05-17-2019, 02:12 PM
Many, many years ago, when fish finders were still relatively new for the common man, and I was new to fish finders, I was fishing at the Gorge. My fisher finder was showing a LOT of fish about 7 feet below the surface, everywhere, so I focused my efforts at that depth. It was beyond frustrating to try everything under the sun and not get even a strike. After a long time of that, I had the thought to turn down the gain. Suddenly all the 'fish' at the 7 ft depth disappeared. And I started seeing blips at deeper depths, but far fewer and more random. When I fished deeper, I started to get some action. Over time, as I gained more experience with the fish finder, I realized that on that day at the Gorge what I was seeing at the 7 ft depth on that day was probably the thermocline combined with gunk in the water due to the thermocline. Since then, I often turn the gain up high on purpose, temporarily, to find out where the thermocline is. Sometimes that helps me understand what is going on down there.
So these days I take it easy with the gain and sensitivity settings so that I am not seeing every leaf and piece of debris at a mark on the screen.
On a side note, on that day at the Gorge (near Lucerne) I had an interesting experience, or you might say 'inexperience'. Once I got the depth right I started catching some fish. But that got a little frustrating too. I was using popgear and a worm, about 15-20 ft down, to target rainbows. I was getting hits and hooking fish, but the first 3 or 4 came off the hook right at the boat as I tried to hoist them in. So I started using a net, and I was able to get the next few in the boat. They were only about 9-10 inches, so I was letting them go. I noticed that these 'rainbows' were especially silvery looking, and they were leaving little scales all over the boat. It was actually years later when I realized that what I had been catching on that day at the Gorge were little kokanee, and I was not getting them in the boat without the net because of their softer mouths. And then I also, remembered a day back around 1985 when I was fishing at Porcupine (was attending USU to be a fisheries biologist) with a fly and bubble from a raft. On that day I caught a little 'trout' about 5 inches long, and I thought it was sick because it was silvery and losing scales like crazy as I released it. My fingers were covered with scales. My first kokanee, and I didn't know it at the time.
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So these days I take it easy with the gain and sensitivity settings so that I am not seeing every leaf and piece of debris at a mark on the screen.
On a side note, on that day at the Gorge (near Lucerne) I had an interesting experience, or you might say 'inexperience'. Once I got the depth right I started catching some fish. But that got a little frustrating too. I was using popgear and a worm, about 15-20 ft down, to target rainbows. I was getting hits and hooking fish, but the first 3 or 4 came off the hook right at the boat as I tried to hoist them in. So I started using a net, and I was able to get the next few in the boat. They were only about 9-10 inches, so I was letting them go. I noticed that these 'rainbows' were especially silvery looking, and they were leaving little scales all over the boat. It was actually years later when I realized that what I had been catching on that day at the Gorge were little kokanee, and I was not getting them in the boat without the net because of their softer mouths. And then I also, remembered a day back around 1985 when I was fishing at Porcupine (was attending USU to be a fisheries biologist) with a fly and bubble from a raft. On that day I caught a little 'trout' about 5 inches long, and I thought it was sick because it was silvery and losing scales like crazy as I released it. My fingers were covered with scales. My first kokanee, and I didn't know it at the time.
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