fragmeister Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 (edited) Hi Raiders, I am by no means an expert on sounders so when I see something on a sounder I take notes of what I catch at the time and try and relate that back to the images. I thought this might be a good ongoing post that many of us can contribute to including those who are particularly experienced in reading a sounder. So, by all means, post your own images along with your interpretations. I am going to kick this off with one I took a few years ago. This one was near the gap on South Head, at the edge of the dropoff. This is how I interpreted it. Obviously, there was a big school of fish in midwater between 4 and 8 meters. It was winter so I thought it might be a school of salmon There are fish on the bottom. I could only guess what they were. There were fish on the drop off between about 6 and 10 meters. By the colour of the bottom( and the fact that I know it is anyway), this was a hard bottom. I am not sure what all the noise is under the fish at the right of the screen... is this noise or is it bait? I did, in fact, catch salmon and a few small kings over this spot but were they stray fish... I don't know for sure. I would appreciate any comments Edited July 31, 2018 by fragmeister 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonD Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 I love Lowrance units, can I make a couple of suggestions on how yours is set. First press either the on button or the pages button to get to settings, click System then on the right of the page go to advanced, click open then click on User interface. Once in here click the auto hide menu to on, then click the x top right to get back out of this page (twice to get back to start up page). This will free more screen rather than have the menu bar on the right permanently showing. To bring the menu back simply touch the menu tab top right of the screen at any time, this will hold the menu open for 15 seconds. Personaly I don't like having those fish symbols and depths constantly showing, just a personal thing. I like colour palette 13 ( which may be what you are using) I find my colourline set around 76 tends to show marine growth as green, when I see green I most often find better fish. I'm still running my old original 200/50khz transducer but have upgraded head units every few years. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted July 31, 2018 Author Share Posted July 31, 2018 Hi Jon, That's my old sounder. I have An HDS9 now but certainly, your comments are still valid. I am going to post some earlier images and then get to the HDS ones ( after having a little tinker based on your suggestions) Cheers Jim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickmarlin62 Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 Who said you cant pik up bottom deep with 83 hz hds 5 hard to find fish but found ground we were lookin for 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonD Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 1 hour ago, rickmarlin62 said: Who said you cant pik up bottom deep with 83 hz hds 5 hard to find fish but found ground we were lookin for My first Lowrance was a hds 5, just like yours it picked up bottom even on 200khz over 300m deep and held in there on 83 to over 500m. Over snapper ground it picked up my lures in 60m of water without any problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 Just now, JonD said: My first Lowrance was a hds 5, just like yours it picked up bottom even on 200khz over 300m deep and held in there on 83 to over 500m. Over snapper ground it picked up my lures in 60m of water without any problem. That's a very clean display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 3 hours ago, fragmeister said: Hi Jon, That's my old sounder. I have An HDS9 now but certainly, your comments are still valid. I am going to post some earlier images and then get to the HDS ones ( after having a little tinker based on your suggestions) Cheers Jim Further on this Jon, Those side scan images are so clear. Not sure that mine are that clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolongeramember Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 On 7/31/2018 at 2:38 PM, fragmeister said: I am not sure what all the noise is under the fish at the right of the screen... is this noise or is it bait? I did, in fact, catch salmon and a few small kings over this spot but were they stray fish... I don't know for sure. I would appreciate any comments Hi Jim. First of all turn off those fish symbols. They don’t help and just get in the way of the real picture. The mass on the right is a school of bait sized fish. From 6 to 10m. The dots underneath the mass are the same fish of the school less tightly packed, so they show as individual fish. There are no bigger fish at the top like the symbols show. That’s why, get rid of the symbols You can never tell for sure as fish can be on the edge of the beam, but all the masses and small dots are small bait fish. Larger fish like Salmon and kings show up more like a line like at the bottom middle of the picture. Looking at that screen, you would have been moving rather than still. That’s the best way to get a good picture of things. If you were still, all the marks would show up as long lines because the same fish would keep repeating over and