Sonar, can we live without it ???

[WRB]

Our local lakes are around 2,000 acres with very little shore cover, mostly dead brush. The terrain is mountainous with steep and rocky narrow canyons. 

Every boat launches and runs to a cove or point, puts down the TM and starts pounding the bank. 

I like to deer hunt and learned to study topographic elevation maps to locate where the big bucks should be. Reading topo maps helped to understand what was underwater when bass fishing. A 2D map your mind converts into a 3D picture of the structure.

1959 Lowrance offered their 1st flasher a portable unit Fish LO K TOR. I was in high school and bought the unit because It could define what I knew was there on my maps but now I could see real time fish on the structure. Now I wasn’t pounding the same shore as everyone else and catching bass that only trollers blindly ran across.

Humming Bird Super 30 & 60. Replaced the Lo K Tor. Lowrance 1510 & 1610 paper graphs where added along with the flashers to detail what the flasher indicated. Soft or hard bottoms, rocks, sand gravel, brush, trees, all kinds of structure elements were available to sonar anglers.

Velexar was the 1st color sonar flasher unit, soon Lowrance advanced the pixel density to the point I put away my flashers and paper graphs. 

I feel blind fishing without sonar because spent 50 years looking at sonar returns to determine where the bass and bait were located, if a thermocline had developed or lake turned over. 

Now I am back seating occasionally and fishing basically blind unless the boater shares the sonar unit or let’s me have the front seat for awhile. 

I can catch bass pounding the shore blindly and my memory is still functional and can picture what’s under the boat or coming along the shoreline. Given the chance I move the boat to a off shore hump or some rock piles I know of and enjoy bass much more then simple casting toward the bank.

Sonar was essential to me for decades because it opened up the entire water column to knowledgeable anglers.

Tom

 

[Blue Raider Bob]

I enjoy my sonar to the point that I look at the screen almost as much as I look to the water. Is that a bad thing? I thought so at first, but I realized that I enjoy the screen time as well as the water time. It's part of the fishing experience for me. I enjoy watching schools of fish past in front or under my boat. I also enjoy viewing structure that I pass over that without sonar, I would not have known existed. I get a kick out of jigging a Ned Rig in front of on screen fish that approach, then eat the jig. I also like to know water depth, and temperature at all times.

[GaryH]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Our local lakes are around 2,000 acres with very little shore cover, mostly dead brush. The terrain is mountainous with steep and rocky narrow canyons. 

Every boat launches and runs to a cove or point, puts down the TM and starts pounding the bank. 

I like to deer hunt and learned to study topographic elevation maps to locate where the big bucks should be. Reading topo maps helped to understand what was underwater when bass fishing. A 2D map your mind converts into a 3D picture of the structure.

1959 Lowrance offered their 1st flasher a portable unit Fish LO K TOR. I was in high school and bought the unit because It could define what I knew was there on my maps but now I could see real time fish on the structure. Now I wasn’t pounding the same shore as everyone else and catching bass that only trollers blindly ran across.

Humming Bird Super 30 & 60. Replaced the Lo K Tor. Lowrance 1510 & 1610 paper graphs where added along with the flashers to detail what the flasher indicated. Soft or hard bottoms, rocks, sand gravel, brush, trees, all kinds of structure elements were available to sonar anglers.

Velexar was the 1st color sonar flasher unit, soon Lowrance advanced the pixel density to the point I put away my flashers and paper graphs. 

I feel blind fishing without sonar because spent 50 years looking at sonar returns to determine where the bass and bait were located, if a thermocline had developed or lake turned over. 

Now I am back seating occasionally and fishing basically blind unless the boater shares the sonar unit or let’s me have the front seat for awhile. 

I can catch bass pounding the shore blindly and my memory is still functional and can picture what’s under the boat or coming along the shoreline. Given the chance I move the boat to a off shore hump or some rock piles I know of and enjoy bass much more then simple casting toward the bank.

Sonar was essential to me for decades because t opened up the entire water column to knowledgeable anglers.

Tom

 

With your knowledge of finding big bass you could have the front of my boat anytime. As always thanks for sharing your knowledge 

[jhoffman]

Most important to me these days is the locations of things I dont wanna hit in the rivers. The map is more important than the sonar. As mentioned above I use topographic maps to hunt deer and know where to fish. The sonar portion is the fine tuning. FFS for me is beyond where I wanna take it currently. I also dont need real time photos of deer in front of my trail cams.

[Tennessee Boy]

Here are two contrasting ways to experience the same cast, with and  without sonar.

 

Without Sonar: I randomly cast my line and reel it back to the boat without a bite. What I didn't know was that my bait had passed a submerged stump, and a large bass followed it briefly, but didn't take the bait.

