to worry about! 361V

I,ve had it happen a few times on other lakes but this little lake seems to have very spooky fish and the water is stained at best. I know when fish are in a feeding frenzy there is hardly anthing that will spook them. Me and my wife were fishing the 2 of us couples championship and my cranking battery took a dump so I left my big motor running after I jump it off and my wife caught a 5lber and i caught one almost 5lbs within 10 feet of the boat in less than 3ft of water.Its just this one lake that it seems to really be a factor. and its not just one brushpile,I have over 50 way points of deep brushpiles on this lake(2 FULL DAYS OF JUST IDLEING BACK AND FORTH STARING AT MY ELECTRONICS) and they are all spooky!!!!

Its really a challange trying to figure out how to catch these fish consistently. The only thing I haven't really tryed is Basstex's advice, watching a weightless senko or wacky rig sink in 25ft of water is almost as bad as watching ice melt on a cold day. The next calm day I'm out there I'll have to try these techniques and see what happens. I know this works very well on lakes with deep grass but havn't tryed it on this lake very much. My uncle lives by Sam Rayburn and he fishes a weightless senco 75% of the time with good results. His best fish to date is over 13lbs out of 20ft of water.

Weightless worm in 20' of water. Your uncle is much more patient then me!

He has alot, but he catches big fish. Him and my dad are two of the best worm fishermen I know. His fishing partner Sam caught an 11lber the other day. I just can't seem to slow down that much. I still catch alot of fish but I like moving baits better. I wish my wife was here I'd get her to post the pic of that 13lber for yall. Duh me to stupid!

If you look up my posts formt he past few weeks you will find one where I did a rod recovery on ray bob, there are pics of me diving and in one of them you can see me on the graph. I have heard this in several boats on the surface. It was not until I was under the boat 18' down and I could hear it clear as a bell and even seemed to feel the ticking on my face. I said something about this exact in that thread, and before on this subject. When my graph broke I seemed to catch more fish overall. I am not sure if it was form leaning on the graph too much or if we just went back to basics with nothing to see underwater. Work the points and the fish will be there.

I have seen this happen many times. I'm on the trolling motor, maybe catching fish, but let that trolling motor blade hit a stickup and you're likely to see a fish blow out!

Don't let the fish go.........put them in your livewell if you can. The fish are going back down there and spooking the other fish, not the sonar