Learn what kind of fish your electronics are showing you

[Mike Cork]

When I first started using the fancy electronics we have now, I was confused. I could see a ton of fish on them but always had trouble catching them.

So once I got fed up, I took a bucket of shiners and a can of night crawlers to the lake. When I found fish I would offer them both up. There isn't a fish in the lakes that won't eat a night crawler. From bream and bluegill to walleye and bass. If I had trouble hooking strikes, they were probably bream or bluegill and down sizing hooks would prove it.

This helped me decipher what I was looking at. More often than not, around here, when I see a lot of fish, it's catfish or gar.

Soon you'll be able to see how different species relate to the bottom and each other.

[Lipripper]

Your right about them night crawlers just about anything that swims will hit one of them. One of the things I saw on some of them fish finders and could never understand was Fish ID how in the heck could it ID what kind of fish it was.

[analfisherman]

Lip you do realize that Fish ID just makes a sound every time 'any' fish swims through the sonar beam and why most anglers turn the thing off because it will drive you insane........case in point..........I USED MINE FOR WAY TO LONG!   

[Lee Smith]

I love looking down and seeing those stripes going across the screen 

[caddyjoe77]

I love looking down and seeing those stripes going across the screen 

Yea, me too...that's your sign!!    I used to think it was brush/trees until someone educated me. 

I too, have a hard time discerning what is what on the graph.  But If I see the stripes, they are feeding!!

I have also heard that fish on top of a hump and the short side of a hump are feeding or ready to eat. The long side ones are a lot harder to catch IMO..  True for anyone else? 

[merc1997]

the old paper graph did a much better job of making different shaped mark for different species of fish than the new high dollar models do.

to get the most out of any graph, you need to spend lots of on the water time with your rods put up and go looking and learning.  those high dollars graphs will not do you one bit of good unless you can discern what it is telling you.

why keep throwing at the bank when the electronics is showing you that most of the fish are underneath the boat?  with practice, you will begin to tell much easier what you are looking at and what types of fish you might be looking at.

i will tell you this.  bass and carp signature exactly the same on a graph.

bo

[Oldfart9999]

There are times when you can't tell whether it's cover or fish with broadband, that's the time to be running split screen; broadband/downscan, it'll do a better job of helping you understand what's below you.
Rodney