Post them with any info you'd like to add to help the Wannabes like me. More 2D and Down Imaging than Side Scan please....Show me Big Cats stacked up.......Busting up Bait....

Ill be watchin this post as well, great idea poppa!

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pelican, those fish are pretty small. The thickness of the arch gives them away. the ones on the left side of your screenshot are the biggest and the furthest to the left is the biggest one and I'd say 12 to 13 lbs. jmho of course but I've had pretty good success at telling how big fish are by seeing them on the screen. The way I do it is picture how many of that particular fish will fit between those hash marks ... in your's you have a 7 ft mark then a 14 so I copied the image just to make sure I was right I copied the thickness of the biggest fish and I got 7 of them to fit between the 14 and 7 ft hash marks which was what I guestimated it at ... 6.5 to 7 and that means that arch is showing up as 1 ft thick and depending on your settings like if the sensitivity is set about 60% and those being catfish then that's about the return you'd get on a 12 lb'r .. a 35 to 40 lb fish will be about twice that thick. Now if you have your sensitivity set to max then that might be about 7 or 8 lbs so it's all relative to what you have your fish finder set at and the best way to make certain of how big a fish is on your screen is by dropping a fish down with a heavy weight on the end of your line and the fish tied just above the weight ... drop it down so that the transducer picks it up on your screen and then see how thick it is on your screen ... when you do this it'll be a continuous long line on your screen ... not an arch because you're not going past it ... ifit just stays in the path of the transducer it just creates a long line on the screen ... you'll see the weight below it also so that's the best way to learn your fish finder is to drop them down there and see how thick the line is created by the fish ... then when you go over one of similar size it'll be the same thickness on the arch as the one you dropped down there. Do this with several different sizes of fish ... like if you catch a 35 or 40 lb fish drop it down and see what it looks like ... you'd also have to take into account what depth your fish finder is auto adjusted to ... like on your screenshot above you've got it auto adjusted to 28 ft and what that means is you're putting 28 ft of information on your screen at that point ... so if you move out into deeper water and it auto adjusts to 56 ft then what you were looking at when it was on 28 compared to autoadjusted to 56 then the arch will be half the size it was when you were in 28 ft of water so like if you've went into deep water and your screen goes to like 80 ft then any arch that appears to be about 1/4 inch thick on the screen will be a hawg .... maybe around 50 lbs or bigger so also if you've gotten into shallow water like your screen is adjusted to 14 ft and you see the same size arch then it's liable to be just a few lbs but if you can tell it's a foot thick in 14ft it'll appear really big on the screen but you can guestimate it by looking at the hash marks and figure up in your head how many of those arches will fit between the numbers listed on the right side so if you see 4 and 8 on the side and 4 of those arches will fit between the 4 and 8 then it's about a foot thick just like when 7 of them fit between 7 and 14. this might seem remedial as you're reading it but it's sometimes hard for folks to think like this when looking at a fish finder so that's why I"m taking the time to type/explain this. It's also the same on side imaging ... you've got it set on 37 ft on both sides and most of the fish showing up on there are about the size of large shad. also those shadows give you information as well. when you see those shadows a long ways from the fish that are making the shadows then those fish are suspended quite a ways from bottom. like if the fish is half way between the shadow and where your side imaging is making contact with bottom then that fish is suspended right at half way down. if you can make out which one is creating the shadow and it's about half way between the shadow and the bottom then that fish is about 7 ft from the surface if it's 14 ft deep there. This information is very handy as sometimes all the catfish will be suspended quite a ways from bottom and it's necessary for you to get your bait up close to even with them because fishing on bottom won't produce in a situation like that if none of the fish are on bottom .. I ran into that for over a month this last late summer/early fall.

After going back and looking at that side imaging ... you probably coulda thrown a net there and caught plenty of big shad cause that's what those look like ... there's a few fish there but mostly big shad.

Hope this all isn't too convoluted so that you don't have a problem understanding what I was saying.

Tiny beat me to it. I was going to say that those were big gizzards on the hump and probably catfish on the left. Everything else he said was completely his original idea.

Thanks for posting Pelican and for info Tiny

Keep them coming

Great information! Thanks for posting the writeup!

great info there.

Does the different colors in the arch indicate anything? Looking to buy my first boat and trying to figure it all out too.

Tiny, Thank you for taking the time and effort to share your thoughts, very informative.
I'll need to read this a time or two and do some ciphering to understand all of it.
Hopefully someone will post some good sonar shots.

I love posts like this. Always very informative. Amazes me how good guys like
Tiny are at reading a sonar. My biggest problem is I have yet to get my unit dialed in to the point of getting a nice clear reading like some of the pics posted on here.

Subscribed.

Lets see them. Big Cats Stacked or Scattered.......

I'll try and take a few 2moro...providing I find a few.

I couldn't make out too much about what was on the left side as it looks like he was turning left right before taking the screenshot making those on the left side appear to be very long and that's not the case ... means the ones on the left were staying in the path of the transducer longer due to the left hand turn and the ones on the right were little blips because of the same left turn.

As promised...here is a screenshot from today. Stacked thick! Had 6 on around 25lbs at one time. Ice all over the floor of the boat...good crazy times!

