How to Use Side Imaging to Catch More Fish | Proper Rigging, Settings, Speeds, and Fish Identifying

on today's video we're going to go through the basics of how to use side imaging or side scan to catch more fish and obviously we do a lot of walleye fishing here on the midwest but a lot of the stuff that we're going to show you and talk about you know you can apply for any different type of species whether you're bass fishing whatever it's a very useful tool for fishing now biggest thing that i see is just when we're trying to help people learn how to use side imaging you see three common mistakes just to start off with just to eliminate when you're when you're trying to utilize this technology first thing is running clean power run directly to the battery with your electronics don't run off fuse boxes where you have several different locators running off of one fuse box or keep your power lines your power source away from your trolling motor cables just make sure that you run clean power that's step number one step number two is update any software it doesn't matter what brand you're using these new units have updates all the time might be once a year might be twice a year three times a year you'll see it pop up on the screen make sure that you log into wi-fi and update these units because when you update the units you're just going to get a lot better picture it really seems to affect side imaging number three make sure that you have good transducer placement and good transducer angle you can see here with this transducer i think a common mistake a lot of people make is that when the boat is sitting level on the trailer the transducer is level off the back of the boat when the boat sits level on the trailer and when the boat sits in the water most boats will sit more bow up the the weight of the motor will will tilt that boat and so a lot of times when you're in the water to be level you're actually at about a 20 degree 15 degree angle up that's probably a general thumb but make sure that you tilt that angle up a little bit when it's sitting level so that way when it's in the water this is actually more level and then you're going to get a lot better reading when you're using side imaging now i'm just going to show you a few things here out on the water that i think will help you catch a lot more fish with side imaging now on the lowrance units there's two settings a lot of times i like to go with a lower 455 setting with a wider sweep to define structure and so you can use these units two different ways you can use it to find structure you know whether it's lay downs cuts rock gravel you can see those transitions they just pop out at you or you can also use it to find fish we're going to show two different ways to set these units up to do both and just some troubleshooting tips as far as what to look for when you're trying to look for fish what to look for when you're trying to look for structure and so right now i've got it on the 80 foot range now that isn't just 80 feet to the side of the boat you also have to consider the depth and so right now here i'm in nearly 20 feet of water and so realistically i'm only shooting out about 60 feet to the side i'm on the 455 kilohertz setting now that isn't a good setting for looking for fish but what it does it gives you a big sweep when you're trying to find structure and so a lot of times you know say if you're you know in a reservoir you're trying to find like an old lay down for example or some flooded brush or some flooded trees where you're trying to find a rock and this particular lake here it's a dish bowl prairie lake there's not a lot of rock out here and so any type of transition area hard bottom a lot of times those are the locations that'll focus fish and so you can just do a just a big sweep the other thing with side imaging is just shooting like a laser out to the side of the boat you don't have a traditional cone angle like in traditional sonar and so you're just shooting out to the sides you're going to get your best picture as far as interpreting what you're seeing on the screen if you just drive in a straight line if you start to s curve and turn the boat sharp you're going to destroy your picture look at here look isn't that just obvious look at that transition area right there so you just have a soft bottom there's like a few scattered rocks on it and then right there you've got just small rock and gravel just a hard bottom transition and so if you want to you just hit a crosshair right there and save a waypoint that way you can go back and fish it later a lot of times it's gonna be really difficult to see fish in rocks but the fish will show up the best if you have if you catch these fish over like a sand or a smoother bottom mud bottom that's when they'll glow and a lot of times a fish will be more of an oblong shape where the rocks will be a rounder shape but when i am specifically looking for fish i'm going to change a couple things first of all my frequency i'm going to go from a 455 kilohertz i'm going to go up to that 800 kilohertz frequency but a lot of times what i like to do as well if i'm looking for fish is i'll blow up the range and if you're just starting out what i recommend is just even doing like a 40 foot range that way it just blows up your picture or just a lot easier to interpret what you're looking at and a lot of times you can use the shadow next to the mark to determine what that fish is doing in the sense that fish is right on the bottom sometimes they don't cast much of a shadow if the fish is up off the bottom a little bit so it'll get a little bit more of a shadow next to the fish and basically the further away from the fish that shadow is the higher that fish is off the bottom especially with bigger fish you know whether it's sturgeon muskies paddle fish you can actually see what type of fish it is by the shadow the silhouette will actually tell you what kind of fish it is in a lot of cases i think the biggest thing is a lot of times people look for too much you say you have a 20 to 24 inch walleye even on the 40 scale you know that mark is just you know again just a speck of rice when you're looking at it and so right now i'm going about three miles an hour it seems like anywhere from two to four miles an hour you just get a really good picture with side imaging now you can use this when you're fishing at slower speed say you're creeping along the trolling motor or you're spot locking but you got to remember that the fish are going to get distorted because you're you're moving slower you're sitting in one spot and so a lot of times for example if i'm spot locking what i find is that the fish comes in and hits that beam it'll just if it just stays there well that fish that mark look like it's just crawling across the screen you'll just see a line going across the screen if a fish is sitting in that beam that's when it shows up when the fish moves then it disappears so when you're using side imaging you know to see fish and then catch them you know if you have the trolling motor down you're just creeping along if your spot lock yeah whatever shows up at the top of the screen and it's crawling down the screen is right to the side of the boat but if you're moving forward you got to remember that by the time you see a fish scrolling down the screen it's not next to the boat anymore it's behind the boat and how i teach people how to how to figure out those angles is just to drive by something that you can see whether it's a tree sticking up on the water a dock we're going to drive by a dock here right here we should be able to see the legs but by the time those legs show up scrolling down the screen again it's going to be behind the boat a lot of times about a 20 to 30 degree angle behind the boat and so as far as just getting your orientation just practice driving by stuff that you can see just to give you that perspective if you tie all this together it's going to enable you to understand what you're fishing a lot better you know especially bottom composition identifying what's on the bottom identifying brush piles lay downs rock piles structure you'll see cuts you'll see i mean you'll see cuts in the sand from the keels of boats i mean it's amazing what you see on here you'll see old dachshund dripping off away from the shoreline i mean it's just you know the ultimate tool for deciphering the bottom but again in certain situations you can also really use it to identify fish but the biggest thing is if there's an optimum range for this to work you know for finding fish to me it's 5 to 15 feet of water over sand that type of situation these fish just glow and they pop and basically if you see a bright speck that looks like rice it's fish and obviously the bigger the speck the bigger the fish but that'll depend on your range and so when you're starting out just keep the range the same consistent all the time so that way you get good at gauging the size of the fish especially and as you get more experienced at this then you can kick your range out to 60-80 feet when you're looking for fish very useful tool and i hope that some of this information that we've shared here today will help you use this piece of equipment to catch a lot more fish this season

Channel: Jason Mitchell Outdoors

Views: 32,587

Rating: 4.9624414 out of 5

Keywords: How to use side imaging, How to use side scan, Lowrance HDs side scan, Tips for fishing with side imaging, Side imaging for Walleye fishing, sonar how-to, side scan, Sonar 101, Boating Basics, Sonar Basics, Side Scan Sonar, Side Imaging Tips and Tricks, Boating 101, Sonar Tips, How to Rig Side Imaging, Side Imaging Settings, How to Find Fish with Side Imaging, Sonar Guide

Id: Fjt7dqyzb4M

Length: 7min 59sec (479 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021