When do you abandon electronics and go fish shallow?

[Captain Phil]

6 minutes ago, gimruis said:

So I assume you shut off your bow mount too then, if you think the ping of sonar is spooking fish to your presence in shallow water?  Because certainly the constant rotation of a prop blade in shallow water creates a heck of a lot more noise than the ping of a sonar unit.

 

I never run my electronics when flipping.  I also use my trolling motor sparingly. Stealth is what you want.

[Catt]

26 minutes ago, gimruis said:

So I assume you shut off your bow mount too then, if you think the ping of sonar is spooking fish to your presence in shallow water?  Because certainly the constant rotation of a prop blade in shallow water creates a heck of a lot more noise than the ping of a sonar unit.

 

Radio telemetry studies show the pinging of the transducer effects some bass while others ignore it. 

 

The studies also showed your first cast spooked bass as well. 

[InfantryMP]

I think a lot of it has to do with the time of year, water conditions, water temp etc. 

 

Right now for example in the Southeast part of GA, it has been cold and water temps were in the mid to upper 50's. A few more 75-80* days and we will be in the 60's and the pre-spawn and spawn time again. 

 

So right now, I will start deeper in 12-30ft of water. I am fishing a known big bass man made lake / large pond. There are 12's in this lake, a few were caught during the last spawn. I will use my Active Target to fish known structure from my other views. I caught a 7 two weeks ago doing this in cold water with a 3/4oz black and blue jig just dragging the bottom.

 

Once that water gets to 60ish. I am going to move closer to the bank, but still in the deeper cuts that parallel the bank for those pre-spawners, and then I will head to closer to flip over to bed fish when that time comes. Here I would probably use something like a DT6 or another gill pattern moving bait for those feeding up.

 

I do not turn off anything, as I try to stay back far enough to not spook with the boat presence. I think it has been mentioned before, but other have used FFS up shallow and it still works.  If you are in a massive grass lake, then maybe not so much.  

[gim]

30 minutes ago, Catt said:

Radio telemetry studies show the pinging of the transducer effects some bass while others ignore it. 

 

The studies also showed your first cast spooked bass as well. 

I was only trying to point out that discontinuing the pinging off a transducer but continuing to run a bow mount doesn't make much sense.  If the goal is to be stealthy, you can't pick and choose which noise you think helps or hinders.  You should eliminate ALL noise.

[Skunkmaster-k]

In the winter I like to see all the fish ignore my bait, so I leave my electronics on most of the time. 

[Susky River Rat]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I was only trying to point out that discontinuing the pinging off a transducer but continuing to run a bow mount doesn't make much sense.  If the goal is to be stealthy, you can't pick and choose which noise you think helps or hinders.  You should eliminate ALL noise.

If the ping bothered them that much no one would catch fish ice fishing with a flasher.

[MN Fisher]

1 hour ago, Darnold335 said:

If the ping bothered them that much no one would catch fish ice fishing with a flasher.

If the ping bothered them, no one would be 'video-game fishing' successfully.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

I was only trying to point out that discontinuing the pinging off a transducer but continuing to run a bow mount doesn't make much sense

 

The study also looked at trolling motor noise & driving over them with the outboard. The effects were the same, it effected some & not others. 

 

Conclusion, do what you like.

[gim]

2 minutes ago, Catt said:

Conclusion, do what you like.

 

[Dogface]

On 2/21/2023 at 10:10 AM, gimruis said:

So I assume you shut off your bow mount too then, if you think the ping of sonar is spooking fish to your presence in shallow water?  Because certainly the constant rotation of a prop blade in shallow water creates a heck of a lot more noise than the ping of a sonar unit.

 

This is just my gut feeling based on a lot of time on the water. I have no scientific study or any notes to back up my "gut feeling" and it could change but now I think I can operate my TM at a very slow speed and because it gives off less vibration and noise it does not affect fish.  At higher speeds, I believe the TM does alert them. 

 

The sonar ping is always the same intensity and I have no way to reduce the intensity so I shut it down.  