This topic used to be sticky at the top of forum. The crappie section still has it. I have missed it on the striper and catfish sections. Good and very helpful

Is that a Herd of High Teens thru 20's or is there some Big Boys mixed in there? How is your "Bird adjusted in that screen shot? Sensitivity 12 or 14 or? Surface clutter 4-5-6 ?

We popped a 46 out of there and several teens and 20's. Clutter at 2....switch fire max mode...sensitivity @ 9.

Do you always run Max mode or more for deeper water? Do you adjust much for 20' of water? I'm learning my Sonar a lil with every trip.


What was holding those fish there? That little Bowl?

Great shot salsa.looks like there stacked up nice there

20" or 20' ?

I always run switchfire. I hardly run sonar tho...I'm sidescan 90% of tha time.

Those mainly blues or is there shad mixed in with them

Looks like a few shad down low...but fish still in them. These were blue cats...and quite a few of them.

I have 200 MHz 2D Sonar (no 83) and Down Scan - No side Scan. HumminBird 859 HD Di

Man Tiny.... they are correct a picture is a thousand words. Thanks so much for input on a random post. I learn soooo much from interpretation from you and Salsa. Mr Salsa still waiting on sonar ver. 2 LOL...

be nice to see a screenshot of side image on that area as it looks like a creek channel if the boat didn't turn any ... I'd have my scroll speed set faster than that though so it'd spread the fish out a little so I could possibly spot some larger fish in that but it looks like a great discovery though ... don't let anyone see you fishing that spot too much else you'll have a lot of company hahaha.

What fish finder would you recommend for a budget of $500 or less? What features are the must haves for a finder?

7" screen and Downscan was a must for me. Mine runs $699 but I found it online for $610 shipped. they have a model without Down Imaging for 499 or 549

What brand is the best? Thanks for info!

That's like a Ford Chevy Argument. I like Humminbird but many like Lowrance

https://www.thedigitaloasis.com/mobile/H...CFebtMgodtnsA6g

https://www.thedigitaloasis.com/mobile/H...er_p_29058.html

Side Scan is a must have for me, even if you had to buy a used unit.
HB and Lowrance are both great units, IMO HB is more user friendly for someone starting out.

Tiny, TxMedic, one thing to consider when using Sonar to determine fish size with a HB unit.
There is a difference in the way fish are displayed in Clear mode vs Max mode due to TVG (Time Variable Gain)
In clear mode which is normally used in 12 FOW and less or turbid water, but can also be used in deeper water if Sensitivity is dialed up, to show only hard returns, fish returns of a 5 lb fish will look the same at 5' as they do at 20' whereas in Max mode the return size of that same 5 lb fish will diminish as depth increases.
Your thoughts please.

pelican, I addressed that particular deal when I stated that a person should drop fish down of different sizes to see what they look like. The fish will look smaller on the screen as you put more information on screen ... like 20 ft vs 60 ft ... when you're putting more information on the screen via auto adjustment you have to take that into account as the same size fish will be a lot smaller but you can tell still yet by looking at the hash marks on the side and figuring up how many of those fish will fit between those hash marks and then do a little algebra in your head so if you got a mark of 5 ft then 10 ft and in 5 ft increments on the screen which it's better to have one ft increments so that you can tell how big the arches are for certain then that would be a whole lot better .. so say two fish arches will fit between one ft or 10 between 5 ft then that fish is the same size no matter how deep or near the same size and you gotta learn how thick each sized fish is and the only way to do that is to drop them down with a weight and see for certain. it takes a little work on your part but you'll be a lot better at reading a fish finder for it.

Let's see some more - I was hoping to have a screen shot or 2 to post from GVine yesterday but nooooo

bigpoppa .. I'd strongly suggest that you hold onto your money and save a little more to get side imaging because side imaging is a must for catfishermen .. especially since most of the year catfish are shallow and those fish finders you're looking at are virtually useless in shallow water except for the gps ... the sonar won't do squat for you in the shallows. Or even in 10 ft depths they dont help much at all because they only cover about 6 ft of the bottom when you're in 10 ft deep water where the humminbird side image covers a full 180 degrees which is what you actually need about 3/4 of the year. I say this because the majority of the fish feed in the shallows and that's what they're up there to do. When you find fish in 2 ft of water they're always feeding .. even under adverse conditions ... like when you get a strong northern come through in the spring and the following day the wind shifts out of the east ... you can still catch fish and lots of them if you go shallow. Even the lowrance side imaging is limited in this shallow of water because they won't give you the full 180. They will if you have your transducer cocked a little bit but no one is going to want to have their transducer mounted sideways a little because that'll throw everything off. that's where the humminbird side imaging has it's main advantage over the lowrance units because they've only got about 160 degrees coverage according to their info they have posted and I've went out with one and set it to a static 40 ft on both sides but it didn't work well in 2 ft of water because it won't reach out across the surface like the humminbird does. Anyhow, I hope you can get the side imaging because you won't be happy or as happy since you'll be very limited on where you can use the 2d and down imaging units because down imaging isn't much better than 2d but can show you the difference between shad schools and schrubs or underwater trees.