With Sonar: I spot a submerged stump on my 360 imaging display. I direct my live sonar towards the stump and notice a large fish swimming by it. I cast my line towards the stump, and observe the fish approaching my bait, but unfortunately, it doesn't take it.
 

Despite both casts resulting in failure, the second scenario is far more interesting, thanks to the information that technology provided. As a result, I find traditional fishing to be more tedious now that I've experienced how technology can change the game.  I’m not sure I could go back.

[TOXIC]

Perspective is a wonderful thing….  Can you catch bass without sonar…yes but you also can catch bass without a trolling motor, power poles, 250hp motors, heck you don’t even need a boat.  It pretty much boiled down to how far YOU want to take it.  ?

[gim]

1 hour ago, jhoffman said:

Most important to me these days is the locations of things I dont wanna hit in the rivers. The map is more important than the sonar.

X2, its a safety thing for me first and foremost to avoid running into something I don't want to.  You're taking a pretty big freaking risk by throttling down in a water body when you don't know how deep it is.  That's a risk I'm not willing to take because it may result in serious damage to my prop, lower unit, or my hull.

[TOXIC]

7 minutes ago, gimruis said:

X2, its a safety thing for me first and foremost to avoid running into something I don't want to.  You're taking a pretty big freaking risk by throttling down in a water body when you don't know how deep it is.  That's a risk I'm not willing to take because it may result in serious damage to my prop, lower unit, or my hull.

While I have a tendency to get lost in my own backyard the gps function on the graphs is a lifesaver but it is still just a suggestion and that’s why every manufacturer has a warning screen that it is not to be used as navigation.  If you have your transducer mounted on the back of your boat, chances are it’s going to tell you what you just hit.  I’m super cautious though and wouldn’t like navigating a new lake without it but I just keep it in perspective.  I have been going down my share of canals and it shows me going through Main Street in town practically. ?

[gim]

@TOXIC you also have to realize that I've never really fished without modern GPS or color sonar in my life.  Even growing up we had it on my family fishing boat.  I realize that my years of fishing are paltry to many on this website, including yours, but its something I've always had and used, so I really can't even fathom what it would be like without it.

[TOXIC]

7 minutes ago, gimruis said:

@TOXIC you also have to realize that I've never really fished without modern GPS or color sonar in my life.  Even growing up we had it on my family fishing boat.  I realize that my years of fishing are paltry to many on this website, including yours, but its something I've always had and used, so I really can't even fathom what it would be like without it.

Understood.  Some of the lakes and rivers I fish would be downright dangerous without it.  Used to be you learned the hard way but with the advent of sonar it’s gotten much shorter of a learning curve.  While I never used the paper graphs, my use started with flashers.  I was amazed at how some guys could read and decipher those. I also used a lot of paper maps with depth contours. 

[gim]

1 hour ago, TOXIC said:

While I never used the paper graphs, my use started with flashers.  I was amazed at how some guys could read and decipher those.

Flashers are still very popular amongst ice anglers here.  The Vexilar unit is the most common one.  I have no idea how to read one.

[gulfcaptain]

I can fish with or without it. Navigation with it is essential.  Good for marking objects you would rather not find on pad. As for fishing, the ones who understand and utilize their electronics as a tool tend catch more fish with them then the guy that has it in the boat and doesn't other then the water temp and depth. I can run down a bank and power fish but can also pull off the bank locate offshore structure,  use my ffs  and fish it as well.

[Zcoker]

I'll use it on new bodies of water but in places that I fish all the time it only comes on to check out water temp and then off it goes. The rest of it location and so forth is basically in my head memorized. At night it's a nuisance and I like going all dark anyway. Sometimes I feel the sonar pulse fish can pick up on and spook easily or go tight-lip, especially in shallow tight quarters. That may be just a loose hunch but it might also be a solid truth.

[Dogface]

On 2/15/2023 at 11:43 AM, Team9nine said:

Lol - Those first LCR/LCD units were crap, no matter which company you went with ? I refused to give up my flashers and paper graphs for another 10 years until the technology finally became acceptable. That was around 1993/1994 with the introduction of the Lowrance LMS-350 & X-70 units (GPS & Non GPS respectively). It wasn’t terribly long after that that paper graphs started to get phased out by companies, and then the paper rolls got really difficult to find to keep existing units running. 

 

Yes, they were but I didn't think so then.  I had an Impulse that was supposed to be one of the best. Big block-like pixels. I think I also had an X-70 at one time. But nothing could compare to a paper graph like my Lowrance X-15. The detail was fantastic. I'd used the LCD for general "looking" but when I wanted detail I went with the paper graph. 

