What is the most efficient way to look for fish? How fast do you go while graphing a point/hump etc? Do you go shallow to deep, deep to shallow, or just a general grid pattern?
I’m fairly new to electronics and offshore fishing, but I have had a little bit of success lately. Just trying to find any way to maximize my time fishing. Thanks in advance.
The fish are hungry and will be looking for bait fish. Think about where the bait fish will be. As the water gets colder the bait will move to the warmest water in the area they normally utilize. Look deeper to find the active fish. i usually look for fish running 3 MPH. I like to scan the steep edges of drop offs and humps to locate areas holding bait fish. I move along edges using a serpentine pattern. If you are serious about learning to catch fish, hire a professional and pick his brain. Keep asking questions until you can't think of anything else to ask. Tell him up front that you want a learning trip as much as a fish catching trip. Remember that the pattern of where the fish are now may change as the weather changes. For those that have full screens of fish and can't catch them, I offer a tip from Matt Cartwright (Lakeguide Tawakoni) to energize them. He used a 40 inch wooden dowel with a rubber tip and banged the boat with it. It is called thumping and it really works. Bob Maindell of Holding the Line Guide Service would recommend pulling a spinner type lure thru the school of fish from bottom to top. He is catching 100+ fish each trip. Get to the lake as often as possible. The more you learn, the luckier you get.
Since I've had side-scan, I use it to see the fish first in most cases. Sometimes I go right over them and they show up on sonar first. To find fish, I go to a likely structure and start criss-crossing it back and forth shallow to deep then making a parallel path deep to shallow. If the fish pattern has been 10 to 18 fow, then I only search those depths, Ditto if the fish pattern has been 20 to 28 fow. If I have not identified a fish depth pattern, I'll search from 10 fow to 28 fow then turn around, move over and go from 28 fow to 10 fow. That's how I cover a structure to find fish. Of course, you need to know what fish look like on your graph - both side-scan and sonar - and down-scan if you have it and it works (mine doesn't). Sonar may look like what you see above, but in cold months it will often look like the pic below - as fish are hugging the bottom. Good luck!
What’s even more maddening is having a screen full of fish, with lock jaw.
I have found that if that is happening try moving to the closest structure / cover and catch the active ones there. They might even be surprisingly shallow.
The fish are hungry and will be looking for bait fish. Think about where the bait fish will be. As the water gets colder the bait will move to the warmest water in the area they normally utilize. Look deeper to find the active fish. i usually look for fish running 3 MPH. I like to scan the steep edges of drop offs and humps to locate areas holding bait fish. I move along edges using a serpentine pattern. If you are serious about learning to catch fish, hire a professional and pick his brain. Keep asking questions until you can't think of anything else to ask. Tell him up front that you want a learning trip as much as a fish catching trip. Remember that the pattern of where the fish are now may change as the weather changes. For those that have full screens of fish and can't catch them, I offer a tip from Matt Cartwright (Lakeguide Tawakoni) to energize them. He used a 40 inch wooden dowel with a rubber tip and banged the boat with it. It is called thumping and it really works. Bob Maindell of Holding the Line Guide Service would recommend pulling a spinner type lure thru the school of fish from bottom to top. He is catching 100+ fish each trip. Get to the lake as often as possible. The more you learn, the luckier you get.
I make and sell thumpers and use them all the time. I did a video showing how I fish. I look for a few fish then use the thumper to try to make them school up. https://youtu.be/kqNhUliAwr0
This gives you the ability to find a few fish and start fishing. I set a timer for 10 min and fish if I am catching fish else move on. You will have cases where you get covered in fish but they don’t bite so just move on. The advantage to a thumper vs. stick is that it keeps thumping when you are reeling in fish. You are more than welcome to have my old stick if you want it!
Everybody has "their" way of finding fish and kinda neat seeing everybody's approach.... Kinda an art form in some ways. I use split 2D/DI and bounce between SI at times. You want to search in a serpentine slithering pattern covering various depths on a slope. I do not stop unless I see fish on my graph. No guessing.
If you stop and things don't come together in 5-15 minutes it is time to move on and go look elsewhere, even if you move a few hundred feet after you relocate fish.
Be mobile, be INPATIENT, and keep going until it comes together! Best advice I can give anybody.
Got to say everyone is spot on graph graph and graph some more, stop when you find them and if they have lockjaw find another school or give them a few hours and try again.
171 Sea Nymph CC Striper edition 220 Blue Wave CC Classic 200 HPDI
Got to say everyone is spot on graph graph and graph some more, stop when you find them and if they have lockjaw find another school or give them a few hours and try again.
Great graph shots sir. Looks like the mother load of sand bass on first screen with some larger fish beneath. Appears the more shallow break lines were holding the fish. Any bait close or was the area a known ambush location. Didn't see any trees whereby fish were relating due to pressure changes.
The fish are hungry and will be looking for bait fish. Think about where the bait fish will be. As the water gets colder the bait will move to the warmest water in the area they normally utilize. Look deeper to find the active fish. i usually look for fish running 3 MPH. I like to scan the steep edges of drop offs and humps to locate areas holding bait fish. I move along edges using a serpentine pattern. If you are serious about learning to catch fish, hire a professional and pick his brain. Keep asking questions until you can't think of anything else to ask. Tell him up front that you want a learning trip as much as a fish catching trip. Remember that the pattern of where the fish are now may change as the weather changes. For those that have full screens of fish and can't catch them, I offer a tip from Matt Cartwright (Lakeguide Tawakoni) to energize them. He used a 40 inch wooden dowel with a rubber tip and banged the boat with it. It is called thumping and it really works. Bob Maindell of Holding the Line Guide Service would recommend pulling a spinner type lure thru the school of fish from bottom to top. He is catching 100+ fish each trip. Get to the lake as often as possible. The more you learn, the luckier you get.
I make and sell thumpers and use them all the time. I did a video showing how I fish. I look for a few fish then use the thumper to try to make them school up. https://youtu.be/kqNhUliAwr0
This gives you the ability to find a few fish and start fishing. I set a timer for 10 min and fish if I am catching fish else move on. You will have cases where you get covered in fish but they don’t bite so just move on. The advantage to a thumper vs. stick is that it keeps thumping when you are reeling in fish. You are more than welcome to have my old stick if you want it!
Just a point off of a river channel, the wind was blowing into the point so the fish moved from the river channel to the point. I'm still trying to get my solix 15 dialed in. Having a thumper helped keep them under the boat.
171 Sea Nymph CC Striper edition 220 Blue Wave CC Classic 200 HPDI
What is the most efficient way to look for fish? How fast do you go while graphing a point/hump etc? Do you go shallow to deep, deep to shallow, or just a general grid pattern?
I’m fairly new to electronics and offshore fishing, but I have had a little bit of success lately. Just trying to find any way to maximize my time fishing. Thanks in advance.
Most efficient way (I) look for fish? I consider these things to decide on the area I'm going to look (not in any particular order). - Wind direction - Water temp - Amount of light/cloud coverage - Cover/Structure - Sometimes birds
How fast do I go while graphing? Slow and sometimes slower
Direction: It depends on what direction I hit the point or hump and wind direction. But 90% of the time I try to go from deep to shallow.
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