Tiny I just want to say thanks for being a great teacher . Over the years I have paid attention to your articles on reading sonar for size and species drop um down and look at image colors in arch , size , etc . I stopped using newbie fish symbols about 10-11 years ago a forced myself to interpret raw sonar , best thing since fresh bread . After enough years I can now tell species and size and seldom get fooled for that I say thanks . During those years I did it with Lowrance color units but because of their non existent repair policy we are all going with Hummingbird units and have our first side scan going on one of our boats this spring . I enjoy these type of posts because it helps speed up the learning process . By the way good to see you back posting

+1 on the Humminbird side imaging!

Not to get off tract from side imaging but I had a question about di. I have a lowrance elite 5dsi and was doing some youtube search and found where someone was saying keep the sensitivity around 90%... I thought that was to high but what do yall think. I am running it a lot lower than that. And a sidenote I am to saving up and going to purchase a SI. I am going to sell my 18' falcon here soon to purchase one. lol

Thanks for any input

Here is a good example of how side imaging marks larger blue catfish. Twinkie bigguns in tha right and biggun on left. Looked 25 minutes for these fish cross cutting the River channel...5 minutes in doubled on these 2:

might I comment on this and give an opinion but this is exactly what I look for when looking for active fish ... there are lots more fish there than than the big ones and plenty of busted up shad with lots more fish in the channel and outside the channel harassing the shad. You can see that the shad are in somewhat of a disarray but trying to hold it together as there's not just hundreds of fish in the area but lots of active fish. it's hard for me to give an accurate prediction of how big the fish are on salsa's latest screenshot as he has his set 35 ft further out than I keep mine but you can see several big fish .. a couple on the start and stop or original fish locating which is the bottom side and then when he starts it up again when moving to a different spot or moving to look for more fish. you can see that the fish are all scattered out which seems to mean up here in my area that the fish are feeding ... lots of times when they're tightened up or compacted they're not as active like could have been the case in salsa's previous screenshot of the 2D view. Now this side imaging view gets me torqued up as I get all excited when I see something like this up here in okie land. I never see anything quite this good though as no one understands cpr or if you try to promote it they look at you like you've lost your mind. So, I get all weirdified when I see a screenshot like that as there's active fish all over that screen ... lots of busted up shad ... Ain't even fair ya'll got that kind of fishing down in Tejas. I said that when I went to those tournaments ya'll had on tawakoni and ray hubbard back in the summer of 07 .... I couldn't believe how many fish was in ya'lls lakes and that screenshot just makes me wanna move to texas. hahaha ... that and the tater juice and percacet I've been chewin on just now after tweekin my back outside while ago. I think a lot of you know what tater juice is but those that don't it's vodka ... the 100 pf. But, what got me riled up with Salsa's screenshot ... looks like they left the biggest fish there cause when the screen started again that one on the left side looks to be a little bigger than the others when the screen stopped. now it coulda been moving to make it look bigger but you can see the one on the very top left of the screen and the shadow it produced ... that looks like some of these big ole spoonbill we got in keystone. Or around that big. Anyhow ... nice screenshot Salsa ... you da man. Everyone notice the busted up shad and the scattered fish other than the big blips on the screen ... you can see lots of nice sized scattered fish around the log and all throughout the channel and on the upper bank of the channel as well... This is what you look for when you're fishing

Thanks for the tips Salsa and tiny, very helpful!

This is a great thread! So much information and knowledge. Thanks!

Somebody is gonna have to circle the fish on that sidescan for me and any other Dummies........

I could do it with photoshop and point out the fish with arrows but since this is Salsa's property he may want to do it himself. It's easy to see them though .. those little white returns on the screen are the fish and the tiny ones bunched up together and all ragged looking are shad. you can see a big log right near the channel bank on the left side. Lots of average sized fish are using that log as something to relate to but most of the fish are all scattered out amidst the shad feeding on them. they're down in the channel and lots up on the left side outside the channel too. you can also see the shadows the fish create on the screen too. the closer the shadow to the fish then the closer that fish is to bottom. The dark area in the center is where the side imaging transducer pucks is going down parallel to each other to make contact with bottom. It gives the appearance that it's a cone shape but it's not because if you seen half a tire on the right side you'd see the other half on the left side just to the outside of the dark. The dark area is what I use to throw for shad too. I throw for shad on the left side of my boat so I want to see the shad on the left side in the dark where it meets the bottom too you can see the shad schools in the dark on Salsa's screen here and other schools out away from the dark area too .. those clusters of little blips in the dark area on the right and left of center are shad.... the larger blips are fish and it looks like there's scaley fish mixed in there with the catfish too as they give a brighter blips but it looks like salsa's settings are a little different than mine or he's got a newer unit than I have .. mine is the first one out and it doesn't have as good of a resolution as salsa's and it looks like the closer the fish is to his transducer the brighter the blips are but as it reaches out further it looks more like mine where the catfish are duller looking than the scaley fish. On mine the catfish look like that biggest blip on the upper left side of salsas screenshot and the scaley fish look like those thin bright blips. ;you can see the tree stump by the river bank on the left side as it's that blip right to the left of that dark shadow that's going straight away from the transducer ... you can't see the tree stump very good but you can see it's shadow real good and it looks like that's it's top laying down just down from it a few feet.

Salsa what model of finder you have for that image?

BigPoppa if you can view that screen shot on a iPad or some device so you can enlarge the photo and pan around it makes it very easy to see most of the fish and their shadow. You can also see the Shad and other details in this shot.
It's a great tool to do screenshots on the water and bring them home to enlarge and study in front of the fire with an adult beverage.