over. Also, colour shows the bottom composition but also I find that rock bottom shows as bumpy like on your picture. Sand or soft bottom tends to show up as more flat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 Thanks, You are correct. I would have been moving very slowly when this pic was taken I generally don't have the fish symbols on. Not sure why I had them on as I did think it made the image less clear. They are off on the new sounder. Here is another image from that early sounder. This is from along the line of moorings near Gladesville Bridge, a location where I have caught Jews in the past The long straight line is my downrigger with a fresh squid in tow. The whole area around the moorings was full of these arches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Hmmm... this is interesting. I’m still much of a novice when it comes to interpreting my sounder, a Humminbird with side imaging and GPS. I find structure OK in conjunction with the GPS and I find bait but I can’t recall seeing huge arches too often! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonD Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 3 hours ago, fragmeister said: Further on this Jon, Those side scan images are so clear. Not sure that mine are that clear. As soon as I'm in water over 8m I use 455khz and leave the contrast to auto. As a starting point I set my sidescan at three times the depth, so in 10m of water I have 30m each side of the screen, at this setting I get clear image right to the edge. That was just a starting point as I can often get 40m each side when in 10m or 60-80m each side when in 20m depth. The big secret to having such clear rock formation has more to do with my boat, I can literally get all the crew to move from one side to the other without virtually any rocking. My boat is a zodiac with large inflatable tubes so no rocking at all, also picking calm days to use sidescan is best. Have a fiddle with the sidescan colour options, I find the bronzey brown and dark blue work best for me, they seem more contrasty which makes the image appear sharper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonD Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Berleyguts said: Hmmm... this is interesting. I’m still much of a novice when it comes to interpreting my sounder, a Humminbird with side imaging and GPS. I find structure OK in conjunction with the GPS and I find bait but I can’t recall seeing huge arches too often! I rarely see arches either which I believe is to do with where in the transducer beam the fish enter and exit from. I found hummingbirds to be quite different with the menus from Lowrance but if you want to tweak the best from any of them there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube. Doctor sonar has some on both Lowrance and hummingbird, well worth looking into. Lowrance also have their own tutorials but I found most were basically the same thing repeated. My advice is once you are happy with how you use them, then search for any tips to improve what you already know. Edited August 1, 2018 by JonD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 10 hours ago, Berleyguts said: Hmmm... this is interesting. I’m still much of a novice when it comes to interpreting my sounder, a Humminbird with side imaging and GPS. I find structure OK in conjunction with the GPS and I find bait but I can’t recall seeing huge arches too often! I showed these images and a few more from some other spots in the Parramatta River to the guys who came a ran a Sounder Info Fishraider organised a few years back (thanks Donna and Stewie). Their opinion was that the big fat arch was certainly a Jew as with other images I took further up river. I did a bit of scan of a few spots I have seen shore based anglers fishing. I was on the way home from a fish outside and it was getting late so I didn't stop to fish any of the spots except to down rig along Gladesville around the boat moorings The hole on the western side of Gladesville Bridge The bridge pylons where Fishraider member Ojay landed a Jew up a while back - A few possible marks A few holes near the Wharf Road boat ramp. Most had big strong arches like the image above although not as many as the moorings at Gladesville. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsswordfisherman Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 26 minutes ago, fragmeister said: I showed these images and a few more from some other spots in the Parramatta River to the guys who came a ran a Sounder Info Fishraider organised a few years back (thanks Donna and Stewie). Their opinion was that the big fat arch was certainly a Jew as with other images I took further up river. I did a bit of scan of a few spots I have seen shore based anglers fishing. I was on the way home from a fish outside and it was getting late so I didn't stop to fish any of the spots except to down rig along Gladesville around the boat moorings The hole on the western side of Gladesville Bridge The bridge pylons where Fishraider member Ojay landed a Jew up a while back - A few possible marks A few holes near the Wharf Road boat ramp. Most had big strong arches like the image above although not as many as the moorings at Gladesville. Jim It might be good to see if we can organise another sounder evening anyone interested? