Finding Deep Fish

[BubbaBassin’]

I’ve been plotting around over humps and points on lake harding, and I can’t really find anything on my fishfinder. I’m reading the structure, and I think fish should be there, but when I graph over, it’s just bottom. Occasional mark of baitfish but that’s about it. What am I doing wrong? 

[looking45]

A simple answer would be, there aren't any fish there.

[BubbaBassin’]

2 minutes ago, looking45 said:

A simple answer would be, there aren't any fish there.

Right. But there comes a point when I’ve marked enough points and other structure that you feel something is wrong. Or you’re looking in the wrong place. So I was looking for advice or a starting point as to how to locate them. I can read the structure. But it seems like there’s no cover on any of it. So do I just keep graphing until I find something? Or am I doing something wrong.

[looking45]

Define deep. Maybe in the lake you're fishing, the fish are shallower. If you've looked at a lot of the same depths, maybe it's time to look shallower, or even deeper, to see if the fish are staging off the points

[BubbaBassin’]

2 minutes ago, looking45 said:

Define deep. Maybe in the lake you're fishing, the fish are shallower. If you've looked at a lot of the same depths, maybe it's time to look shallower, or even deeper, to see if the fish are staging off the points

Well, I’ve been beating banks. Alot. So obviously they aren’t shallow or I’m in the wrong places. Deep is less than 40 cause my fishfinder is having a depth issue at the moment, but it reads fine above that. I think there’s a thermocline setting up at around 30, so I’ve been mostly fishing in 25+. Next time I go out I’m just going to commit to offshore and see what I can find.

[MickD]

Have you tried fishing the promising looking structure.  It could be fish are somewhat scattered and you have had any in your cone.  or , if the fish are tight to the bottom you may not see or recognize them.  I almost never see smallmouth bass, but on good days I catch them. 

[Smokinal]

3 minutes ago, MickD said:

Have you tried fishing the promising looking structure.  It could be fish are somewhat scattered and you have had any in your cone.  or , if the fish are tight to the bottom you may not see or recognize them.  I almost never see smallmouth bass, but on good days I catch them. 

This was my first thought.  I can scan over some of my best structure, never see fish, back off and fish it and wack em

[WRB]

From other discussions on your sonar unit the transducer is suspect. Try turning up the gain (power) until the screen is full of background clutter like a snowstorm. You should be reading double bottom echoes and lots of surface clutter. Next turn the gain down slightly with some background clutter, should still see a double bottom echo with bright color contrast. 

Aquatic growrh doesn't grow beyond the depth of light so deeper growrh isn't there. 

With the gain increased you should be reading fish including baitfish. Depth is important to determine the life zone somewhere above the thermocline where you meter baitfish schools.

Tom

[BubbaBassin’]

1 minute ago, Smokinal said:

This was my first thought.  I can scan over some of my best structure, never see fish, back off and fish it and wack em

I did actually see what looked like really really tight arches hugged to the bottom, I just chalked it up to glowing hard spots, I’ll be sure to try that.

1 minute ago, WRB said:

From other discussions on your sonar unit the transducer is suspect. Try turning up the gain (power) until the screen is full of background clutter like a snowstorm. You should be reading double bottom echoes and lots of surface clutter. Next turn the gain down slightly with some background clutter, shoukd still see a double bottom echo with bright color contrast. 

Aquatic growrh does grow beyond the depth of light so deeper growrh isn't there. 

With the gain increased you should be reading fish including baitfish. Depth is important to determine the life zone somewhere above the thermocline where you meter baitfish schools.

Tom

Will do. Thanks for the insight as always Tom.

[WRB]

Mark's close to the bottom may be active feeding bass or some other fish. Your sonar unit only returns higher density signals made by the fish airbladder not the entire fish.

Every fish with an airbladder looks the same to sonar.

If your unit has CHRIP the signal separation from structure or cover is good.

Tom

 

[BubbaBassin’]

16 minutes ago, WRB said:

Mark's close to the bottom may be active feeding bass or some other fish. Your sonar unit only returns higher density signals made by the fish airbladder not the entire fish.

Every fish with an airbladder looks the same to sonar.

If your unit has CHRIP the signal separation from structure or cover is good.

Tom

 

I went into simulator mode since I’m not on the water, reseted to defaults, and tweaked a couple sensitivity's like you said, and the image in simulator mode was very clear and defined, so, when I return to the water, I’ll see if I can mark some things similar to sim mode, and if the problem persists I may just need a new transducer.

[scaleface]

Off-shore fishing can be frustrating . I struggled with it a long time before it began to click . Still there are times when deep water is not working . Just keep at it , every trip do a little . WRB mentioned the life-zone which is a real thing . In my area shad are the predominant prey  . They are delicate and die easily. I think    they seek out the depth that has the best combination of o2 , temp , light ...to aid in their survival .I usually find it above the thermocline several feet . Bass will set up on structure at this depth . Study your sonar in  open water looking for the depth that has the most life . 

