Need Help Intertreting Please

[trsteele]

I trolled today on a new lake and came across this area. I trolled around for 30 minutes without a bite. I also marked this spot on my GPS hoping to go to it again. Can someone please interpret what's on the log screen. I know those are fish down in the drop off but what are the very large arches on the screen? Thanks for your help.

[fishdoc]

well, if ya can't tell with a hook, the only way would be a camera or skin divin. everything else is a guess.

[bobberdown]

I would guess the large hooks are shad or bait fish and the solid smaller hooks are sand bass,bass,or crappie. Although the smaller hooks are not angled right for crappie or schooling fish. The speed of the boat might have been slow enough to have kept them in a flat formation. That appears to be a man made trench. It looks like a sand or mud bottom with very few rocks.
The only to find out for sure is drop a marker and dead line the area for awhile.

[Phantom309]

Well, it's pretty obvious to me. Having seen those large arches many times before, they are most definitely Manatees !

[GRIZZ]

They are prehistoric sabertooth crappies.

[bugman]

I would interprit it as baitfish but i do know one thing for sure i would love to drop a hook into that ditch...wow!!!

[Jerry Blake]

Hey Trsteele:

Were you moving in one direction through that complete screen cycle or were you moving down and back up a drop-off at the edge of a flat? What appears to be a well defined ditch could also be the result of moving down a slope and then moving back up the same slope.

It looks like your sensitivity setting is quite high, which is fine but that may make objects appear larger/denser than they really are. I would agree that the large arches are probably schools of shad or other bait fish. The smaller arches could be most any kind of small fish - could be large shad. Some of the medium size arches are probably predator fish but even if they are feeding they may have already gorged themselves on bait fish or they just weren't interested in your bait or the way (size/depth/presentation) you were offering it. We always say, "find the bait fish and you'll find the predator fish" but just because you've found the predator fish it doesn't mean they will bite. Going back to that same area at a different time of day or offering smaller bait in a slower presentation may produce some fish.

If you know anyone with an underwater camera it would be real interesting to drop it down there and see exactly what's there.

[trsteele]

Thanks for the feedback. I just recently put a Lowrance LCX-15MT on the console of my boat so I am trying to figure out the best settings. I also have a X125 on the bow. Jerry I was moving slowing in one direction when I started the chart log. This is another screen shot of the same log notice the second ditch a few feet from he first one. The water depth is 24 feet and the ditch drops down to 38 feet. The water temperature yesterday was 52.5 degrees so I figured the crappie should be in deeper water now.

[skiptomylu]

I agree with Jerry that your sensitivity setting is high and maybe you would want to try setting it closer to 75% just to see.

[fishdoc]

i've used a lot of different units and have found the best way to set sensitivity is to get over a hard bottom area and turn up sensetivity til ya just obtain a secondary echo...this will show everything you need to see and makes interpretation much more consistant. keep unit in manuel not auto.