Are these bass?

[RHuff]

 

Found these on my Garmin up a cove about 2/3 down from the mouth towards the back in 19 feet of water. Are these suspended bass? 

[TnRiver46]

Hard to say there, maybe There toward the top left. Looks like some interference and maybe some panfish/scattered shad everywhere else. Near my house there’s tons of current and debris and my graph has been showing at least that much stuff 100% of the time

[RHuff]

This is my first year with my Garmin so I am still learning how to read it. I know that traditional shows fish due to their air bladders where clearvu only shows structure, correct? Also, it was in open water with a pretty clear bottom as far as cover goes. It wasn't near lilly pads or stumps or anything like that. I was hoping some of the more experienced guys could maybe translate what they see so that I can take that and learn from it. 

[Team9nine]

Doubt it...much too scattered throughout the water column in my opinion.

[J Francho]

Could be white bass.

[Tennessee Boy]

I'm not a Garmin user so  I'm assuming that your unit works like others brands that I've used.  Garmin users correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I think you are seeing the same stuff on both sides of the screen.  On the left is traditional sonar with a cone shaped sonar beam that is as wide front to back as it is side to side.  The front to back depth is what is giving you the arch shaped returns on the screen.  On the right you have a sonar beam that is wide from side to side and very thin from front to back.  When you pass over something in the water column,   you get a clearer image of it with no arch.  I would expect both views to show fish, structure, and cover but they will look very different due to the different shaped beams.

 

So my interpretation of the picture you've provided.  The left side of the screen tells me it's not noise since something is passing through the cone.  Noise will usually just appear as dots on the screen.  The right side of the screen tells me that most of what you are seeing is not very big although some of the returns look big enough to be catchable fish.  How fast the boat was going would also be a factor in interpreting the results.  

 

I agree with Team9nine on the distribution of fish in the water column.  I don't think you are looking at a lot of suspended black bass in my opinion.

 

 

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, RHuff said:

where clearvu only shows structure, correct?

Incorrect, ClearVu and SideVu show fish too. They're sometimes not as noticeable compared to 2d but they show up. It looks like three staked on top of each other are fish. 

[WRB]

Looks like scattered debris or gas bubbles to me or a turnover in process, not familiar enough with Garmin images to know for sure.

Did you smell a sulfur like odor or see any debris clumps floating?

Tom

 

[padon]

im a garmin user and am no expert but I can say you are looking at the same image on both sides of the screen and yes the clear vu does show fish. I think some of those bigger arcs could be fish but like wrb said I think a lot of it is gas/debris. with lakes turning over this time of year that would be common. unless its connected to some sort of structure I wouldn't spend much time on it.

[RHuff]

Thank you for your input guys. I was just drifting when I took that photo. The water just hit 60 degrees for the first time this year due to the cold nights we've been having. Also, it's great to know that clearvu shows fish also, as I was definitively wrong in that regard. I'm still learning as I go! 

 

Will turning down the sensitivity eliminate seeing that? 

[12poundbass]

27 minutes ago, RHuff said:

Thank you for your input guys. I was just drifting when I took that photo. The water just hit 60 degrees for the first time this year due to the cold nights we've been having. Also, it's great to know that clearvu shows fish also, as I was definitively wrong in that regard. I'm still learning as I go! 

 

Will turning down the sensitivity eliminate seeing that? 

Yes, I'd adjust it as needed. The more you turn it down the less you'll see.

[WRB]

The screen shot posted looks OK to me, is it set on auto or manually adjusted?

Reducing screen clutter also eliminates fish. Sometimes you just need to look through the snow flakes to see the forest. The brightest dot above the 10' marker on the right side looks like a fish to me.

Tom

[burrows]

Couple of jellyfish, some dolphins and looks like an actopus of some kind on the bottom.

[Gundog]

11 minutes ago, Burrows said:

Couple of jellyfish, some dolphins and looks like an actopus of some kind on the bottom.