If you do this type of fishing enough you can't help but spend a bit on the toys that go with it.

Great info!

ain't that the truth!

Here is a good example of deep water winter time Sandbass / hybrids...

Scaley fish mark much brighter white...good to know. Nothing worse than anchoring up on the wrong fish, lol

That's it I'm selling the falcon for some toy money!!!!

Salsa, would you mind if I edited your screenshot to point out lots of the stuff on it? Or at least my interpretation of what it'd look like if I were looking at my screen ... there's not much difference in mine and your's but your resolution is better but you've got it set out 35 ft more than I do so that makes it off for me some. I think I might be able to help a lot of folks with the learning curve doing that with photoshop and explaining in more detail ... if you don't want me to divulge info using your photo then I completely understand. This could be objective to some folks as a deal about adding to the competition but I don't see that being a big problem as most of these texicans seem to be conservation minded and won't abuse the information shared. Or at least I hope they wouldn't slaughter big fish just because they've acquired the knowledge to do so

Salsa, you can see what looks like catfish in those schools of sandbass/hybrids also if they're close to bottom as you go by because when they take off abruptly they'll stir up the mud from the bottom leaving a see thru type mark that looks a lot like a catfish... if you look closely though at these mud marks you'll see that they don't leave a shadow. they'll also look different if they're moving when the transducer picks them up but a scaley fish that's not moving at all and facing the same direction your boat is going will leave a nice little dandy bright white blip. That's what I was noticing also about your fish finder as youj've got it set in a way or it just does this and what looks like big catfish close to your boat are pretty daggum bright unless those are giant largemouth buffalo or some other great big fat scaley fish but their shape looks like catfish so that's what I'd say they were ... my unit woulda shown them as a lot duller but I've got mine set to show the catfish duller ... even the close-up ones. only time the catfish look brite like a scaley fish on mine is after I fillet them and then they look a lot like scaley fish but that's because the unit is picking up the bone a lot better.

Another deal that lots of folks don't know about side imaging is that when you set them out to say 100 ft they're not showing you perzactically 100 ft of the bottom on both sides ... you have to subtract the depth from that and that tells you how much of the bottom you're actually seeing. For instance .. set out to 100 ft and you're in 34 ft of water so all you're seeing is 66 ft of the bottom on both sides. The reason I say that is because if you're in 41 ft of water and you've got your unit set out to 40 ft you won't see any of the bottom at all ... if you changed it to 45 ft reach then you'd see 4 ft of the bottom on both sides so this allows you to get a better idea of how far things are away from you when you're using side imaging. That's a little bit important

wow ... I just opened that latest screenshot in my photoshop editor to get a better look at it and there at the bottom that looks like the bank of a channel or something that's nothing but catfish piled up there so thick that it's hard to make out individual fish ... I've seen that up here right after a thaw and I threw my net and pulled up over 200 lbs of catfish between 18 and 3 lbs ... average was about 7 or 8 lbs. I think Salsa should go back to that area and look for that same type reading and throw hit thrownet hahaha ... if you've got a taped net you could catch a truckload of fish but it'd ruin your net most likely. You could use my other fish identification method too if it's not illegal to do it and that's tying on a treble hook with a sinker on bottom and jigging/snagging some. Snagging is legal in OK and I'd use it way back when to identify fish that I was seeing on my old Garmin monochrome fish finder. Worked really good too... just sharpen that treble hook up so sharp that it won't slide across your thumbnail and fish identification is super easy and fun too. hahaha

Have at it tiny!

Great info guys! We need a sticky thread at the top just like the crappie guys.

Okay. Here goes. on the top photo i've just got random fish marked with arrows.


on this photo it's pretty self explanatory with everything labeled and pointed out with arrows. The shad pointed out in the dark area with arrows parallel to each other is the same school of shad that's showing up on both sides .. you can see that they're similar in shape too and that's because both tranny pucks are going straight down parallel to one another to make contact with bottom. The bigguns I've got marked is just what I'm guessing to be over 20 lbs and a few as big as 60 ... there's lots of nice fish on the right side of the side image also just to the left of the end of the photo all scattered out ... maybe the best one is right on the opposite bank near the outer edge on the right side .. I don't have it marked but it's pretty clearly visible. Lots of those bigguns I've got marked in the top photo on the lower right side of the screen. On Salsa's screen the further away from the boat the duller the images get on the catfish ... that's what all of them look like on my screen. Hard for me to guestimate with any accuracy as to how big each individual biggun is but I'd guess around 30 lb average on the ones over 20 lbs ... marked and unmarked

Very Nice tiny!

Wow thanks tiny!

Wow thanks Tiny.. I think i have read just about every thread that yourself and salsa have posted with info to help us catfish hackers out. Keep up the good work.
Thanks again

If you zoom up you can tell from shadow that is a big blue, and you can see the shadow of his tale and make out that humped back...the one on the left side about middle

Just to compare, most of the fish in this shot are smallmouth Buffalo in the 8-30 lb class, there are a few small C cats mixed in.



And this shot most of these fish were a mix of C cats and Blues in the 2-7 lb class. Towards the top of the screen you can see where my speed fell off or I started a turn and the image gets a little distorted.

How do you tell the difference between fish? That is amazing!