[gim]

6 minutes ago, Dogface said:

I think I can operate my TM at a very slow speed and because it gives off less vibration and noise it does not affect fish

I don't think so.  A rotating prop displaces water.  A sonar transducer gives off a ping.  Water displacement is definitely going to create more noise in shallow water.  Unless of course you are in deeper water, but you this thread is about fishing in shallow water, so I assume that's what we're referencing here.

 

You should be completely shutting off your bow mount too, if you are shutting off your sonar.  Just my 2 cents.

[Woody B]

One of the first things I noticed when I got active target was fish swimming up and checking out my boat as soon as I stop and drop the trolling motor.   These are smaller fish, not bass, but bass eat smaller fish.   Many people, including myself give bass/fish way too much credit.  They're simply not that intelligent.   When I was a kid a guy who done a bunch of sub contracting work for my Dad would take me fishing quite often.  If he got a leaf or something stuck on a lure he'd slap it on the water to clean it off.  I asked him if that' wouldn't scare the bass.  He said "they're so dumb they probably swim up to see what it is".   A while later (not the same trip) he was beating a leaf off of a lure.  He "jerked" a 12 inch bass into the boat that hit the lure while he was beating the water with it.  

 

Last year I was throwing a Devils Horse.  I've caught many bass on a t-rig after they (or something) rolled on the 'horse but didn't "take" it.  I keep a t-rig close by anything I'm fishing top water.  The t-rig rod was laying across my deck with the worm about 3/4ths in the water as I was going along with the trolling motor.  (not on purpose, it was just laying like that.  I decided to move to another area, picked up up the trolling motor and picked up the t-rig.  A 10 inch spot grabbed the worm as I was pulling it out of the water.  The bass ended up in my boat, but was never hooked.  It grabbed the tail of the worm hard enough to get boat flipped.   The bass was in the boat before I even knew what was happening.   

 

I'll get skunked the next 413 times I go fishing for saying this but bass can be wary, they can be not active, or even hard to find at times.  However, they're just not that smart.   

 

Same thing with Deer.  I've got a shooting range in my back yard.  I've had deer come out looking to see what was going on while I was shooting.  

[AlabamaSpothunter]

21 minutes ago, Woody B said:

One of the first things I noticed when I got active target was fish swimming up and checking out my boat as soon as I stop and drop the trolling motor.   These are smaller fish, not bass, but bass eat smaller fish.   Many people, including myself give bass/fish way too much credit.  They're simply not that intelligent.   When I was a kid a guy who done a bunch of sub contracting work for my Dad would take me fishing quite often.  If he got a leaf or something stuck on a lure he'd slap it on the water to clean it off.  I asked him if that' wouldn't scare the bass.  He said "they're so dumb they probably swim up to see what it is".   A while later (not the same trip) he was beating a leaf off of a lure.  He "jerked" a 12 inch bass into the boat that hit the lure while he was beating the water with it.  

 

Last year I was throwing a Devils Horse.  I've caught many bass on a t-rig after they (or something) rolled on the 'horse but didn't "take" it.  I keep a t-rig close by anything I'm fishing top water.  The t-rig rod was laying across my deck with the worm about 3/4ths in the water as I was going along with the trolling motor.  (not on purpose, it was just laying like that.  I decided to move to another area, picked up up the trolling motor and picked up the t-rig.  A 10 inch spot grabbed the worm as I was pulling it out of the water.  The bass ended up in my boat, but was never hooked.  It grabbed the tail of the worm hard enough to get boat flipped.   The bass was in the boat before I even knew what was happening.   

 

I'll get skunked the next 413 times I go fishing for saying this but bass can be wary, they can be not active, or even hard to find at times.  However, they're just not that smart.   

 

Same thing with Deer.  I've got a shooting range in my back yard.  I've had deer come out looking to see what was going on while I was shooting.  

1000%, doesn't change the fact that big Bass are extraordinarily hard to catch.....but they simply aren't intelligent organisms.     Big Bass are very rare to start off with.  

Bob Lusk has some fantastic insight into this topic. 

 

I slap junk off my lure every time out, and when I find active fish, they are literally jumping right beside the boat because I put myself right in the middle of them.    They are completely oblivious to me when they are fired up chasing Shad, much like a Buck chasing a Doe.  

