Pentwater, 7/30 and 7/31

[Mega Byte]

Pentwater, 7/30 and 7/31

My son and I went out for a quick trip Sunday morning.  We had lines set by 6. We had to pull them at 8:30 because we had to get back to help my wife pack up and get checked out of the campground.  Oh what a morning!  It was dead flat calm.  We watched schools of bait fish on the surface and big fins getting after them.  We marked a lot of fish on the sonar which was a new for me.  (long story short - if you ever have a sonor that marks fish on inland lakes but not Lake Michigan, get a new transducer.  Mine would mark bait balls, bottom and cannonballs on Lake Michigan, but no arches.  On inland lakes I marked fish all day long.  That issue was fixed with a new transducer.)

Anyway, we finished 5 for 8.  All were kings and we threw one of the five back.  Biggest was 22 pounds.  We fished 80 to 110 fow.  Notes are in the boat as far as lures and depth.  The surface temp was cold - 55 degrees where we were fishing.

Sunday PM was a different story.  We went back to the same area and found surface temps to be 68 degrees.  The fish were scattered.  We managed a 4 for 6 night, with two steelhead, a coho and a 23# king.  Very different from the AM trip.  We had hits in 170 - 150 fow, but marked about 2% of the fish that we marked Sunday morning.

Monday PM, 0 - 3.  Had trouble finding the fish.  Missed a steelhead in 170 fow down 45 on a rigger with a blue dolphin spoon.  It hit the spoon and went vertical out of the water and we lost it on a big jump.  Had a big rip on a dipsey diver down about 40 feet with a green spin doc and meat rig.  This was a good fish and he got off when he ran into the 300 Cu.  We worked 170 to 125 fow with not much to show for it.  As we were pulling lines we got into 110 fow and saw a lot more fish on the sonar.  I guess we should have tried in closer sooner.

Sorry about the lack of specifics...the notes are in the boat.  Hopefully we'll be back out there this weekend.

 

[one&done]

I have the same problem with my graph in the big lake. What kind of transducer did you use?


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[Martin1950]

Those are some great looking Kings, thank for sharing.

[Mega Byte]

9 hours ago, one&done said:

I have the same problem with my graph in the big lake. What kind of transducer did you use?

You need to get a transducer that matches your graph.  Some are 50 kHz, others 200 kHz or like mine, an 83/200 kHz.  My graph is a Lowrance Elite 5.  

[one&done]

You need to get a transducer that matches your graph.  Some are 50 kHz, others 200 kHz or like mine, an 83/200 kHz.  My graph is a Lowrance Elite 5.  

I have two graphs on my boat. Both of them are Lowrance with the 83/200 transducer. I would normally run with the 200 kHz but would not see the fish arches. I changed to the 83kHz but now it messes with my fish hawk. I guess I need to "tweek" the gain to see if I can get better results in the upper kHz. Thanks for the assist.



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[Mega Byte]

You'll mark more fish at 83 kHz.  Also, they say the 200 kHz is good only down to around 200' and it has a much narrower cone than the 83 kHz.

I've got a Fish Hawk on my boat and we don't have any issue with interference.  But, my fish hawk and transducer are on different sides of the boat.  I also don't have a CHIRP sonar.  

From the Fish Hawk website:

Quote

Q: Will my depth finder(s) interfere with the Fish Hawk X4?

A: No, The Fish Hawk X4 operates at unique frequency of 70 kHz. Most depth finders run at 200 kHz or a combination of 200 kHz/50KHz or 200 kHz/83KHz. The X4 will not get interference from any 200 kHz transducer, even if the transducers are mounted side by side. If you have a dual beam transducer, mount the X4 transducer as far from the dual-beam transducer as is practical. We've never found a boat that the X4 would not work on.

If your transducers are side by side, that could be causing the issue.

Good luck with your tweaks.  

[one&done]

You'll mark more fish at 83 kHz.  Also, they say the 200 kHz is good only down to around 200' and it has a much narrower cone than the 83 kHz.
I've got a Fish Hawk on my boat and we don't have any issue with interference.  But, my fish hawk and transducer are on different sides of the boat.  I also don't have a CHIRP sonar.  
From the Fish Hawk website:

Q: Will my depth finder(s) interfere with the Fish Hawk X4?

A: No, The Fish Hawk X4 operates at unique frequency of 70 kHz. Most depth finders run at 200 kHz or a combination of 200 kHz/50KHz or 200 kHz/83KHz. The X4 will not get interference from any 200 kHz transducer, even if the transducers are mounted side by side. If you have a dual beam transducer, mount the X4 transducer as far from the dual-beam transducer as is practical. We've never found a boat that the X4 would not work on.

If your transducers are side by side, that could be causing the issue.
Good luck with your tweaks.  

Thanks for the reply. I will move the fish hawk around to find the right spot to keep everybody at their best performance.


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