The Buffs have a brighter return due to having hard scales and the are more rounded than whisker fish.
At first I wasn't sure what they were but they stayed in the same area for about 2 months and I caught a bunch of them. Now I think I know them when I see em.

In the second shot the only reason I'm sure is because I caught a bunch of these also. But the soft skin fish are just not as bright of a return.

Tiny and Salsa have a good handle on the different fish, I'm still learning and sharing.

Hey Tiny,Salsa do ya'll use the down scan in deeper water? I find myself using that quite a bit more than the sonar, just wondering about identifying catfish in the deep water with the down scan

Personally, I hardly ever use down imaging for catfish.

only time I switch to downscan is if I'm fixin to throw my net on shad. I use downscan only to make sure there's no trees in the area or limbs large enough to snag my net. I never use downscan for fish id or location as it's not that helpful. That's why I steer folks away from the downscan only units .. they are a tad bit more helpful than regular 2d but not much.

What speed is the best for si

each boat will vary a little due to where your transducer is mounted and how you have it synced but for me I have the clearest pictures from 3 to 10 mph

This is a great thread. Thanks all for sharing the helpful information.

I don't have side imaging and won't be able to afford it for a while so anymore 2D and down image screenshots post them up

In my opinion...2d is way more useful than down imaging for the trophy blue cat fisherman vs. Down scan. Color returns give details that down scan doesn't.

With that said, I rarely use either...I'm a side-imaging guy when it comes to big blues,

I like the down imaging for looking at structurs under the boat, but like Salsa says the 2D will better help you identify fish that may be stacked up.

This is a pic of a tree that is sticking out of the water about 6" in the middle of the lake. I pulled up and took this pic. My sensitivity level is set around 40%

Did you ever make a sidescan video to follow up from your 2d sonar video? That would be awesome.

seems that Salsa and I do things a lot similar as I feel 2D is the same fore me vs down image because it's not true down imaging ... all down imaging is, is the 3D software taking a side imaging view and turning it on it's X Y axis so that you get a different view of what you're looking at. depending on the DI and you finding out which side of the boat your down imaging is working off of and how far out it reaches ... a person could use it to pinpoint fish... this is how ...stake out a fish with line weight and jug and then go by it on both sides of your boat. See it in the bottom area below the dark and then that's the side your DI uses. I've pointed this out in multiple articles and on learning trips to show folks how to use DI to pinpoint fish and shad using DI. You must first see which side it's using as stated already and then try to figure out how much of the bottom is visible. when you see fish below the dark or what ya'll consider the DI then that is the same as SI ... you're just looking at it differently. Still yet ... a man that catfishes should hang onto moneys designated for sonar and hold out for the SI as DI is a very handicapped version of SI ... it's cool to look at structure through it or like I do .. use it to spot trees in an area I'm about to try to catch shad in ... it's saved me a lot in nets as I don't buy the cheap ones... when I spot a tree on my DI I move on and locate some shad in a clear area.

Last time I'm saying it ... DI es no bueno para pescador de pez gatos.... SI es Nececito ... Bah Gawd! hahaha. like if you got $600 to spend on a DI then you could wait and add more to it to get what you actually need which is SI

to me DI is marketing gimick to sell more units ... it looks cool but is of little use but it sells more units as these guys have Marketting experts that come up with more ways to get the good but lesser money from folks when they know they'll eventually move on up later on to the more expensive units at they've tricked you into buying the lesser via marketing gimicks and then when you find out that it doesn't help you find fish then you'll eventually move on up ... to the east side ... we've finally got a piece of the pie.

I want some of this:

Thanks Tiny... i was unaware that the di received its info from one side or the other of the si. This makes sense to me now since I have noticed while driving by bridge pilings with my di that they always show up when passing them on the right side only. That must be the side the di gets its info from. I guess I'm just going to have to learn to read the S I better. But like you said it sure helps locating stick ups while throwing for bait. Thanks again

Tiny... You dish out some of the best information I've ever seen on here. I don't know if I have told you this already or not but you are definately a true " PRODIGY " of fishing. I am very Thankful that I have been on this Forum while you are around and readily dishing out the free information to the degree that you give it... You've taught me much for nothing along with a few others. Thanks for going that extra mile!

Gosh Dang Man.... I'm tearing up. Somebody please... hand me some tissues. Lol!

Here you go!



Don't have a ton of screenshots handy right now but will dig up some later.

Here's a great shot that shows the capability of the Onix. This is before I really got it dialed in and moved my transducer.

I'm like Tiny and Salsa, don't use DI a lot but it's a tool that has a time and place. Never buy a DI only unit and I've got some pretty strong opinions on even investing in DI in combination with 2D.

This isn't a great screenshot, it's a little blown out because of what I was doing but sometimes DI can give you some clues that 2D won't but still not nearly as powerful as side imaging.

you're very welcome Rick.

I have learned more from Tiny this past few weeks then from every one combined besides Freem Clark Tiny know is stuff and had put up with my horribly written messages and has explained every thing till I under stood it. it all paid off today i am not great at reading my SI but from his post and help i am getting much much better at it. Thanks Tiny for every thing

Impressive!!!

This is not a fish screen shot but you sure can see the net landing
On a herd of shad.

most welcome Lewis

Honestly I think this is best use of down scan...to tell trees andnshrubs from bait. I don't even have one but have seen enough photos to form that opinion.

nice! That onix is mean! Might have to grab one!

chasing bait.

