What do you think this is?

[AirbusAngler]

So in my path to becoming a better angler (specifically from a boat now) I am learning new things every day. My most forefront hurdle is mastering electronics. Specifically my Hook4x Lowrance, Ive told myself I will not upgrade to a bigger/better unit until I thoroughly understand and use this one to its max potential. I am comfortable with all the pages and settings etc although memorizing which each setting does is still hit or miss. Im currently watching several videos on youtube that talk about these units etc and reading several articles from around the web.

 

My question to you more experienced fishermen/women is what do you see in this image below? I will write what I think below the image and I would like to compare to what the majority of you see. 

 

Any other really good articles or videos you recommend don't be afraid to post, I'm basically still in my "sponge" phase trying to soak up everything I can.

 

 

This image is taken from my Hook 4x lowrance chirp with downscan (blue) on Lewisville lake Texas.

 

 

 

 

 

At first I thought I was looking at a lot of fish, maybe bait fish. I was noticing lots of surface action with some kind of small forage type fish, not shad boils, perhaps some breed of shad that were plopping the top eating insects or what have you. But then I realized that the Downscan image would not show fish as arches, so what look like huge fish arches in the downscan (blue) image must be some sort of structure. I thought maybe something hard, but the lack of solid yellow told me that its something softer and probably organic? I would have to guess some sort of crushed tree with branches laying down. (i don't really believe that myself as i dropped a jig down there to try and "feel" it, but I actually could not come up with anything) 

 

So I leave it to the pros! comment away!

 

Thank you in advance. 

 P.s. do you see any "game fish" at all?

 

 

[Catawba Mike]

Howdy Airbus. I'm not a pro, but thought I'd post a comment, and see what others think. My interpretation of the image, mainly based on the down image view in the bottom panel, is that the arches are feeding gamefish amongst a ball of baitfish.

 

The image is very similar to a situation I recently saw, and I caught several spotted bass, crappie and hybrid bass (on the same spot), vertically jigging a lipless crankbait and a Shad Rap over an image like this. Based on the formation and streaking arches, I think it's either spotted bass or hybrid bass.

[Scott F]

If I was seeing this on a lake in my area at this time of year, I would think that it is weeds that once might have been standing up and are now dying and are laying down. Just a guess on my part.

[fishballer06]

Could possibly be the thermocline? 

[scaleface]

Looks like fish to me .

[Bluebasser86]

Looks like a big school of stripers or wipers. Could also be catfish, carp, or gar. 

[Scott F]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Looks like a big school of stripers or wipers. Could also be catfish, carp, or gar. 

Does your down imaging sonar show fish as arches?

[Bluebasser86]

9 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Does your down imaging sonar show fish as arches?

They can look like arches or streaks at times, but mine aren't Lowrance either. 

[Team9nine]

Definitely fish - most likely something smaller like baitfish because you aren't seeing any real strong returns in yellow...unless you're sensitivity is too low, but I doubt it. School fish like white bass make very similar returns, but usually much stronger unless you just catch the edge of them. Some glare in the photo, so hard to say for certain. Weaker returns on the left hand side of the screen, stronger on the right. Fish will arch in downscan mode, also. Just depends on length of time (boat speed, fish moving, etc.) and distance from transducer.

[WRB]

If your sonar is set on the factory default settings and the bottom is 17' the arches are faster moving fish with small air bladders like gizzard Shad.

Tom

[TnRiver46]

Was your boat anywhere near a cliff or bridge or dam wall? If not, that's a crap ton of shad with some predators amongst them. if you are close enough to a vertical wall and the water is deep enough, the cone angle will pick it up and the graph will display something similar to your screenshot 

 

edit: just looked at the screenshot again and there may be more predators there than shad. I also remembered I have some old screen shots of schools of white bass. This particular picture is with the boat moving 1.6 mph, the display would show much flatter longer lines if you are sitting still, especially on the 3D side