Play by play on how I target Blues during the spawn. I added some graph video so some of you guys can understand what’s to look for. This pattern is an early morning and evening bite most days and will be good up until mid July. After that they go Pelagic for a few months and we’ll use a different method to catch them when they do. If you guys like what you see then hit subscribe and join us on our journey to Catville, USA.

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Have the shad still been in their normal spots, on your lake, with the water stirred up and muddy? I looked for them last week at the usual spots on mine, for this time of year, and 78 degree water, and they weren't there. Took me way longer than normal to round up bait.

I’ve been getting them in my same mid depth holes in the mornings. In the afternoons or mid day I been getting them off the ledges. They are on the ledges 90% of the time z. Just gotta find the depth they are relating to. Go to a main lake point and scan it from shallow to deep and you’ll be able to build a pattern for them pretty easy.

As always. Awesome video. Thanks for sharing.

Chris, I watched this yesterday when I got the Youtube notification. Your formula is a tried and true one. I'm not talking about your fishing tactics. I'm talking about the way you teach us. You tell us what you're going to do; you show us how you're going to do it and you put it into action and show us the results that you said you would get. In my business we call that PREP. Point Reason Example Point. You tell us your point (summer pattern) you tell us why (big fish are on the nest) you fish the pattern and pull in eater after eater (giving us the example) and at the end, you restate your point. The video was very well executed. Much to learn from this. I've watched it 3 times now. Pick up something new each time.

Thanks Tim! I made the video for you buddy. I’m glad you found it useful. It’s another little wrinkle you can add to your Bluecat game. Glad it helped a few guys cuz it hasn’t got much response from whoever else has opened this thread.

Chris,

Excellent video... thank you for taking the time to make this and especially for explaining! The fish were nice, but I really appreciate the shots of the graphs. I went back and looked when you had sonar and side imaging on the same screen... still trying to learn to read my side imaging better. It is starting to make more sense.

I have not gotten to fish much in the last 3-4 weeks between work, weather and family stuff... But I got out on the water for a few hours this morning. Went looking for the sand bass pattern. Did not do much good with that, so moved up on a shallow flat (82-84 degree water) off a channel and started getting bit. Caught about 15 in 3 hours, several smaller dinks and small eaters, but a couple of nice 5 lbs.+ fish. Catch and release today. Did play with the boards I bought and learned a little with them, caught some fish on them. I see more boards in my future...

Questions: How are you telling the hybrids from the cats on side image? What speed were you targeting on the drifts? Looked like your water was about 79 or so.

I need to watch this a couple more times... may have some more questions.

Cheers buddy!

Thanks Ken. Bass look similar to a cat but there are a few things that are different. A hybrid will give a hard return on side image from tail to head. This is due to Hybrids being a scaled fish. All scaled fish will give a bright hard return the entire length of the fish as your sonar bounces off. Catfish will only give a bright return on the head. The soft body of the cat will give a much softer less dense return. The soft back half of the catfish absorbs more sonar giving it a softer return. Catfish will also have a conical shape on side image as the head is wider than the tail and a hybrid is more uniform. This is where the larger screened units really start to stand out above a smaller screens. These are subtle differences but can be easily distinguished as you gain experience. The other major element that I use to tell bass from catfish is their orientation with the fish around them. Sandbass, hybrids, striper move in unison as a group as if all being controlled by the same remote control.. Catfish will move more like packs of wild hogs as they graze. They will all be facing the same general direction as they move together as a pack but will all be oriented slightly different as if each has a mind of its own and not all moving in unison. Blues like to keep their spacing and don’t like to all bunch up. Bass will stack right next to each other like cordwood.

Another indicator to what your looking at is when your in an area big Bass are feeding hard you will see them attacking prey at speed. When they are feeding heavy your side image return will be stretched out due to the fish moving fast. Same kind of effect you get if your not matching your chart speed with your boat speed. Cat returns generally aren’t stretched out like a fast moving bass.

Sorry if I rambled too much Ken. I’ve been on that liquid desert tonight amigo.

That is one of the best explanations of how to identify catfish from other types of fish I've ever seen. There is a lot of nonsense out there on the internet. That cut right through all the BS.

Man that is awesome!! So refreshing to see someone that is willing to TEACH!! Thank you Sir!!

Thanks Chris,
That was a great video and I appreciate the time you spent to make it.

Thanks Amigos!

I was moving .4-.5 mph Ken. I stay around .5 mph most of the year. In light or no wind I pull boards at .3-.4 mph. In big wind i might get up to .6 mph, but if I get to .7mph I usually try and slow back down a bit. I’ve caught fish going as fast as 1mph but when your moving that fast on a short drift you won’t be in the sweet spot very long. That drift line was taking me 25-30 minutes to complete going .5 and if you go .7 it would only be a 15 minute drift. The longer you have your baits in the sweet spot the more fish you tend to put in the boat.

I'm guessing your transducer is located on the stern either on the left or right side of your outboard. Do you have to raise your O/B when side scanning to get a clear picture on both sides? Mine is located on the starboard side, so my left side scan is not as accurate when the O/B is down.

Mine was like that when I first installed it Carey. I have a piece of Starboard I installed before mounting the transducer so that I could make adjustments without punching a bunch of holes in the transom. Mine actually needs another adjustment and I will probably do that before fall. The closer to your drain plug you can mount it the better.