WEather finally broke this last few days and the lake thawed out yesterday but the fish were dormant ... found a school of cats about 200 yds long and about 100 ft wide and about 10 ft thick.. some scaley fish mixed in with them hovering over the catfish but mostly catfish in this bunch ... only managed to catch two fish out of this bunch too as the water temp had them very dormant at around 32 degrees. This is the biggest group of fish I've ever seen by far... I threw a net on some fish not even half this thick last year and pulled up over 200 lbs of fish from about 18 lbs on down to 3. I rigged up a snagging rig and snagged one missing several others out of this group just to prove that they were catfish but wasn't necessary because we caught a couple of them only minutes later.

WOW, Never seen anything like that.

What a mess of fish!

Question... I've got a Lowrance HDS, how do I get my sonar logs on my SD card onto the computer? Also how do you do the screen shots?

Thanks!

you probably have to turn those features on in your settings ... an emulator might help you a bunch ... just go to Lowrance.com and download the appropriate emulator and figure it out with that .. the emulator is a program that you can use to help you learn how to use your fish finder settings and all that stuff. I think that's what it is anyhow.

to take your logs and stuff off your SD card you pull it out of your unit and plug the SD card into your SD card reader on your computer ... if you don't have one you can go to radio shack and buy one for a little of nothing to plug into your USB slot. most all computers built in the last 5 years have SD card reader/writer slots though.

There are a couple different ways depending on what generation unit you have. For Gen 1 go to settings and enable screen shots then hit the power button to take them. Then go to your settings and copy the files to your SD card.

For Gen 2 & 3 ask google.

Thank you!

I understand how to get the sonar log onto the SD card, the question was geared toward how to get it onto my computer.

I told you how ... put the sd card in your sd card reader/writer in your computer and copy it over to your Hard Drive ... if you don't have an SD/MMc reader/writer you have to purchase one from somewhere like Radio Shack or Wal=Mart might have them

Tiny, you need to come down and fish with me one Thursday in February!

wish I could but I found out when I went to those tournaments down there that I don't travel very well any more due to my health. Last week I had 3 guys that wanted me to come to texoma and do a learning trip with them on their boat and they thought my fee was way too high and I thought it a bargain at $400 due to about $100 or more of that would be expenses and those dudes that guide on texoma charge like $550 and usually end up just being a 2 hour trip where their clients don't caqtch but 3 to 4 lbs fish and they learn nothing for their money. I'd have to drive a minimum of 150 miles down and 150 miles back if I just had to go to Kingston ... a lot further if I had to drive around to the texas side where I would teach them how to read their fish finders as that's what all three of them wanted and most like been able to put them on 3 to 4 good wintering holes where it might be possible for them to land a fish of their dreams ... lots of 90 lb'rs in there I'd bet. Plus fish location techniques I don't publish along with lots of other info that allows me to catch quite a lot of fish every time I go out but I guess this should be given away free and my 14 hours isn't worth anything hahaha. I'd rather them not contact me about this stuff if they expect me to do it for the same fee I charge for helping folks on the web. I got sidetracked but those deals would be pretty hard to do as I'd most likely have to take all my equipment with me as I don't fish unless I've got live bait to cut so I'd have to cut the wires on my bait tank and prime it then take my net and a couple of three rods with my tackle box and terminal gear then wire my bait tank so it'd work off a cig lighter plug or take the wire connections to wire it up to their fuse box and then turn around and have to bring all that stuff back home and then wire it back up ... you know what ... I think my fee will be $500 instead ... I know that's not what you were talking about but I was just explaining why I couldn't take you up on the invite as my health wont' allow it. I could do it but I don't even like reeling fish in any more ... only reason I do my guiding is to stay a little bit healthier and I got addicted to visiting with folks and joking around. I could do without the fishing any more as I've done plenty of it. I couldn't live without it though because if I quit fishing my heart would give out pretty fast ... just his little over a month lay off due to cold weather had my heart palpitating where I had to double up on my heart meds and I got out of shape pretty badly ... went out saturday and my heart quit doing it and went out again yesterday and I feel fine now. the fishing is about the only activity I've got that helps take my mind off my back pain and leg pain so it's a necessary evil hahaha. Anyhow ... to them other folks what expect me to give them a lifetime of information wanting me to drive down to texoma I've just now actually thought about what it'd take for me to do it and my fee is $500 ... not $400 ...just letting them know that I won't give away a lifetime of knowledge that costed me a lot more as I had to learn it on my own ... if you think I'll come down and give that away for free then don't call me as it's a little bit insulting. Now tom that had nothing to do with your invite and I appreciate it but it got me to thinkin about those three guys what contacted me last week and then bawked when I said $400 ... I guess they didn't expect to have to actually pay for my services or thought since we'd be taking their boat that it wouldn't involve a lot on my part but it would be pretty involving.

Tiny,

"and those dudes that guide on texoma charge like $550 and usually end up just being a 2 hour trip where their clients don't caqtch but 3 to 4 lbs fish and they learn nothing for their money."

