AnglerBob
03-02-2009, 07:31 PM
Question for the pros: How do you know what fish are on your meter?
For example, you're at Pyramid looking for stripers and see suspended fish @ 20 feet. Are they stripers, smallmouth, largemouth or trout?
As long as I've been fishing, I'm often not sure, although if I see fish close to structure I tend to think they're bass.
There are a lot of aspects to reading a fishfinder that take some learning. For example, I know bass pros will often see a fish appear on the screen and try to catch that particular fish, but this is easier said than done. If the boat is still, and a fish appears on the meter, all it tells you is that it's entered your cone radius—you don't know exactly where, right?
By the same token, if you're moving and you're at 15 feet but go over a ten foot dropoff, you can see the ledge and drop on your FF, but the apparent steepness of the cliff as "drawn" by your FF will be affected by your boat speed. And if you anchor right on top of the ledge, the ledge will disappear, and the FF will give you an "average" reading of depths within the cone.
Am I wrong?
For example, you're at Pyramid looking for stripers and see suspended fish @ 20 feet. Are they stripers, smallmouth, largemouth or trout?
As long as I've been fishing, I'm often not sure, although if I see fish close to structure I tend to think they're bass.
There are a lot of aspects to reading a fishfinder that take some learning. For example, I know bass pros will often see a fish appear on the screen and try to catch that particular fish, but this is easier said than done. If the boat is still, and a fish appears on the meter, all it tells you is that it's entered your cone radius—you don't know exactly where, right?
By the same token, if you're moving and you're at 15 feet but go over a ten foot dropoff, you can see the ledge and drop on your FF, but the apparent steepness of the cliff as "drawn" by your FF will be affected by your boat speed. And if you anchor right on top of the ledge, the ledge will disappear, and the FF will give you an "average" reading of depths within the cone.
Am I wrong?