Simrad Screenshots from Lake Anna

This screenshot shows lots of 2 to 4 pound Stripers in 31 feet of water. I have put 4 different screens on my Simrad. The upper left is echo on Bottom Lock locked into 10 feet off the bottom. I use this screen to look into the schools to help determine the size of the fish, where the larger fish are located within the school and if they are active or not [Streaking]. The center screen is sonar in a 0 to 40 foot scale. The right screen is Down Scan with fish reveal which shows me the size of the fish as well but is better defined with color. The yellow fish are the largest, red smaller and blue smaller yet. The bottom screen is side scan which I always use up the entire width of the screen to get the best detail. The dark blue is the water under the boat then at 31 feet outward the beam shows details on the bottom and fish. Fish show up as vertical dashes on this screen and nicer keeper fish will have shadows twice as far out as the fish itself. Side Scan is probably the most important tool I use to locate fish or bait, to steer my boat to the larger fish or more numbers of fish and to determine the size of the bait or fish. Again these are smaller fish that I really am not interested in fishing due to the size of the arches, the lack of larger "Yellow"arches on Down Scan and the smaller vertical dashed out to the side of the boat.

I want to fish this spot more than the previous shot for many reasons. Side Scan is showing much larger vertical dashes or fish and my sonar is showing the fish to be active streaking as noted by the almost vertical lines coming up to the arch. These fish are feeding and are pretty simple to hook up. Put a downline down at 25 feet where nearly all the fish are and get ready!

This is an example of locating fish on plane which I do all the time. I run about 20 mph while searching looking for small red arches in the water column. Here I was slowing down to 15 mph because I saw single Stripers down about 25 feet. Notice no Stripers are showing up on Side Scan at this speed because there are only a few fish down there. I would never fish this but I would check the area out thoroughly to try to locate the nucleus of the school. 

Now in this shot I was looking for schools of Stripers running about 20 mph then started to see bunches of small red arches so I slowed down to 11mph and hit the Jackpot! When running the fish still show up as red arches but I am going over them so fast the arches are small. As I slow down the arches get bigger and more defined. Also notice my Side Scan. So many people say Side Scan does not work at speeds over plane but that obviously is not so. We locate fish on Side Scan up to about 25mph. Although small due to the speed I was running look how many fish were not only under the boat but off to the sides as well. Every little dot is a fish. We caught over 30 Stripers before loosing this school in about an hours time. I hope these screenshots will help you use your electronics to improve your fishing by understanding what you are looking at on your own units. When you book charters with us you will come off the water with better understandings of operating and interpreting your own Depth Finders. To shop the best units on the market check out electronics Guru Steve Lane at Greentop Sporting Goods. As always you can check us out at my websit at www.JimHemby.com of contact us at 540 223 0850 or Jim_Hemby@hotmail.com