thank you I'm retired 68 trying to learn how to fish for crappie with my hummingbird g2 7 you have showed me a lot to take in but trying. thank you again for your help
My home lake is about 32000 acres and when built back in the early 60s all the trees were cut to about 3 foot maximum height. That left us with a lake that only has bottom contours to funnel and influence fish. I'd like to see information on how that translates to crappie fishing such a hang out and travel routes. We have a ton of boat docks but I would like to do more open water fishing. Love the videos, your doing a great job.
Great videos on the 2d sonar and understanding it, if nothing else its a refresher or reassured me of what i was or wasn’t understanding, I fish out of a 13’ tinny with an old lowrance that has helped me pull lots of fish over the rails. Information over watching someone catch fish is very refreshing, thank you.
I love this series of videos. It has really helped me to understand how the sonar works. I noticed that you have several brush piles marked on your map. I would like to see how you find and mark new piles on your map and how you use the map / GPS to navigate back to a pile.
Awesome awesome series, this is why I like watching RU-vid! Learning everything I have been missing for these series........ I like watching ppl catch but I mainly want to learn how to myself! Very helpful sir, great job!
man i am so happy i came across your videos. i have been watching many of them and i am feeling a bit more confident about going out and using my Hummingbird 5 DI. Your explanations are so simple and makes it easier for us to understand. thank you so much and keep up the good work.
you're welcome. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for new video ideas, I always appreciate and use ideas from subscribers. Thanks again for watching!
Thank you for all this information you are providing us beginners in the electronics. Its helping me understand what I have to do next time on the water. 👍
I'm also having trouble with my DSI.......it's been basically worthless since I bought the unit........I fish from a kayak so I bought the Lowrance 4x chirp........I've never gotten the image to look like yours......thanks for the tip on leveling the transducer......I assume you mean level to the surface of the water???...not level to the bottom of the boar.....I'm going to level it on my fishing trip tomorrow.......I'll let you know the results........thanks again.....I enjoy your videos....
Hi Davis, I just found your channel. These vids are great. I have a garmin 7sv with chirp and I am trying to learn how to use it. These videos are very helpful and you are very good at explaining things!
I have a series of videos like the one your asking about. if you go to my homepage and click playlists. then click the playlist "How to locate Crappie-How to find fish"
For fishermen who don't have a trolling motor to keep themselves in place, drive into the wind and drop your marker buoy AFTER you've passed over a brush pile. This way you can wait until you've actually seen fish on it before dropping a maker buoy. Then travel a short way into the wind and throw out an anchor. Let out enough slack to position yourself close to your marker and fish downwind over the brush pile. This makes casting very light jigs a lot easier.
I am getting ready to purchase a Hummingbird Helix 7, been watching your videos and the operation. Still a little confused with the side imaging. The center dark part on both sides of the little boat, what is this? The yellow on each side is this the bottom? Then when you see dark images is that brush, weeds and or fish? Thanks!
The dark side still show to the left and right of the boat, but are also showing what is directly below the boat. The yellow on each side shows the lake bottom. Brighter objects in this yellow could be fish, weedlines or brush depending on the size and shape of the object
I heard on one of hour other videos your in ohio. What lake in ohio you fishing? Im in Pennsylvania. Right by the ohio line. I fish shenango alot and pymatuming. I fished mosquito lake a few times. Im getting a boat next weekend finally and it has hummingbirds on it. So i came across your videos and been watching alot learning how to use the graphs for when i get it. If your on one of these laks maybe ill see you out there. Thanks for your knowledge
Really enjoy videos related to crappie. I am new to reading depth finders. I have a healix 5 depth finder but am confused about down imaging and 2 d sonar. As i look at split screen, which side of screen is down imaging and which is 2d sonar?. Also, my screen seems to show fish as really bright spots on brush. Is that correct? My friends mounted a portable depth finder on front of boat. What he saw was different than what i saw. I realize we are looking at 2 different sections of water. He sees the front part of water where his trolling motor is located and i see the back of same water. Thanks Jerry miller
Hi Jerry, thanks for watching! As for the split screen question you had, 2d sonar will have multiple colors showing on the screen. 2d usually has a white background as well set as the default. The down imaging will only have two colors. On my helix the color pattern I use is black and gold. The black part represents the water below my transducer and the gold represents the bottom and structure. Depending on how new your helix 5 is, the bright spots could be fish. When your friend is viewing the sonar on the front of your boat, they are looking at a different section of water, some of it might be the same as you. The reason you're seeing different images is most likely because the transducer at the front of the boat is sending a signal at a different angle than the tranducer at the back of the boat, which creates a different image on the screen.
I find your videos informative. I live in central Florida and can't hook any crappie tried all kinds of jigs I use a hand held fish finder in my boat during day there are no fish in lake lots of brim around sides during the evening just after sunset the fish finder says there are many fish in schools every where but can't get them to bite. The lakes around here are avridge 10 to 12 feet deep. Water is warm on time I got a fish on a jig it was big enough that I had to work it in then hug piped out of its mouth don't no what it was it was dark out ruined the rest of the night got any suggestion for catching crappie in summer in florida
I also live and fish in Florida......the only suggestion I can give you, don't even start fishing for crappie till November.....the water in our shallow lakes gets really hot in summer......crappie are almost dormant till the water starts to cool....
