Thread: depth finder interpretations......

if you have any photos of your depth finder screen showing whats down below and your interpretation of whats being shown, post em. this should help those of you who are not all that familair with what you are seeing down below to understand what you are seeing. any tips on operating finders that may help others, feel free to post em. hopefully it will help others gain more knowledge of those magical instruments that have become a big part of our fishing. i plan on keeping my camera handy and when i see something interesting ill try to get a photo. if you are using flash, dont fire directly into the screen. this will cause a glare. shoot at a little bit of an angle which will cause the flash light to bounce away from the camera lens.

Rango I will post some pics from my sonar memory card just as soon as I find my usb cable. I went fri night and sat night, and I marked one pretty site. Bait above a school of stripers in 24ft up to a hump which was 10 ft. I have one for ya. I have noticed when striper are on the bottom they will not bite! (WATEREE LAKE) Some others say the same thing. One of my good friends told me this months ago and I tried to fish them, and he was right. I cannot get them to bite. Alot of people were at the big rock down at cedar creek,I fished it for a hour with 3 takers. Jet ski,s everywhere Sometime I think they love just makeing anglers mad.

Way to go Rango, There's something for all of us to learn from them. I'll have to keep the camera in the boat. Just have to remember to use the (stop screen) so we have time to get the picture...

Took this one while anchored on a nitestalk last nite. A little surface clutter mixed with baitfish anywhere from the top to about 8' deep with bigger fish underneath. Horizontal line?!? I am guessing a fish moving from deep to the bait. More horizontal lines last night than normal (usually dont see much of them).

Here's one more while anchored last night. Looks like bait fish from 2'-10' deep with larger fish from 10'-15' deep. A few more horizontal lines....

those lines are interesting. maybe its a fish coming out of the deep to grab a shad. dropping a jig or bait down through the transducer cone will also cause a diaganal line like that. but the line angle will be running the other direction

That’s great, You sure gave me something to think about. I have a x-20 with a 3ft. Hydroglow green light. I think I draw in to much bait and blacks out the screen. I’ll have to try to turn the sensitivity down and see if that helps. I’m a screen watcher but have been turning it off at night. I think you just taught an old dog a new trick… Thanks

Originally Posted by gabowman

Here's one more while anchored last night. Looks like bait fish from 2'-10' deep with larger fish from 10'-15' deep. A few more horizontal lines....

Maybe the anchor rope??

I'm guessing the lines are fish going to the bait. The anchor rope doesnt go straight down. Had 100' of rope out on chene anchors, transducer on the other side of the motor from the back anchor. I fished the front of the boat on 4 rod holders, all tight lines 10-12' deep and one rod casting out in front of me fishing a float at
3' deep. If you notice the two different pics one line comes all the way up to the bait and in the other pic it went out from under the transducer cone at 10' or so, with another fading way before it got near the top.

Anybody else got any pics they can post to show us more? Be sure to carry your cameras along to get a couple on the next trip. I'll do the same. They aint gotta be pics of a night stalk.....a moving boat will help us out alots too.

the lines are interesting to say the least. since the graph records from right to left, whatever the cone is picking up is being recorded on the right side and as the object stays in the cone and not moving fish are gonna show as a long line across the screen. something going down like a bait or jig the angle of the line would be in the opposite direction than your screen shows. as the cone picks up the bait, and the screen moves to the left, then the line would start at the surface and as the screen moves to the left and the bait falls, the line will run in the opposite direction, angling across the screen in the opposite direction than it is showing on your screen. it must be a fish moving into the cone at the bottom and moving up to the bait fish drawing the line as shown. thats how im reading it anyway