Finding Active Fish With Electronics

[cjam93]

Hey guys so this year I have been trying to get better with my electronics. I have gotten much better at finding things like brush piles or drops while idling and being able to quickly find them casting a bait out, but I am very lacking in understanding active fish on the graph. Some of the local tournament guys talk about how they will drive over a point and graph it with down scan and side scan before fishing it. If they do not see active fish then they leave without fishing it. Now, I can identify fish on the graph, sometime I am sure what I think are bass are something else, but I can at least tell most of the time when it is a fish and not something else. I just am lost when it comes telling if those fish are active or if they will bite. If anyone has some advice on this or could link me to an article or video I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!

[a1712]

Being able to tell if bass are in a feeding mood with electronics would be a trick. Someone will need to explain that to me. Brian.

[cjam93]

Being able to tell if bass are in a feeding mood with electronics would be a trick. Someone will need to explain that to me. Brian.

I believe it has to do with how the bass are set up, but Im not sure exactly what to look for.

[Wayne P.]

When bass and baitfish are together and the baitfish school is not in the ball shape:

 

 

 

 

 

[Comfortably Numb]

I like how the last shot shows how the predators split the bait ball

[Wayne P.]

I like how the last shot shows how the predators split the bait ball

I caught several of those bass.  

[cjam93]

I caught several of those bass.  

Thanks for those pictures. That helps! So sometimes I notice it is a bit hard in some of those for me to see the bass inside of the school of bait, if you see bait fish scattered out like that do you generally assume there are bass in the schools spreading them out?

[Wayne P.]

Thanks for those pictures. That helps! So sometimes I notice it is a bit hard in some of those for me to see the bass inside of the school of bait, if you see bait fish scattered out like that do you generally assume there are bass in the schools spreading them out?

I not only assume the bait fish are being attacked I can see they are. A screenshot only shows the instant it is taken. Stuff goes on continuously, it is sort of obvious.

The only way to know specifically what the preditor/s is involves a catch or knowing what is in the body of water you see it happening.

Being familiar with species, their likely locations, and how they relate to their food also will give you a clue to what they are.

 

If you have Humminbird equipment like I do, you can use the FishID to show the larger preditors, like I did in the second, third, and fourth, screen shots. Other mfg do not have that feature to only assign the fish symbols based on air bladder sizes. Small bass will not get the symbols, neither will bushes, trees, or suspended matter. If you see the FishID symbols in crappie schools, those are NICE ones.

 

Refer to the Screenshots topic above for more examples.

[chadmack282]

I not only assume the bait fish are being attacked I can see they are. A screenshot only shows the instant it is taken. Stuff goes on continuously, it is sort of obvious.

The only way to know specifically what the preditor/s is involves a catch or knowing what is in the body of water you see it happening.

Being familiar with species, their likely locations, and how they relate to their food also will give you a clue to what they are.

If you have Humminbird equipment like I do, you can use the FishID to show the larger preditors, like I did in the second, third, and fourth, screen shots. Other mfg do not have that feature to only assign the fish symbols based on air bladder sizes. Small bass will not get the symbols, neither will bushes, trees, or suspended matter. If you see the FishID symbols in crappie schools, those are NICE ones.

Refer to the Screenshots topic above for more examples.

Wayne I hear & read alot of people saying not to use fish id because it is not accurate.

do u always use the fish id ?

[Wayne P.]

Wayne I hear & read alot of people saying not to use fish id because it is not accurate.

do u always use the fish id ?

 

You hear and read about other products that can't do what Humminbird units do with their FishID setting.

 

YES I use FishID all the time. I posted the screen shots to show that it DOES work and is a fishing tool.

It should be obvious.

[bassh8er]

On September 5, 2015 at 7:14 PM, Wayne P. said:

 

You hear and read about other products that can't do what Humminbird units do with their FishID setting.

 

YES I use FishID all the time. I posted the screen shots to show that it DOES work and is a fishing tool.

It should be obvious.

Wayne,

What are the qualifications for a fish ID?

If I go over a school of crappie will the fish ID show up or how would I know if the school was panfish or baitfish, or is that even possible?

[eddallen]

Wayne P. How come we can't see the same fish from ID in the DI or SI? Do you have a shot with FishID on split with FishID off to compare?

[Wayne P.]

6 hours ago, eddallen said:

Wayne P. How come we can't see the same fish from ID in the DI or SI? Do you have a shot with FishID on split with FishID off to compare?

There is no setting to have FishID and no FishID at the same time.  It is either ON or OFF.

 

23 hours ago, bassh8er said:

Wayne,

What are the qualifications for a fish ID?

If I go over a school of crappie will the fish ID show up or how would I know if the school was panfish or baitfish, or is that even possible?

If you get FishID symbols for crappie, they are NICE ones.

The "rule of thumb" for the symbols is a 1# class bass with get the smallest symbol. A 2# class bass will get the medium size symbol and 3#+ will get the largest symbol. The air bladder size is the criteria.

This is a very large school of crappie and only a few are large enough to be assigned a FishID symbol. I was just using 200 kHz when I saved the screen shot so any that would have been in the 83 kHz coverage are not shown and no blue FishID symbols.