[TnRiver46]

We have buoys to prevent you from hitting the bottom, if you know how to interpret. Sonar not necessary for navigation, it’s the floating logs that’ll get ya while you’re looking down at sonar……..

 

The people that knock off their lower units have sonar , I’ve done it myself just trying to run some rapids. 
 

jacob wheeler knocked his off in the bassmaster classic, I think he’s got decent mapping on his rig…….

[gim]

18 hours ago, Zcoker said:

Sometimes I feel the sonar pulse fish can pick up on and spook easily or go tight-lip, especially in shallow tight quarters. That may be just a loose hunch but it might also be a solid truth.

Possible.  But I would have to imagine that the constant hum of a bow mount prop would be an even louder pulse in the water.  So turning off the sonar but continuing to use the bow mount is a bit of a moot point here.

[Bird]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

We have buoys to prevent you from hitting the bottom, if you know how to interpret. Sonar not necessary for navigation, it’s the floating logs that’ll get ya while you’re looking down at sonar……..

I'll take that advice.

Wife and I are staying in Knoxville Monday night and will launch a boat into river at Harriman Tuesday...... will watch for floating logs 

[Cbump]

Can we? Of course. But It sucks. 

[Deleted account]

19 hours ago, gimruis said:

Flashers are still very popular amongst ice anglers here.  The Vexilar unit is the most common one.  I have no idea how to read one.

Same here, they can be intimidating at first, but once they make sense, it's like duh!...

Some 2D units had an option to display a flasher bar on one side of the screen, the big advantage is that while rudimentary, it is real time accurate data, unlike some 2D screens which were delayed and animated.

[Skunkmaster-k]

I took my newest boat out awhile back before the electronics were installed. It felt like having one hand tied behind my back. 

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

I took my newest boat out awhile back before the electronics were installed. It felt like having one hand tied behind my back. 

Did you switch hands to reel after a cast?...

[Dogface]

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

Possible.  But I would have to imagine that the constant hum of a bow mount prop would be an even louder pulse in the water.  So turning off the sonar but continuing to use the bow mount is a bit of a moot point here.

 

I usually turn off the sonar when fishing. I think they can detect the pulse. Since I usually know the water I'm fishing and I'm usually fishing shallow there is no reason to keep it on in most circumstances. 

 

I also use just enough power on the TM to maneuver. I think fish can detect the TM. I think/feel I do better with the TM running very slow as opposed to just slow. I believe any disturbance can alert fish so I try to eliminate all but any necessary disturbance. Sometimes especially in shallow water, I'm stalking fish rather than fishing for them. 

[gim]

20 minutes ago, Dogface said:

I believe any disturbance can alert fish so I try to eliminate all but any necessary disturbance. Sometimes especially in shallow water, I'm stalking fish rather than fishing for them. 

I just think its kind of ridiculous for someone to say that the pulse of sonar can alert fish to your presence but they continue to maneuver the boat around with a rotating prop on the bow mount.  If the intent is to go in there like a ninja, you really should be eliminating ALL noise.

 

I am generally not that paranoid when I am fishing and most of the lakes/rivers I am fishing do not receive a considerable amount of pressure.  Do I roar in there with the outboard?  Certainly not.  Sunshine, clear water, and shadows generally do not mix either.  Back off and make longer casts.  If you can see the fish, its very likely they can see you too.

 

I definitely use the stealth approach when I'm sneaking into my deer stand or my turkey blind though.  Like ninja style sometimes.  And I know trout anglers deploy the sneak approach when chasing their target too.

[MN Fisher]

19 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I just think its kind of ridiculous for someone to say that the pulse of sonar can alert fish to your presence but they continue to maneuver the boat around with a rotating prop on the bow mount.  If the intent is to go in there like a ninja, you really should be eliminating ALL noise.

Heck - just the lapping of waves against the hull makes more noise than the sonar does. If you're wanting to eliminate noise - better not be in a boat/canoe/kayak.

[gim]

6 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Heck - just the lapping of waves against the hull makes more noise than the sonar does. If you're wanting to eliminate noise - better not be in a boat/canoe/kayak.

Perhaps.  In many lakes, I think fish have become accustomed to certain levels of noise in (or above) the water.  We already know that summer time has peak recreational boating activity.

 

I am pretty sure that sound travels much better through water than it does through air, so noises above the water may not matter "as much" as noises in the water column.

 

Do I think bass have made an association with certain noises that could alert them to the danger of being hooked?  Certainly possible.  Do I think that's the case with all of them?  Certainly not.  Otherwise we would be catching a lot less fish.  Use ice anglers as an example right now.  The more vehicles and traffic on top of the ice, the worse the fishing is.