Actopus….is that a kind of squid that does Shakespeare in the park? In that case its probably an out of work Actopus. 

[RHuff]

It is on auto sensativity setting..

[WRB]

3 hours ago, RHuff said:

It is on auto sensativity setting..

Auto settings are filtered and designed to give you an average screen clarity that looks good, not your optimal screen returns. You are new to sonar and need to start somewhere and auto setting are a start.

What I do is use manual settings to fine tune what is being displayed, this takes time on the water to learn and suggest you hire someone to teach you how to optimize the use of your sonar.

Tom

[J Francho]

19 hours ago, RHuff said:

Will turning down the sensitivity eliminate seeing that?

Why would you want to eliminate information from the screen.  Those look like fish.  Looks like it's set up just fine.  Like Tom says, learning to adjust the sensitivity for optimal display will give you even better display clarity, but Auto is pretty good on modern units.

[RHuff]

9 hours ago, WRB said:

Auto settings are filtered and designed to give you an average screen clarity that looks good, not your optimal screen returns. You are new to sonar and need to start somewhere and auto setting are a start.

What I do is use manual settings to fine tune what is being displayed, this takes time on the water to learn and suggest you hire someone to teach you how to optimize the use of your sonar.

Tom

 

Thank you Tom. Your an excellent resource for this board. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to our threads to help us become better fisherman. 

[jbmaine]

I use the same unit you have and have seen similar things on the screen. My thought is the arches with the most red in them are probably fish, the rest debris. Whenever I have seen screens with images like that the water column was full of bits of weeds. 

[burrows]

20 hours ago, Gundog said:

Actopus….is that a kind of squid that does Shakespeare in the park? In that case its probably an out of work Actopus. 

??‍♂️

[WRB]

I noted at top of this thread that I am not familiar with Garmin units.

All sonar units work the same and have a automatic operating mode and manual operation mode. The Auto function is factory set based on averages; depth, water temperature, water particulates, cover and structure types, boat speed, separation small target size from the background etc, etc.

In the real world averages satisfy only a few because every body of water is different, different water temperature affect the signal strength, warmer it's stronger and faster, cold water is more dense slowing down the signal and requires more power, that is just 1 variable to overcome. Bottom density can be soft and absorb signal strength or hard and reflect a stronger signal at the same power setting. Today's auto setting increase or decrease signal strength based on depth, not bottom density.

Sensitivity setting is like your TV or radio  volume control, increase power and it gets loader. Imagine a auto setting for your TV, average room size, average number of people, pieces of sound absorbing furnishing and carpet and it may be OK, add background noise or more people and it's not OK, can't hear it anymore. TV's don't have auto volume settings, they are manual adjustment because averages don't work well.

Manually set up your sonar unit for the conditions you fish. 

Depth, set 0 surface to about 10' deeper then you normally fish, no less than 30'.

Sensitivety (gain or power) start around 90% and adjust up or down to where some background clutter is displayed, you need to be able to determine water density changes to detect thermoclines and small baitfish.

Default ping rate and scroll speed.

this should get you started,

Tom

 

[Harold Scoggins]

Someday we'll be sure what we're looking at...

[slonezp]

Think I'm with WRB on this one. Gas bubbles or rotten vegetation gets my vote.

On 10/23/2018 at 10:37 AM, J Francho said:

Could be white bass.

They would be schooled tighter

[KickingFish]

No these look like baitfish Bass will be a larger arc on your screen

[WRB]

How sonar displays the arc or banana shape return; the outer edge of the sonar field is weaker then the center area, the moving transducer approaches a fish with gas bladder or bubble and the thin arc starts, as the signal gets stronger as the center of the field passes over the fish or bubble the signal is max and the transducer moves past the fish gas bladder the signal tapers off as a thin line or end of the arc. Targets that stay near the outer edge of the circular sonar field stay a thin line. The arc shape isn't the shape of a fish.

Remember the screen displays the history of what the transducer passed over and behind you in your boats wake, only the right screen edge is real time.

Tom