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savit Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 1 hour ago, mrsswordfisherman said: It might be good to see if we can organise another sounder evening anyone interested? Yes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonD Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 26 minutes ago, fragmeister said: I showed these images and a few more from some other spots in the Parramatta River to the guys who came a ran a Sounder Info Fishraider organised a few years back (thanks Donna and Stewie). Their opinion was that the big fat arch was certainly a Jew as with other images I took further up river. I did a bit of scan of a few spots I have seen shore based anglers fishing. I was on the way home from a fish outside and it was getting late so I didn't stop to fish any of the spots except to down rig along Gladesville around the boat moorings The hole on the western side of Gladesville Bridge The bridge pylons where Fishraider member Ojay landed a Jew up a while back - A few possible marks A few holes near the Wharf Road boat ramp. Most had big strong arches like the image above although not as many as the moorings at Gladesville. Jim I showed a few images to Lowrance tec guys at the boat show a few years ago, they explained what types of fish my sounder was showing from what they could see on the screen, these guys were from the north coast and very experienced in snapper and jews. After letting them explain how the snapper and Jews were hunting bait from my screen shot, I then explained the image was pre-dive and none of the species they thought they were seeing had ever been seen at my location. It's extremely hard to tell what you are seeing without actually going down to have a look, something we do on most trips. Schools of roughys, sweep, mado, pike, leather jackets and various species of damsel fish all look just like the top image, you only need one of the many species of morwong or drummer hanging of the side to give a bigger arch. Being ever hopefull anglers we picture snapper and Jews in our mind while in reality it's more likely to be any of the common algae feeders that are common at those depths up and down the whole coast. I can pretty much guarantee from my three images posted above from the Montague area you won't catch any decent eating species, however you would have a fantastic dive among masses of fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsswordfisherman Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 48 minutes ago, savit said: Yes! OK it is on my list Message me with any other things you might like to see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted August 2, 2018 Author Share Posted August 2, 2018 38 minutes ago, JonD said: I showed a few images to Lowrance tec guys at the boat show a few years ago, they explained what types of fish my sounder was showing from what they could see on the screen, these guys were from the north coast and very experienced in snapper and jews. After letting them explain how the snapper and Jews were hunting bait from my screen shot, I then explained the image was pre-dive and none of the species they thought they were seeing had ever been seen at my location. It's extremely hard to tell what you are seeing without actually going down to have a look, something we do on most trips. Schools of roughys, sweep, mado, pike, leather jackets and various species of damsel fish all look just like the top image, you only need one of the many species of morwong or drummer hanging of the side to give a bigger arch. Being ever hopefull anglers we picture snapper and Jews in our mind while in reality it's more likely to be any of the common algae feeders that are common at those depths up and down the whole coast. I can pretty much guarantee from my three images posted above from the Montague area you won't catch any decent eating species, however you would have a fantastic dive among masses of fish. Can't agree more Jon, This is how the Sounder Guys interpreted one of my other images from the Parra. I remember mentioning that there was a whole heap of jellyfish in the water at the time and they said they were not sure how jellyfish would show up but they were adamant that the larger, deeper arches were fish and the largest one was probably a Jew... but as you say Jon... the fisherman in me wants to believe this! This is why I am trying to take a what did I see and what did I catch approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Signing Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 This is a great post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great_White Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 Similar pics from Lowrance , what I originally thought was a huge bait school ... Ended up being a swarm of tiny Leather Jackets Great_white Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest123456789 Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 School of tailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted August 2, 2018 Author Share Posted August 2, 2018 Just now, Great_White said: Similar pics from Lowrance , what I originally thought was a huge bait school ... Ended up being a swarm of tiny Leather Jackets Great_white Yes.... that ones a big disappointment.! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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