So I just moved back to Minnesota after retiring in California. We have a cabin in northern Minnesota on a lake that produces large crappies. We do not have brush piles. We do have a lot of weeds. My daughter and I were fishing for bluegills and she caught two really nice crappies in approximately 11 feet of water. Went back the next day and caught 1 more but nothing like you do "one after the other" type of thing. We have sandbars, deep areas as well but I cant seem to find them on a consistent basis. I have yet to buy my boat and only use our 14' Lund with no graph. Any suggestions for a guy teaching his daughter how to fish to be more consistent with the crappies? Additionally, the lake we're on is a really clear water lake. Thanks in advance.
During the summer I find crappie spread across deeper weed lines (10-20ft depending on the depth of the lake). I cast small beetle spins along the edge anb over the tops of the weeds until I find where a school might be along a certain section of the weed line. Then I might cast a bobber/live minnow setup once I've dialed in the general location of the school or just keep using the beetle spin. Crappie can be spread out across large weed beds this time of year, so it can frustrating trying to stay on top of the school. On natural lakes like the one you described the schools will move around, but stay in a general area. Search baits like the beetle spin or under spin work best to find them.
Thanks for the informative video. One question though and I hope it's not a repeat. Let's say, I have about 30 feet of line on my buoy marker but the tree pile is found at 20 feet only. Does the buoy marker stop spinning once the weight hits the bottom or will the marker continues to unfold until all the ropes are unwind?
@@FloppingCrappie awesome! Similar to you, I found a couple trees in the water with a lot of fish, which I assume were crappies, but none would take the bait. I had minnows out as well as a jig. Hope the fish know that I'll be out again soon to chase them. LOL
What confounds me with fish finders is when brush piles appear on a screen, (I have all Lawrance stuff and no kind of live scope) how do you know exactly where in the water to throw your buoy??? How does a buoy not drift once you throw it in the water? (As you can probably tell I’ve never used these buoys). Is that brush pile directly behind the boat, is it to the right? To the left? Without live scope how do you know exactly where to drop your jig on top of those fish? Also when I am out on the lake especially in the evening hours there’s thousands of fish appearing on the screen everywhere. How do you know that they’re crappie and not bass or carp or drum?
As soon as the brush appears on the far right of your screen, that is when the brush is directly under your transducer. When that happens through the buoy directly behind your transducer, this may take a few tries to get and accurate drop. The buoy has a weight tied to it, that unrolls as the weight drops to the lake bottom. As for seeing the difference between crappie and other fish, crappie will appear as smaller arches or dots (down imaging) and more schooled up. Bass and other high game will have larger and longer arches on 2d screen.
SI will read always read structure and fish, however when trolling slow or sitting still the images may look distorted. This is because the sonar is send and receiving the same signal over and over against structure or fish that isn't moving (the boat or the fish). for example if you're anchored over a brush pile and there is a log or branch sticking out from that brush pile. that branch might look like a straight line on SI because the signal being sent and received is always the same since the boat isn't moving. I hope this makes sense. let me know if you have any other questions.
the distance using the cursor shows how far the boat (the gps could be either in the sonar itself or an external device) is away from that point on the screen.
I sand my orange markers to rough them up an prime an paint them black so passer by can’t see them so they not sure what I’m doing out there in open water cause they can’t see that brite orange marker saying hey he’s fishing something right here
Haha, well I will be guiding this spring/summer, so if you're in western Wisconsin I can show you. The helix 5 si is a solid unit, you made a good choice!
The 2D cone angle is very small compared to what shows up in Down imaging or side imaging. It's possible that when you see a school on 2D and mark the waypoint, that school could move a few feet in one direction and you wouldn't see them on your 2D graph
Forget the marker buoy and just mark a waypoint. Come back to it, like you did when you were driving over them. Drop you trolling motor, zoom all the way in on GPS screen and fish it. The buoy will spook fish on pressued lakes. Thats what the GPS is for.....
This video was for people who do not have a GPS system on their sonar unit. Even if you have a GPS unit, the buoy marker is for keeping your boat near a pile of fish with the trolling motor. My recent trip to Rend lake, this was key to staying on top of the exact brush pile that was holding fish.
Davis it's Chef Bogie in central illinois we got killer crappie been guiding 20 years come down here I give u free trip plus you can teach me cpl things love channel Chef
Hey Chef, I'll actually be in Illinois in mid April. Maybe we can make something work one of those days. Send me an email at the email address in the video description and we'll talk more.
No markers to mark the structure, no fish. Holding a boat in just a slight breeze without a point marked to cast is like throwing darts to a wall with no board. Ditto!!!
I like your video but you change what your gonna say and it gets confusing. seems like you should slow your speaking to prevent changing your choice of words. Sorry just trying to help.
Whether your ducer is canted a lil one way or the other or it's in between notches up or down,if you shim the bracket it will fix it to where you can get it perfect. BUT you have to consider the weight placement in your boat when you get it "perfect" whether thats tackle,equipment,and you/others,if you pack every thing in the exact same spot it's not going to change the angle. When you move around and didn't set it up when you were in the boat to the exact position you'll be at (impossible to do unless you have a swimmer doing it) it's not going to be perfect and then you moving around will change that every time you move. If you're on a large boat/yacht where your movement doesn't move the boat to one side or the other nor front to act then you can get it as close to perfect as you or anyone will ever get it. Close is as good as you''ll ever get due to those variances.