Can you tell us which "dudes"? That was a pretty open ended shot at guys who guide on Texoma and not your normal attitude on this forum. The guys I know who guide for trophy catfish bust their butt and spend 7 to 9 hours trying to put you on that trophy fish and will answer any question a client has and try to explain everything they are looking at or trying to find! The only reason I even responded is I do not want people that read this to think all the guides on Texoma are that way! Tiny, you have a great deal of knowledge and most people really appreciate when you share it!

Tiny I'd like you to call out. Or let us know who these "Those dudes on Texoma" are that your speaking of, just to clarify .
Because I guide on Texoma, have for 16 years. My catfish trips all are eight hours. My customers have boated 90 pounders. As a matter of fact I have a customer that boated a 92 pound blue on rod and reel while on one of my eight hour trips.
And have never sent my clients home only catching 3-4lb. Fish. And if so they'll get a redo trip on my dime.

So I guess my point is I along with several other seasoned Texoma catfish guides is that we'd appreciate not being lumped in to a broad statement like that. Our business can be challenging enough as it is. Thanks.

I never even saw your reply... I was responding to Txmedic. I have the SD card sot but the file wont open its like some sort of space language on my computer.

wouldn't know for sure ... this is just some of the stories I hear all the time from folks that have taken guided striper trips down there where those striper guides would even catch folks limits for them ... the fee was different but most said they were charged $500 to $550 for a 1.5 hour to 2 hour striper trip where they only caught two to 4 lb fish... once their limit was reached they dropped them off and picked up another group of people. Had nothing to do with catfish guides as I've not heard anything about catfish guides down there except for one that was mean to the folks. So relax fellers ... I was just making a comment about the horror stories I hear about striper guides down there. Never heard of any catfish guides that'd take people out for a couple hours and then get rid of them. I'd think since I've heard so many of these stories that everyone would have known who or what guides I was talking about. I'm sure you guys have heard the same stories about the striper guides down there ... multiple guides operating together or under one banner/bait shop/outfit. Now that I think about it maybe you haven't heard how the striper guides down there do their clients as maybe the ones that go out with those striper guides may not want anything else to do with texoma so they may not seek out catfish guides on texoma thinking they might be the same way or similar... dont' know if that's the case but it makes you wonder if that might be a problem when a group of guides on a lake give the lake a bad name as far as guided trips are concerned..If ya'll ain't heard those stories about the texoma striper guides then I'd bet that's why is because they're probably helping ruin your business or putting some major negative pressure on the texoma catfish guides ... who knows but I just thought it was common knowledge as to whom I was talking about because I'd say close to %50 of my new clients talk about nightmare trips on texoma striper fishing.

cheap.fishin, you always have to have a program capable of opening whatever type of file you're trying to open on your computer ... I'd imagine you'd have to download a log viewer in order to view your logs of some kind and lowrance should have that software available to their customers. It's that way with all files that things produce ... not just fish finders ... you have to have the right program in order to open certain type file extensions .. file extensions is what tells your computer what particular program is necessary to open a particular type file ... like for instance .jpg or .pic is opened with a photo editor or viewer ... can't open a .jpg if you don't have some kind of program that will open jpgs installed on your computer so go to lowrance and find out what program you need to download in order to view your fish finder's log files ... that should be pretty simple to do ... I'll go look right quick and post back if I see what you need. Call customer support at Lowrance and they can tell you what program you'd need to view your fishfinder's logs on your home PC but I just looked for a few minutes and found this info

Insight Genesis FAQs


What is Insight Genesis?

Insight Genesis is an exclusive service of Lowrance that allows consumers to create customized contour maps from their personal sonar logs.

How Does Insight Genesis Work?

After signing up for an Insight Genesis account online, download a simple desktop application to your PC. Use the desktop application to upload the sonar log saved from a compatible chartplotter to an SD card to the Insight Genesis web service. After the Insight Genesis service processes the data, an email is sent that contains a link to the free online web viewer to view the map. Three convenient options are offered to purchase an encrypted download of the map to use on a compatible multifunction display/chartplotter.

cheap.fishin, .. I just called lowrance customer service and there is no program available that you can install on your computer that'll read your sonars log file ...you can read it on your unit itself but the only other option you have is to use "Insight Genesis" which is probably a paid subscription service that allows you to upload your sonar log and their web application will make a map out of your sonar log and then turn around and sell it back to you. Sorry bubbah... I thought they probably had a software that'd let you view your log on your computer but they don't

Draw that is a beast of a catfish right there. Did you catch him

Johnny I can't quite make out the coords on that!!!

Johnny, that looks like a pile of fish there and one monster. Im with tom, share the address!

Lots of the dashes are trees/stumps .this was on lavon several years back prefishing for that brutal cold tournament that we had. Didn't catch him it was a pretty intense cluster of trees and I didn't even set up.

The noise was from running my lowrance fishfinder at the same time in shallow water

Gotcha, I noticed the water temp and figured it couldn't have been anytime recent.

Omg! I remember that tourny....JJason and chase won it. We're we stupid for being out there or what??? U know its rough when Tom and Larry call for an escort in!!!! Wow!

Me and dad and jered and his partner left at like 9 45 and headed to closest mexican food place and ate and killed time waiting for weigh in lmao it was brutal. Once we pulled anchor one time to move to spot two I knew we were done !!!

Johnny whalechaser there has been a time or two when i knew it was over when it started...nothing like heading to your local dive for some " comfort food" aint it getting close to another showdown with cabelas.... ???

