Might have got 2 hours out on the water today. Spent the first part graphing around and looking at some areas, then came across the school of crappie shown in the side-imaging screenshot below (immediately left of centrally located target icon). Thought they might have been white bass at first by how they marked, but the signatures were smaller and fainter (no shadows), plus I never caught a white bass from the spot. Usually if you drop a crappie jig down into a school of whites, it gets eaten. This was just a group of fish "hanging out" at the base of the break. Took less than an hour to pull a limit of crappie from the spot, then my time was up. Hoping to get in a bit more time tomorrow. Surface water temps down to 77 today, but the wind was negligible, so fishing this deeper water school was easy.
How far to the left of the boat is that school of crappie located? I'm still trying to understand the si pictures.
Posted by: Travis | September 16, 2013 at 07:35 AM
Travis - Most of the school fish in the pic are between 12'-18' away from the transducer, though one is 24' away (top left). That is what is actually being shown by the unit. As to how far left from the boat, it can be hard to tell, though I'm guessing not too far. Worst they could be is 18' straight left and high in the water column. One way to help determine this is to switch and look at your 2d sonar and see what it is showing. 2d sonar runs a 20 degree cone angle centered directly under the boat. SI uses the 86 deg. cone to each side, but misses directly underneath. There is an area of overlap though. By switching between 2d and SI, you can make a very good estimate as to exact position based on whether the fish show up on just 1 of the 2 screens or on both.
Posted by: Big Indiana Bass | September 16, 2013 at 10:49 AM