Originally Posted by
rickerd
You really have to dial in your sonar and learn to recognize fish and bait while cruising or on plane. Some of my favorite times are when I am going to "the spot" and somewhere along the way I see great marks. Setup to fish them and have some success. Usually I'm the only boat around too. Then also take good notes, or mark your spots with dates on electronic map.
Sometimes, you will not mark fish and you can catch them. Learn the limitations of sonar like the size of the cone as you get deeper. Any fish you mark in the upper 15 feet, is more important than the deep marks. Those fish are feeding and you just ran over top of it. How many other might be around. Learn that fish on the bottom, might not show up if there is shallower bottom in the cone. The sonar will register the shallowest spot in your cone. If deeper all around, the fish can hide below this level. Also note that a fish appears as a distance from your transducer. So a fish on the side of cone, at bottom, will not show because the bottom in the middle is closer to the transducer.
Learn to mark bait on your sonar. I've had days in Central basin where we see bait and maybe one fish mark or two. Yet we figure eight over that area for a few hours picking off one or two walleye each time. Learning to find bait is as important as marking fish.
Rickerd