Bass On The Depth Finder Or Something Else?

[conroekro88]

I went to the lake today with the goal of finding a school of bass using my electronics. Needless to say, I definitely found some fish, but I'm not sure if they were bass or not. I fished this area and did not get a bite. From what I've read on the internet, the white bass population in the lake has basically become nonexistent. There are hybrid stripers, crappie, catfish, etc. Any ideas?

My unit is a Lowrance Elite-5 DSI.

http://s347.photobucket.com/user/conroekro88/media/IMG_0449_zpsnbuk4ffi.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

 

[eddallen]

Hmmmmm too small to be Tuna but pretty sure it's fish. Variety or species.......get the scuba gear.

DownScan Imaging is really not the best for spotting or trying to ID fish. Traditional 2D sonar is best for that.

[gulfcaptain]

That looks like bait and probably crappie by how its stacked up.  You need to run a split screen with the traditional and DSI or Chirp and DSI as so you get a better picture of what you're looking for.  Once you find how they mark you will always know what you're looking at without any question.  

[conroekro88]

12 minutes ago, gulfcaptain said:

That looks like bait and probably crappie by how its stacked up.  You need to run a split screen with the traditional and DSI or Chirp and DSI as so you get a better picture of what you're looking for.  Once you find how they mark you will always know what you're looking at without any question.  

Unfortunately my unit only has down scan capabilities, no traditional sonar. The picture that caught my attention the most is the fifth one (going from left to right on photo bucket). I've read that when looking for bass with electronics, they will often times be close to the bottom & will not stack up more than one or two fish vertically. I've also heard that looking for a Sharpie-sized dot when using down scan is something else to keep in mind. I'm definitely not an expert on finding fish with electronics though.

[Wayne P.]

The size of fish recorded is determined by their size, the rate the unit records the images and the boat speed.

If you are sitting still and the fish is motionless, a fish will be as long as the screen is wide.

You can only compare fish sizes with all the other fish that are recorded at the same time so the conditions are the same. Otherwise the only way to know is with a catch.

Being familiar with each species helps also to maybe get an idea without a catch.

All of these fish are crappie, I confirmed that by catching some of them:

  

All these fish are bass, I confirmed that by catching some of them:

 

[Neil McCauley]

On 8/2/2016 at 8:34 PM, conroekro88 said:

I went to the lake today with the goal of finding a school of bass using my electronics. Needless to say, I definitely found some fish, but I'm not sure if they were bass or not. I fished this area and did not get a bite. From what I've read on the internet, the white bass population in the lake has basically become nonexistent. There are hybrid stripers, crappie, catfish, etc. Any ideas?

My unit is a Lowrance Elite-5 DSI.

http://s347.photobucket.com/user/conroekro88/media/IMG_0449_zpsnbuk4ffi.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

 

Is that water temp ...94.2 degrees F??

Wouldn't really even bother finding fish at those temps.

[gim]

I was going to ask that myself.  That can't possibly be the actual water temperature.  That is some HOT water

[scaleface]

Really ,  downscan only? I havent had a lot of success IDing fish with the downscan  . I like the 2d imaging and there are fish all over . .  With 2D imaging I pay attention to fish signals on structure  , most other signals I dont pay much attention too because there are so many of them . I do pay attention when there are a lot of straight lines because that is fish moving , usually feeding .