05-17-2011, 05:40 PM
OK, the fish finder issue. Don't expect to see a perfect arch on your sonar's screen. It actually take a good bit of trial and error to be able to properly read a Sonar. The 560 is no golden ace of technology in itself, so that might be part of the issue. But, it does the job. I'm sure you can switch the sonar from line bars to showing actual fish. You can do it in the menu under settings, and that might help a little bit. The depth you are fishing in, and the type of transducer makes a difference too. If you jump from shallow to deep, especially fishing shallow waters, a sonar with a dual beam transducer is almost a necessity. The difference in a high quality sonar and a "get you by" sonar is night and day. But, for the average fresh water angler fishing in 10' or less of water, a high dollar sonar just isn't neccesary. If you're serious about fishing, and want to get a crisp picture of what is beneath, go with a hummingbird or Lowrance with the down imaging feature. They cost a little cash, but they are good units with a great picture. Hummingbird makes a fine sonar, but you get what you pay for. The sonar you've got is going to show you the structure, depth, and probably the surface temp. Don't focus so much on the fish, as focus on finding the structure and water depth based on the time of year and where your target species might be found. You need to know when the fish are spawning, when they are holding deep and when they move to the shallows to feed. If you're seeing long skinny lines on your sonar, that is probably a fish, but a very small one. The longer the line, is simply a dictator as to how long the fish remains in the sonars beam. The thickness of the line is what you're looking for. The thicker the line, the bigger the fish. Large clouds of small little lines is either weeds or trash in the water, or bait fish. In deeper water, a quality sonar makes it easy to identify hard and soft bottoms, and will even show you the thermocline in deeper waters. All key stuff. Color sonars are the only way to go in this department. [
] I fish mostly saltwater, but occasionally fish freshwater for catfish. I rely heavily on electronics, both in salt and freshwater, as all the species I target hold to underwater structure. Identifying the type of structure and bottom composit is key for my success.
Can't help you with the trout. I don't trout fish.
We use thread fin herring and shad in our area for catfish, and the closely related menhaden in saltwater. I'm assuming you figured out that in order to keep them alive in the boat, you need a round baitwell with a raw water feed. They need constant fresh water to stay alive, and the round livewell keeps thier noses from getting beat up, and thus killing them in a short period of time. On the hook, well, I guess my first question is how are you hooking them right now? Depending on what i'm doing, determines how I hook my bait. If i'm in strong current, I hook them through the eyes. This keeps their mouths open to get plenty of water, and doesn't obstruct their ability to filter water and breath. If I don't do that, I'll hook them just behind the dorsal fin, above the latteral line.
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] I fish mostly saltwater, but occasionally fish freshwater for catfish. I rely heavily on electronics, both in salt and freshwater, as all the species I target hold to underwater structure. Identifying the type of structure and bottom composit is key for my success. Can't help you with the trout. I don't trout fish.
We use thread fin herring and shad in our area for catfish, and the closely related menhaden in saltwater. I'm assuming you figured out that in order to keep them alive in the boat, you need a round baitwell with a raw water feed. They need constant fresh water to stay alive, and the round livewell keeps thier noses from getting beat up, and thus killing them in a short period of time. On the hook, well, I guess my first question is how are you hooking them right now? Depending on what i'm doing, determines how I hook my bait. If i'm in strong current, I hook them through the eyes. This keeps their mouths open to get plenty of water, and doesn't obstruct their ability to filter water and breath. If I don't do that, I'll hook them just behind the dorsal fin, above the latteral line.
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