Fish Type By Transducer Frequency!? Help Me Out Here!

[Bass newb]

Hello. My 43dv has 200khz 277khz and 455khzdv. Between the 200 and the 277 some fish appear on one or both. Which fish likely might they be? Or is this a size thing? What dictates which frequency shows which kind of fish? Air bladder composition (fish type) or air bladder size (less likely imo). How do I home in on the species that I'm looking for? BASS!

[Wayne P.]

Frequency has nothing to do with species, only the coverage the frequency has.

You can have some fish within one frequency's coverage and not another.

 

Don't know what the criteria that Garmin has to assign FishID symbols. Most brands will assign the symbols to anything in the water column.

 

The only way to know what the species is= a catch.

 

What I use (Humminbird) filters the returns and only assigns FishID symbols if the returns meet the criteria for the symbols like this of bass, crappie, and shad.

 

 

In this case it is the air bladder size. If the fish is too small, it does not get the symbol.

There are three sizes of symbols and two colors.

The blue symbols are fish in the 83 kHz coverage and the gold fish are within the 200 kHz coverage.

The approx size is the smaller one is for about a 1# bass, the medium size is for about a 2# bass, and the larger size is the about 3# and up.

 

If you are in a school of crappie and see fish symbols, those are NICE ones like the few here:

 

 

Without catching, being familiar with how your unit functions and knowing the species in the waters you fish and how they relate to each other and the terrain would be your only clue.

 

I use it all the time since it is a fishing tool, not so much with other brands.

I look for this during the cold water periods when the fish are on the bottom.

I want to see predators and baitfish not only near each other but actual feeding going on:

 

[Wayne P.]

This screen shot has more of the different sizes to compare:

 

[Bass newb]

Thanks for a great and informative post wayne. How would I go about fishing that column you show with bait fish and fish feeding? A swimbait run through that mass of bait? A jerkbait?

[eddallen]

To add to what Wayne P. states, water temp at the depth you see the targets is crucial for the Salmonoid species. For instance, if you see targets at 45 feet and also at 70 feet in a lake holding Lake Trout and Kings, you would have a reasonable certainty that the targets seen at 70 would be your Lake Trout since they prefer temps 8 degrees colder than Kings do.

 

I'm not sold on fish symbols either. I went out with a friend who is a Humminbird user. His unit was indicating large fish symbols at the 16 foot depth level, but, neither the WaterWolf camera or the bait indicated the same results.

 

If you know your targets, fish finder and tackle, that's what you go with.

[Wayne P.]

Thanks for a great and informative post wayne. How would I go about fishing that column you show with bait fish and fish feeding? A swimbait run through that mass of bait? A jerkbait?

 

The first screen shot, either an umbrella rig, weighted swimbait, or crankbait. All of those worked. 

 

The third and fourth screen shot, a blade bait.

 

The water was too dingy for the jerkbait to be effective.

 

I use that tool for determining the fish size/pattern, then use Imaging to directly target the fish.

 

Post #121 here is the same pattern as the last two screen shots just a different lake:

 

 http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/127481-screenshots/page-9

[Bass newb]

If a big (biggest) sized fish shows up on 200khz and another one in a different spot on 77khz, they aren't going to be the same species, right? Doesn't that make the air bladder signature species dependent?

[eddallen]

If a big (biggest) sized fish shows up on 200khz and another one in a different spot on 77khz, they aren't going to be the same species, right? Doesn't that make the air bladder signature species dependent?

Could be the same or might be a tennis ball on a string. All things being equal, let's turn OFF the fishies and just use the raw sonar date (arches). To get the perfect arch the fish needs to be moving, the boat needs to be moving, and the fish needs to swim through the CENTER of the xdcr cone.That is what gives you the perfect arch. These arches will be all different sizes. I would bet you this.....in a lake full of 1# fish, your arches would appear different sizes and densities depending on their depth directly through the cone. (remember we are talking 'perfect' arches). Now if somebody in the middle of the knight dropped a tennis ball tied to a 5# weight with the ball 10' off the bottom, you certainly would NOT be able tell which arch 10' off the bottom was the ball. Now if you can't tell which one is the ball, how can you tell if it is a different species fish? Remember that only the targets within the xdcr cone will show as arches and also remember you will see partial arches, faded or washed-out arches which I believe are targets located between the center of the cone and the fringes of the outside on the cone.

You can have a lot of fun and learn tons about your sonar if you spend the day on the water with tennis balls, empty soda bottles of various sizes and you can use rocks for weights. Take screen shots and study them later........lots to learn.