The Quadfather
1/28/2011 10:10:00 PMG with a SMB! Appreciate the report on the crummy water in the South end.
mav186
1/29/2011 10:12:00 AMOK G...please put the 'stunt bass' away and pull out some more of your beautiful cuttys! lol I really like your new sonar screen, great shot!
danm
1/29/2011 10:32:00 PMIS that a Lowrance HDS fishfinder? I have a HDS 7 and still struggling to find the best settings for it. Any suggestions?
RiverChromeGS
1/29/2011 10:56:00 PMhey do you know if the dirty water at the mouth of the river goes all the way too the bottom, or is it just near the surface as it does in salt water? I was wondering if trolling deep near the cedar would be worth it, or if its dirt all the way through? Fishing's most likely going to be good when the river clears tho.
G-Man
1/30/2011 9:07:00 AMDamn - Yes that is a HDS7 that I have installed on my boat. I like having the surface clarity set to low and the noise reduction set to low as well when I'm using the 50khz frequency. When I'm using the 200khz frequency I'll see if I can't turn off the noise reduction and get a good image, if not I'll leave it at the low setting. I also like using the max or near max ping speed, this basically updates your image more often as every ping is a "picture". For now I'm letting the unit decide the depth scale and sensitivity. When set for slow freshwater trolling it does a pretty good job. Just remember these units are super sensitive and will pick up disturbances in the water like "contrails" that fish, boats and diving birds make when moving through the water.
Fishenfreak - I'm not sure about the warter clarity down deep, but you'll note that there is something at the 60' range going on in the south end. Not sure if is temeprature, silt or current causing this but I gave it a go at all depths and came up empty. This time of the year the smelt will start staging in preparation of spawing in the cedar so the South end will have a boat load of cutts. The problem is the cooler water, it slows down the metabolism, which will limit the amount of bait the cutts can process. This means you have to be there when the fish are in the mood to feed, get there too late and it makes for a slow day.
Fishenfreak - I'm not sure about the warter clarity down deep, but you'll note that there is something at the 60' range going on in the south end. Not sure if is temeprature, silt or current causing this but I gave it a go at all depths and came up empty. This time of the year the smelt will start staging in preparation of spawing in the cedar so the South end will have a boat load of cutts. The problem is the cooler water, it slows down the metabolism, which will limit the amount of bait the cutts can process. This means you have to be there when the fish are in the mood to feed, get there too late and it makes for a slow day.
danm
1/30/2011 3:59:00 PMThanks G-Man. Sometimes I record my fishing trip sonar readings on a SD card, and then view it later on the computer, using the free software from lowrance website. That is a cool future!