[Fishingmickey]

30 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Off-shore fishing can be frustrating . I struggled with it a long time before it began to click . Still there are times when deep water is not working . Just keep at it , every trip do a little . WRB mentioned the life-zone which is a real thing . In my area shad are the predominant prey  . They are delicate and die easily. I think    they seek out the depth that has the best combination of o2 , temp , light ...to aid in their survival .I usually find it above the thermocline several feet . Bass will set up on structure at this depth . Study your sonar in  open water looking for the depth that has the most life . 

X2

[lo n slo]

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

Off-shore fishing can be frustrating . I struggled with it a long time before it began to click . Still there are times when deep water is not working . Just keep at it , every trip do a little . WRB mentioned the life-zone which is a real thing . In my area shad are the predominant prey  . They are delicate and die easily. I think    they seek out the depth that has the best combination of o2 , temp , light ...to aid in their survival .I usually find it above the thermocline several feet . Bass will set up on structure at this depth . Study your sonar in  open water looking for the depth that has the most life . 

this is good advice. off shore fishing is my favorite thing to do, especially this time of year. 

[FryDog62]

Sometimes if a hump or deeper Reef looks so good I run a Carolina Rig over it a few different directions to see if there are any takers.  Sometimes they hide or are in a hole, weed clump, etc.  If not, move on quick as poss.

[RoLo]

 

Are you fishing a natural or artificial lake, and are you targeting largemouth or smallmouth bass?

 

Roger 

 

[BubbaBassin’]

8 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

Are you fishing a natural or artificial lake, and are you targeting largemouth or smallmouth bass?

 

Roger 

 

Lake harding, man made reservoir, largemouth

[frogflogger]

The way I learned was by trolling.

[RoLo]

 

4 hours ago, BubbaBassin’ said:

Lake harding, man made reservoir, largemouth

 

Would you class weedbeds & vegetation as abundant, spotty or scarce?

Is rocky bottom common?

Is woody cover common (Stumps, standing timber, docks)?

 

Roger

[BubbaBassin’]

7 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

 

Would you class weedbeds & vegetation as abundant, spotty or scarce?

Is rocky bottom common?

Is woody cover common (Stumps, standing timber, docks)?

 

Roger

Spotty, uncommon But shellbeds are abundant, so many docks. Like, huge amounts of docks.

[BubbaBassin’]

On 7/3/2020 at 2:36 PM, WRB said:

From other discussions on your sonar unit the transducer is suspect. Try turning up the gain (power) until the screen is full of background clutter like a snowstorm. You should be reading double bottom echoes and lots of surface clutter. Next turn the gain down slightly with some background clutter, should still see a double bottom echo with bright color contrast. 

Aquatic growrh doesn't grow beyond the depth of light so deeper growrh isn't there. 

With the gain increased you should be reading fish including baitfish. Depth is important to determine the life zone somewhere above the thermocline where you meter baitfish schools.

Tom

I fixed my transducer, I didn’t look closely enough at it’s position, it must have been knocked loose when I had to run to the ramp full tilt to get out of a thunderstorm. I will commit to getting a fish from depth finding until I get one. Thanks for the advice.

[papajoe222]

I don't know how good your DF is, but fish holding tight to the bottom are difficult to distinguish from the bottom on many traditional sonar units. If you graph a spot that looks like it has a lot of potential, fish it, or sit on it for a while. There is plus side to sitting and waiting for fish activity. Quite a few of the spots I run don't hold fish the majority of time, but when they do, they're normally quality (3lb.+) fish and they rarely show up on my unit.

[BubbaBassin’]

51 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

I don't know how good your DF is, but fish holding tight to the bottom are difficult to distinguish from the bottom on many traditional sonar units. If you graph a spot that looks like it has a lot of potential, fish it, or sit on it for a while. There is plus side to sitting and waiting for fish activity. Quite a few of the spots I run don't hold fish the majority of time, but when they do, they're normally quality (3lb.+) fish and they rarely show up on my unit.

@WRB Welp. Time to update the PB with my first graphing fish.

I’m 6’3 for reference.

[WRB]

Glad it was an easy fix. Keep in mind everything displayed is a history of what the transducer has already past over....it's in you wake behind you!

Tom

Congratulations you are on you way to becoming a very good bass angler.

Tom

[Herbert Lorenzo]

The fish might be there but you may be missing them . A fast way to locate fish is go do some trolling . Throw marker when fish on , then check fishfinder screen history and also carefully study present finder screen to see if you can identify any fish on screen . If you can't identify fish on screen after doing that you may want to turn on fish ID mode to small fish setting and see what is under that boat that you may be misinterpreting.  Hope this helps .