Side Imaging picture (School of bait and fish)

[Triton_Mike]

I took this picture last week while on the lake and thought I would share it. This time of year we do alot of dropshotting and spooning for schooling fish feeding on baitfish. In a nutshell, this tactic requires you to use your electronics to find these schools of fish which are often found fairly deep 20-60ft deep. I am finding the Side Imaging of the Humminbird 987SI unit to become a very useful tool in finding the schools of bait and fish more quickly than if you were strictly using a sonar with limited bottom coverage. You can cover a signficant amount of water faster with the Side Imaging (300ft sweeps) than you can with a straight up sonar and more effectively at that. The SI is perfect for finding deep schools of fish/bait quickly with your electronics.

In this picture, this particular creek was several hundred feet wide and my pattern was catching fish in the 40-50ft depth range. So I opted to put my boat over 30ft of water and follow the shoreline on the left side of the creek and scan the side imaging over on the RIGHT side of the boat and do the opposite on the way out to cover some water out over the deeper water to locate the bait and fish to dropshot and spoon.

In this picture I have the SI scanning 139 feet scanning out ONLY on the right side of the boat. As you can see the cloudy part outlined in a red rectangle is the bait fish (threadfin) and the black outlined rectangle are schools of spots working the bait. If you look hard you can also see the shadow that is emitted behind the school of spots where the lettering is cut off. The schools of spots were approximately 70 feet off the right side the boat. I simply threw out a marker bouy and did an approximate 70ft U turn and a little bit of triangulating and worked my way back to this area with the trolling motor and working a little bit with my sonar on my front deck. Once I found the bait on my sonar on the front deck I quickly caught 8 fish on back to back casts on a dropshot then caught 2 more on a spoon before the school dispersed. It was a super quick 13lb limit of spots that were spitting up shad as they fought under the boat

T Mike

[Nick_Barr]

The Picture aint coming up, it might just be my computer, but i might as well tell you.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

I see it.

Is this like a birds eye view.

[sodaksker]

How do you know what shapes represent the different kinds of fish?  Do you have a camera to drop down or just lots of experience?

[Triton_Mike]

Sodakster, Experience is one thing but if you understand how the Side Imaging works it will also help you understand. If you run the 987 in Side imagin you will see ALL sorts of clouds like you see in the red rectangle representing shad. The white in the bars in the black rectangle are more solid and emit a shadow represented by the yellow arrow and line. More solid things like fish and trees and rocks will emit a shadow while a school of bait will not. I guess a school of bait COULD emit a shawdow but it would have to be fairly dense.

Just to give you a little idea here is a picture of an underwater sunken bridge.

This picture is TWO pictures joined together at the green line by a image editor ie photoshop. THey are two seperate pictures but I combined them to show the "BIG" picture. From what I see in this picture the actual bridge is no longer on the bulkhead in which it was built on.

T Mike

[K_Mac]

T_Mike-The first 30 feet (more or less) from the boat is a darker blue. Is this indicating deeper water under the boat? What does the two shades of blue mean? What type of unit are you using? How big is a 5lb. grasshopper? These are all questions that come to mind. Thanks for your help.

Disregard the type of unit question. Ididn't read the first post closely. Thanks-K

[Triton_Mike]

K MAC,  The dark blue you see right under the boat represents the water column,  To a degree the depth of the water.  I don't pay much attention to that part of the Side Imaging.  Pay attention to what you see from the edge of the dark blue to the far edge of the screen.  How big is a 5lb grasshopper?????  5lbs???  For more info on how to read this data go here..

http://www.humminbird.com/generic2.asp?ID=514

If you have any other questions about it let me know and I'll do my best to answer it.  BTW this unit has sonar, GPS AND Side Imaging capabilities all in ONE unit.  ~~  Very powerful!!

T Mike

[Bass Hammer]

Mike I guess sonar work will be my next lesson. ;D

[Triton_Mike]

BassHammer ,  We tried for just a little bit to do the sonar bite.  IT was a little on the early side when we went.  With this cold weather on the way things should get interesting ~

T Mike

[Bass Hammer]

I'm looking forward to it bud.

[Guest avid]

Really cool stuff.  8-)

[K_Mac]

Triton_Mike

I checked out the Hummingbird link-WOW.That is amazing. I have something new to add to my wish list. I checked out price on the BP web site, so it may be while!

[paparock]

The image of the bridge is clear to me but most of the images seem like I would have a hard time picking out what I was looking at. That is probably because I have no experience with this technology. Maybe it would be easier if they come out with it in color. The idea is great as I can see real advantages to viewing more of a 3D image especially on structure. How easy is it to tell the type of bottom you are over? I am in the process of looking to upgrade my boat equipment as I have posted in the "Bass Boating" forum. I am looking at the Humminbird 987SI, Lowrance LCX-111C. and the Furuno GP1650.

[Triton_Mike]

Paparock, Sometimes with new technology you just have to try it and interpret it the best that you can. I doubt you'll ever see it in color. Not much color under the water anyhow. The good thing is you can split screen the Sonar and the Side Imaging at the same time. Meaning if you run right over an object with your boat you can see that object on the sonar AND the Side Imaging screen to get a better idea of what you are looking at. Fortunately for me that bridge was on my map so I knew in advance what I was looking for and it is quite a ways offshore as well. I found that bridge on my first pass with the Side Imaging and if I just had a sonar I would probably still be out there looking for it because you will have to run right over the bridge if you want to see it with the sonar. Side Imaging I can scan up to 240 feet out on either side of the boat. Mine sweeping if you want to call it that. HEre are a few other posts you can look at to familiarize yourself with this new technology and it's sonar capabilities.

another site

Hope this helps!!!

BTW do a search on google you can find it much cheaper than 1999.99. I bought mine for like 1699.99 from www.rivermarineelectronics.com out of Miami

T Mike

[paparock]

T Mike, thanks for the info. I have been using Humminbird 3D depthfinders for years in saltwater for finding points in semi-deep water. It made it easy to anchor the boat and drift back to within casting distance of the point. Just at dark the redfish would go on a feed and the action went from dead to frenzy in minutes.