Yes sir ! its sneaking up on us quickly , you guys coming ?

Me and Sam are hitting Kerr lake tomorrow, we will try to decide tomorrow if we are coming down this year. I had to put a lot of money in the truck the last 6 months but I think I can swing it. Looking forward to coming down and watch the wind blow 90 mph when we get there .

I like johnny's positive attitude Or is it experience talking??? Drawout it is on our list to arrive with cerimonial grade skip-jacks and 50lbs of gizzard shad & watch the wind blow 30mph & drive around visiting all our Texas friends we made over the years!! but if the lake lets us fish......(knock on wood) lookout

Screenshots from the last few weeks at Lewisville. First screenshot I caught about 10 blues from 4-18lbs. Second screenshot just a couple little ones about 3-4lbs AND one giant that beat my butt for a good 10 minutes before wrapping around my motor and breaking off. I only saw its tail end when it was thrashing around in my bow anchor rope. Considering the epic battle and only seeing part of him/her, my guess was 50-60lbs. When I saw the big mark on the screen I honestly thought it was a log. Now I'm wondering if it was the big one that got away???

that long mark you got there is a big fish but not because it's long .. the reason it's long is because the fish is moving the same direction as your boat ... you go by width to judge how big a fish is or that's the most accurate way I"ve found to judge how big fish are ... not by length because if they're moving the opposite direction it'll be just a really short blip on the screen ... same direction it'll be a long mark because they're staying in the path of the transducer for a longer period of time. some can take up three or four times that length because if they stay in the path of the transducer for 5 seconds then that fish will look like he's 20 or 30 ft long. I hope I"m explaining this properly

Thanks tiny, I think I'm with you on this and I really appreciate your feedback! I need to look at the width of the mark, not necessarily just the length. So if a fish is moving with me will it affect the shadow it's casting too? And in the first screenshot, upper right corner, there is a double mark with no shadow, I see this a lot, can you explain?

you mean the upper left? that is just the fish you're seeing are suspended off bottom and the shadow doesn't have enough room to show up because the shadow is out of range because the fish you;re seeing there is probably near the surface and you're in shallow water so at that angle the shadow would be well off the screen ... maybe out to as far as 70 ft when you've got your fish finder set on 65. The shadows only show up when the fish's shadow is at an angle or close to bottom at that angle in shallow water... it's just like your transducer is a flashlight and if the shadow doesn't hit the ground then you won't see it on the HB screen as the suspended fish way out there near the end of the 65 ft will actually be sideways from the fish compared to the fish that are right on bottom ... now if that was in 20 ft deep water and it was suspended to 10 ft from the surface the shadow would be about 10 ft away from the fish but since you're in 5.4 ft and the fish is just a foot under the surface the shadow would be hitting the bottom about 12 to 15 ft past where the fish is which is well out of range... the way you'd figure that is divide the distance the fish is from the boat with the depth which is about 60 ft so the equation would be 60 divided by 5.4 and if you could actually see the shadow at that distance on the other side of the fish and guess as to how far away the shadow is from the fish... like if the shadow was 40 ft on the other side of the fish then the fish would be about 1.5 ft from the surface... now I'm not actually figuring that up exactly but that's how you tell how deep the fish are from the surface with side imaging is by how far the shadow is from the fish and the total depth. Like if you had your unit set to 50 ft out and you're in 20 ft of water and the shadow of the fish is 10 ft from the fish and the fish is 25 ft from the boat then the fish is suspended at 10 ft deep. I know... it's confusing but the most simple explanation is the fish is suspended some and the shadow is out of range. Also fish on or near the surface won't cast a shadow because you're in shallow water and the fish is almost parallel with the transducer so the shadow won't be able to be seen unless the fish is between the angle of the distance you've got your unit set out to or the fish has to be between your transducer and the bottom of the lake at some point out to the max distance you've got your unit set to ... just like if your transducer is a flashlight and you're shining it on a fish close to bottom out to 20 ft then the shadow is going to be close to the fish ... the further off bottom the fish is the further away from the fish the shadow will be and if the shadow of the fish would hit the bottom at 68 ft then you won't see the shadow.

went ahead and drew up a diagram to show you what I mean. The blue circles represent catfish at various depths and distances from the boat... marked fish A. B. C. and D .... Fishes C and D will cast a shadow but A and B won't because the path of the transducer hitting the fish will cast the shadow beyond the 65 ft distance your transducer is set at. Pretend the depth on this photo is 5.4 ft also ... I didn't draw it accurately but you can see what I mean. The direct beam pointing towards all the fish predict where the shadow will hit the bottom and in order for the shadow to be seen on your fish finder the shadow has to hit bottom. Like in this diagram/drawing. I've shown where the shadow will hit on C and D but since your fish finder is set to 65 ft and the direct line of sight between the fish you were talking about will make the shadow not appear because it can't as the fish would have to be on absolute bottom in order for it to show a shadow on the screen since the fish is very close to the outside range you've got it set on ... now if you had your range set at 80 ft or so then you'd see the shadow of the fish you're talking about most likely unless the fish were on or near the surface. All the fish on your screenshot is right on bottom except for the ones all the way out to the edge. Here's the diagram ... hope this helps ya understand what I'm talking about.

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