What Do Catfish Look Like on Sonar ?

hey guys I'm dieter Mel Horne in this video I'm doing something totally different and something I've never really done before on camera I'm gonna let you see what I'm looking for as I'm riding through an area and scouting it and I'm showing you what I'm looking for my sonar kind of go through some of the images that I'm looking for as far as the sonar signature that kind of stuff it's a long video it kind of goes over a lot of stuff I kind of ramble and talk about a bunch of different stuff so it's long be prepared but I goes over pretty good detail some of the different things I look for you kind of get to see what it looks like when nothing's there and you get to see what it looks like when some fish actually show up so take a look at it and I hope you like it come up here to try a different area and it's not looking real good there's not a large showing up I've got a little bit of stuff like this on the bottom that is not a very good catfish signature could be one down in the mud definitely not seeing it on the down scan up there but I'm on the flat you can see her on the map I'm on the flat area next to the channel there's the ledge where those lines get real tight that's where the banks kind of steep drops into the river channel steeper parts over here where it peeling is flat about 16 feet deep and there's some stuff right there probably some smaller catfish if I had to guess he says larger but it looks like I almost laid up in the mud there's one that appears to be clear off the bottom up there you can see it that good solid white signature it's kind of what you're looking for here now if we're getting into any big big big fish it will be even more pronounced when you get into some big fish they will look as big as this bait ball you can say a bait ball up there the difference on that is is that if you look very close to that it's kind of broken up little pieces little fragments that's probably the corresponding seminar signature of it there remember that stuff on this it's going to look different than this and it has to do with the way the data is processed it's the series going to be pretty much a dot boom it's gone and down here it's going to have more of an arts and has to do with the column and way the comb works on the traditional sonar that you're used to dealing with a nice a traditional the real traditional is probably more the sounder any of you guys that use those back in the day I mean this is all the way back right after the paper graph was the the Sounders where you would have the round dial and figure out how to read it but I'm not seeing here's the thing takeaway on all this is there's nothing up on this flat I had planned the drift through here decided to make a stop just to see if I was seeing fish but whatever reason I'm not really marking anything fishable I've not been up here since the flood came up here fishing was that it was you know what you'd expect during a flood it was hit or miss a lot of current but normally this time of year there's some fish in here now we've got 82 degree water it's very clear it's been current and we got bluebird Scott's I don't know it's a fish deeper we're getting ready to find out because what's gonna happen is we're gonna make a turn back over here to the right and if you're wondering these are not fish these are actually there's a bait ball hopefully you can see it a little small pot of bait right there that's what that looks like and the same thing there that's a little pot abate and it's just a little bitty group of it this thing stemming up off the bottom is probably a my guess is it's a water release cold water release or air release or something they're stemming up there's no real trees or timber in here sometimes you'll get some places where you got decomposing biomass down there on the bottom and our leaves and that kind of thing and it'll give off some different gases we're gonna make a turn we're right up near the bank you can see here we're gonna make a hard turn out and we're going to go across what's left of this flat and right off that ledge where those lines are real close together for you guys that don't know known exactly how to read a topographic map that's where things are steep it's either going up or it's going down and the way you know that is by the numbers up here are low 18 19 down here they're high 28 29 so it's going downhill right there and you'll see in a second it'll start to drop off as we get close to it now one thing to keep in mind on these maps sometimes there's little anomalies here that may or may not be there and that has to do with the way the lake was mapped and the actual boats that we're doing the mapping and what they saw and didn't see whenever they don't go over something the computer kind of interpolates it until to the end and there's some places on some of these maps where that looks like there's a dam there's not one those kind of things that this here that's a fish that's definitely a fish that suspended that right there you can see it right there and that solid dot there's one right there this is right on that ledge boom and rolling down into the channel right here I'm going back to throttle down just a little bit boom there's a fish you can see it real clear it's right there suspended fish there's another one right up there above it a little pot a bait with the fish next to it that's kind of what you're looking at there these here most likely catfish kind of they're kind of signature you can see those two right there a lot of that stuff was hanging out along the channel and you notice we're into just coming down into the channel now boom there's some there a little pot of bait up here you can see that they're responding on that screen and that's kind of what