I rarely run any sonar if I'm fishing 10' or less. I dont do it to save batteries, but because I'm convinced the fish can hear it through their lateral lines and dont care for it. I can't prove it nor do I care to prove it, but it seems when crappie are shallow, my bite rate has increased because I turn the sonars off. and the only reason I even do it is because I fished a guided bass trip on lake Okeechobee with one of Roland Martin's guys about 12 years ago and he would not run a sonar unless he was running the channels at 50mph. he said shallow fish "probably" dont like it, plus, when you're fishing that shallow you dont need a sonar anyway.

but who knows, right? there's been times I would have sworn you could have a polka band playing on a 24' pontoon, and catching fish the whole time. I know in tournaments I never run sonars when fishing shallow. I used to, but I dont anymore.

But was your hydrowave on?