Hey Gang! Tough winter thus far, with lots of storms pushing down to SoCal and making it pretty hard to find a window to get out. And not even any surf to go with them
Most of the yakkers on the coast have relegated themselves to bottom fishing for some tasty critters. So we've been doing some bottom fishing of our own.
Without sonar this fishing is nearly impossible. But just having a sonar isn't enough on it's own, you need to know how to make that thing work in the conditions you are facing on the day. Here are some general tips to help you get more out of those electronics in the deep-water target zone.
1. Lower the kHz, the better. 200 kHz isn't going to do much for you when you are fishing bait clouds on the bottom in 180'. If you have a small screen, or can't display dual frequency, you should only use the low frequency. 83 or 50 kHz. Lower kHz also has a wider cone beam, so you can see fish out to the sides and in front out behind you.
Notice how much more this fish shows on 83 kHz...
2. Crank the gain! Also called "sensitivity". In the cold, oxygen rich winter water, plankton thrive. You are always going to have major clutter and "noise" on the surface. This noise is reducing the strength of your signal, and making it hard for your sonar to see below the scattering layer. Crank up that sensitivity until practically the entire top half of the column is washed out. Then up the noise rejection a click or two. You will be amazed how much better you will see fish on the bottom.
Crank the gain and all of a sudden you can see the fish near the bottom! Forget about the top half of the column, we are bottom fishing here!
3. You're looking for the bait just as much as the fish. A lot of the time, when gamefish swim through, you wont see them on the sonar. Often its just how the bait reacts to the predators. If the bait is all pushed around, or walls off really suddenly, that just as good as seeing the arches. Look for gaps in the bait cloud and try to put your mack/iron right in the gap.
This bait got pushed down to the bottom, right before a big yt crushed my mack. I didn't see the arch on my sonar until after i was hooked up.
4. Take pictures of your sonar returns! In the heat of the moment you might forget, but getting that snapshot of the screen will really help you to refine your system configurations. You can text your screenshots to me for sonar coaching, though a $20 per text fee may apply!
Took this shot as I was getting bit. You can see my bait drop right in front of the school!
Luck can only get you so far guys. Get your sonar dialed, and you will reap the rewards... and realize how many fish you are missing! We had a real nice day in between storms... while the fishing was "slow".
30# Hali (well... 29.5#)
Linz' PB yellowtail, 32#
Enjoy... This is some of the best footage I think I've shot yet.