you're looking at now so if you don't have down skin don't have to have it you can still tell all this stuff fairly very clearly only a regular traditional summer screen these are fish that's most likely a good fishable fish something you'd be happy with I'm not going to call it huge but you know probably something 8 10 12 15 pounds just depending on where they're at how far they're off the bottom what they're doing you know you're sick there's going to look different maybe we'll see one that's really really really big we'll see what's happening here but you notice we're getting into the middle of the river channel here this is kind of a steep slope on this side over here it kind of gradually slopes up and it's it won't come up as steep and fish if you're drawn the structure may not be drawn to this bank as much just because it's not as steep a lot of times when they're hanging on structure they like something really really steep here's some more stuff that I'm betting this fish I kind of came back over to the screen just to let you look lighted that definitely is that could be fish stacked on top of each other one of the cool things about the structure skin is it kind of gives you a much clearer picture yeah it looks like there's several fish they're kind of stacked on top of each other there could be perch that would be my guess now this year that's most likely a catfish or a car larger signature you can see it up there pretty good dot my money's on the catfish right there now United's weren't dead center of this river channel now not as much stuff not as much as we saw on the edge we're gonna make a turn with the boat we're gonna run back over this edge I'm gonna stay away from this sloping edge right here I'm gonna stay away from that I'm gonna run over here to this steep stuff and just see if there's fish on it and right there is a pot of bait there's also some bait off to this side of the boat over here that you can see out through there look like that maybe some perch that there is a large fish you can see it there that's a good signature on a fish if I had to bet money on say a flathead only because of the worthy art shaped of the archon where it's set at but that's uh that's a true guesstimation calling on that one that's a fishable fish though any of y'all would be happy catching that fish that's what I yeah we're gonna roll up onto this edge here and kind of get parallel to it you'll see the boat kind of turn I'm gonna try to make a turn where I can kind of make a glancing blow you notice there's not as much I feeling the deep deep part of this and sometimes that happens this is something guys that changes and it changes with varying conditions there's some bait on the bottom being see the fish right they're all broken up small fish maybe even not too small for this year's hatch but bait fish nonetheless there's some more there but yeah these fish will hang in these different areas for different reasons and it changes it cannot do with water temperature water flow there's a bigger fish there and it's you know not always the deepest hole in the lake it's not always where the fish are that you're going to catch and the fish that are biting so kind of keep that in mind I got a little much too much parallel them I'll make a little bit more of a turn here so as you can see the deeper part of this part of the lake there's some fish in it there's more on the flat for sure but it looks like most of them on this ledge we're going to pull back up it and then see the boat here I'm kind of turned toward it a little bit we're just consider there's anything on this you notice this is a lot steeper here than it is up here so there may be more fish that like that I know from experience there's kind of a little ditch that runs in there those were some ending for water is how they should arrive over there but right here see what happens to gets up shallower I make a sharper turn here see what we've got it's not a lot of fish in this deeper water here this is one of the things just this time of the year with a spawn yet in the spawning then you add in the flood and then you add in the freshwater it's just things ain't the way they are normally and that's where you have to kind of you have to do some fishing I mean you have to go look for them you have to go fishing around a lot of these things and come you see we're starting to come up right here on this not seeing a whole lot not seeing a whole lot on there I'm gonna try that what'll happen is if I run parallel to this ledge or this drop you'll notice it starts to drop off or it starts to level off it looks like we're level your reason the student at is because I'm on that same that same line now if I pull real hard this way it'll go up a little bit shallower I got real hard that way it'll go back down and I'm basically running a contour line right now and I'm not seeing anything in here I am NOT seeing things this is not not something to me that looks fishable they're scattered obviously there were something back there but riding through here I'm not seeing a lot of life I'm gonna come back down at one more time there is one fish there you can see it there some bait stuff the down scan really shows up the bait and better than my regular son or does because the way I've got it tuned but yeah there's some stuff there stack on top of each other my niece is crappy just based on the small dock that I'm seeing there but a lot of this is interpretation folks it's there are some things that show up with a really good signature on here that you know just from experience of catching on stripers being one of them big catfish big active catfish sadly we won't see any of that today so I'm gonna ride back over this yeah and give it a little more gas I'm gonna get back over to this