Fish Finder Screenshot - Whats being shown?

[SargeRX8]

Hey all,

Went out for a fish today. Had the right baits, tide looked good, returned with nothing. None the less the fish finder was showing what I believe are fish as they came and went but using what ever bait we had, we were unable to entice anything to hook on. Alot of bait was picked off but no hook ups. The fish finder is a Mark 5 DSI. I'm still unable to determine whats going on due to conflicting information Ive read. Some people suggest that a big fish would just appear as a dot, bait balls and balls of dots and what ever else as what ever. Well I saw these things and they got me excited. We fished this spot, as I said for nothing, had one guy zoom right between us and he through down his bait on a down rigger and did some circles for nothing also.

Anyone have any input? Ive seen bait balls, and they are as people suggest, Ive also seen individual dots. Ive seen these types of things on display before but never managed to hook anything up from the pack.

[fishmaniac]

Hey mate,

It is difficult to say exactly what those displays represent - they could be kings but I have GENERALLY found that lines that are wavey in nature as in your picture are not kings (or they are not hungry).

Something I have noticed with interpreting signs on your sounder is it depends on the depth as well as the type of sounder and transducer. Generally, when fishing shallower waters such as 10-20m, we can distinctly see arches or large diagonal lines for larger fish such as kings. When fishing deeper waters (such as Peak and 12 mile) we see solid dots as opposed to the abovementioned arches or lines for fish like kingfish.

Keep persisting and take note of what you see on your sounder when you start hooking into fish. Then you will know what to look for in the future at that sort of depth range.

It is hard to give an exact answer as what you look for changes on the location you are fishing and the way the fish are moving in the water.

Edited April 28, 2013 by fishmaniac

[port hacking addiction]

Hey mate with the dsi i notice when ur anchored the fish on the sounder look bigger they could be kings though.with mine i put it on the white background settings and when im driving real slow kings look similer to this on the sounder

[port hacking addiction]

Hey mate with the dsi i notice when ur anchored the fish on the sounder look bigger they could be kings though.with mine i put it on the white background settings and when im driving real slow kings look similer to this on the sounder

The pic u have could be kings or salmon or maybe just yakkas its good to throw out a baitjig aswell to see whats down there. Were u using fresh or live squid sometimes iv had kings on the sounder not touchin our live yakkas and bait they can be real fussy sometimes

[SargeRX8]

Thanks for the input guys. Gutted if they were kings and we couldn't entice them. We were just doing a drift and came across these so I circled around them and they were around one of the markers in the harbour. When we stopped off at another marker, we saw little dots on the sonar here n there and when I threw my sabiki down, I was getting 3 - 5 snapper every go. I tried the sabiki here, live squid, pilchard, lures etc for nothing. Gotta look harder and try some more. I really want a colour GPS fish finder. This black and white one is a little harder to use, especially when trying to read the bottom. It just always seems black at the bottom which from what Ive read means a hard rocky bottom yet when the anchor comes up its covered in sand and from the distance you can tell its sand below.

[Nolongeramember]

Hey all,

Went out for a fish today. Had the right baits, tide looked good, returned with nothing. None the less the fish finder was showing what I believe are fish as they came and went but using what ever bait we had, we were unable to entice anything to hook on. Alot of bait was picked off but no hook ups. The fish finder is a Mark 5 DSI. I'm still unable to determine whats going on due to conflicting information Ive read. Some people suggest that a big fish would just appear as a dot, bait balls and balls of dots and what ever else as what ever. Well I saw these things and they got me excited. We fished this spot, as I said for nothing, had one guy zoom right between us and he through down his bait on a down rigger and did some circles for nothing also.

Anyone have any input? Ive seen bait balls, and they are as people suggest, Ive also seen individual dots. Ive seen these types of things on display before but never managed to hook anything up from the pack.

I cant tell you what they are but to me they look like small fish. The shape of the lines looks like you and/or the screen was travelling too slow and you picked up the same fish over and over as it slowly swam up or down etc. Long lines does not necessarily mean big fish. Without going into detail, the speed you are travelling and speed of your screen refresh (the speed the screen moves across) is very important in determining how big fish are. You need to learn through experience how your individual sounder shows fish in relation to these speeds.

I generally like the boat to be slowly moving under power and the screen to be moving at an average speed to get a good picture on what fish I am seeing.

[SargeRX8]

We weren't traveling this was with the boat stopped.

[Nolongeramember]

The boat not moving is not too good for getting a good picture. You will keep getting the same fish and readings over and over. So if a tiny fish was to come into your beam and not move or move slowly it will look like one continuous line on your sounder. It looks like to me that your screen was moving very slow aswell?