 

 

[gim]

14 hours ago, Woody B said:

Same thing with Deer.  I've got a shooting range in my back yard.  I've had deer come out looking to see what was going on while I was shooting. 

Haha.  But I bet none of those deer was a mature buck.  I've seen deer do some really dumb things too, but they were all anterless versions.  Rarely do the mature bucks even get hit by cars.

[Bird]

I've got WAY more hours in a tree stand before I see and take a mature Buck vs boat time catching a bass.

BUT I'd say that both, a mature Buck and a large bass are equally elusive.

[813basstard]

On 2/19/2023 at 10:37 AM, Captain Phil said:

If all the electronics fell off my boat I won't miss them.  I learned to catch bass when the only depth finder I had was a stick.  Shallow bass are active bass.  A fish you can see on a monitor is not necessarily a bass you can catch.

Haha…or even bass at all. Sometimes I forgot there are other things in that water besides bass

[Captain Phil]

3 hours ago, 813basstard said:

Haha…or even bass at all. Sometimes I forgot there are other things in that water besides bass

Years ago when side sonar hit the market it was all the rage.   A local Okeechobee guide and fellow tournament competitor took me out to show me his new electronic wonder.  We saw fish in every weed bed we came to.  We saw fish where we never expected.  I wondered if I was ever going to win another tournament in my life?  How could I possibly compete with an advantage like that?  As it turned out, seeing fish is not catching fish.

[gim]

4 hours ago, Bird said:

I've got WAY more hours in a tree stand before I see and take a mature Buck vs boat time catching a bass.

Me too, and its not even comparable.  The amount of time isn't even on the same wavelength for those two.

 

If you want to compare a trophy sized muskie catch to a mature buck, then there may be some similarity.

[Bird]

57 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Me too, and its not even comparable.  The amount of time isn't even on the same wavelength for those two.

 

If you want to compare a trophy sized muskie catch to a mature buck, then there may be some similarity.

Agree as far as a typical bass is concerned.

When you move up in the scale say 7-8 lb fish then it's a different story.

I'm pretty even on trophy Bucks vs trophy Bass.

[Deephaven]

On 2/19/2023 at 7:35 AM, clemsondds said:

So, my question is, do you guys that focus primarily on off shore electronics based fishing….do you ever choose to fish shallow and if so, when/what occasion (eg prespawn, muddy water, post-front…) 

As often as I can!  I love Topwater in all seasons, but live on a deep water focused lake.

[txchaser]

This isn't the first time that big fish has seen a boat or heard electronics, and it's not the first time it's ever been caught either. Some of them will have a negative connection with a particular sound. What I don't know yet is whether people are seeing fish scatter from livescope pings. On a regular sonar you wouldn't see it... but on FFS you should be able to see it turn. 

 

I think it's the same for a lure - if you catch a 4lb on a rattletrap, boat flip it onto the carpet, keep it out of the water for two minutes, and then toss it in the air for a release, I don't think that fish is ever biting a rattletrap again. Too much negative stimuli associated with the lure. 

 

Anyway, if you don't need it on at the moment, turn it off. 

 

Related, is there a way to turn off just the sidescan pings and not the down on most sonars?

[clemsondds]

How about water clarity?  Does it ever influence your decision?  For instance, if less than 6" visibility, do you still use your ffs? 

[TnRiver46]

After the last two days of BS, I’m strongly considering abandoning all things electric when it comes to fishing. Serenity now!!!!!

 

[GreenPig]

On 2/19/2023 at 9:08 AM, A-Jay said:

Night Time is The Right Time . . . .

A-Jay

Yes sir. 

[Woody B]

On 2/23/2023 at 9:50 AM, Bird said:

BUT I'd say that both, a mature Buck and a large bass are equally elusive.

 

 

I guess I've been doing it wrong.   I've been catching buck bass, and doe deer.     

 

Seriously though, In most cases I don't think it's intelligence, or even learned behavior.   I believe the mature bucks, and trophy bass are born with better instincts than the ones that don't make it.  How many mature bucks would be killed (legally, during the daytime) if it wasn't for the rut?