side see what's over here we're gonna drop right into the channel you get running right up through here picking up the boat speech just a little bit I try to get a little bit slower than this normally but a little bit faster here that's a good fish that right there is a good good fish that there's what you want to see big big dark spot right there that's a good fish you're going to want to fish for that one you're going to want to fish there's something around some fish right there some some small suspended stuff in there that's a good fish that's a good signature now with that said it's suspended you're either going to have to put lines in under a barber down line there's another one there within four or five feet of the bottom or it could be an active and inactive fish a lot of times with fish suspend they're not feeding actively and weave trust me we've tried it now the other thing is as you're good signatures good fish it could also be that those more ignore I don't think these are there's a little different fatter look to a carp at least what we believe to be carved because we've never been able to catch them and usually you don't see them this time of the year there's another one right down the bottom we're gonna run right over here some of these marks are and see if there's anything on these there's another one see it right there not a monster another one there those are some unit eight ten twelve pound fish fun fishing good fish but nothing to get crazy about what I like to see personally is a lot of this and a few big ones around a lot of this then no fish and then boom boom the bacons that's usually a good sign like see them up a little bit another good fish there you can see it there on the down skin up off the bottom so wanted to get things about the dance down scan that does a great job of clearing stuff off the bottom so you can tell where it is like this here is attached to the bottom you say that probably piece of debris or something there I'm not seeing anything over here sometimes some of this stuff mush them to the bottom then show up or well you can see it there that bang sound is my keep of are my ring people oh yeah staring well there we go up onto a little edge here same stuff they're most likely crappie right there stacked up on top each other you can see them they're a little smaller signature yeah you can see this stuff is kind of scattered there's no good concentration of stuff you know you could probably get back to some of these places that had a bunch of fish and maybe anchor on it but this is one of the reasons I like dragging trolling drifting for face now the way it would work here is I've got a northwest wind we should see the indicator here so my winds going to carry me this way so I'm kind of be going across a flat a ledge into the river channel back up and over so what I would do in this situation is probably just made multiple passes if I wanted to fish this sadly I wish there was more of illness when were a little quieter in here and there's just not a lot back down to see what it looks like in here hopefully you guys can hear me okay after win I got a windsock on this thing we've still got a pretty good wind coming out here today I don't want to take a few minutes to roll some video on this I didn't want to do this for a while and I'll probably do more of these just on some different days some different occasions to show you some different stunts just to give you a little bit of idea input none of this is fish that looks like some type of debris maybe some rock down that edge something's sticking up man yeah there's a little steeper ledge over here we'll ride every day it you can see a rock right there sticking up at the bottom again that river channel middle of the channel now 27 feet of water there's nothing down there nobody's hanging out down there some arches there nothing major a little bit of this a little bit of that and that's about it not a lot of fish man it is kind of we'll see what's on this edge that's my last hope otherwise I will be fishing this area there's just the wind there's a fish there just doesn't drive me crazy with what I'm seeing as far as having an area to fish especially the trip got a boat wake hangout yes yeah just not seeing a lot not a lot of life you fish there and say that it's shaped funny cause of the boat weight coming back up the ledge here you can see the depths getting shallower and shallower fish they're on top of each other a few of them in there man shit's not a lot of life just not a lot of life for whatever reason and that's the way some of these places can be you can catch fish it can be on fire one day one minute and then you come in here and you look and you fish it and man there's nothing and that's what I'm seeing on this flat it's just empty no kind of lights up here are the fish going or they light up in the mud you know they just pull it all the way up on the bank it's really hard to tell but hopefully that gives you some good info and something takeaway and I'll try to do some more of these for you well folks if you made it this far thank you for watching please consider subscribing and here are a couple of more videos that I think you're gonna like [Music]

Channel: Dieter Melhorn Fishing

Views: 33,867

Rating: 4.9457259 out of 5

Keywords: learning how to find fish on your sonar is important, Finding Fish on Your Sonar, Catfish Look Like on Sonar, dieter melhorn, dieter melhorn fishing, arches on a sonar, new sonar unit, down scan, structure scan, fish finder, bass, perch, catfish, crappie fishing, fishing for catfish, how to catch catfish, downscan fish finder, downscan sonar, fish finders for beginners, sonar tips, fish finder tips

Id: Bqbi1EAKEpA

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 30 2019