Laurel Hill 06-11-2014

[Alphahawk]

Put the kayak in at Laurel Hill this a.m. and fished Galloway Hollow until the wind pushed me off the lake. Tried to get out of the hollow onto main body but just too much wind. The Gills have not moved in mass back to the beds as of today. I pulled 20 Gills and 3 shell cracker off of 8 beds I had marked. You pull up to a bed and it would only have a few fish on it...I would catch those and move on. In the si pic you can see where I circled a bed that has a lot of nests but only a few fish...the bright dots. The Gills were all at the 8 inch mark or so and the shell crackers were all 11 inches. It is very difficult to get a good pic on the Hawg Trough with the sonar in my face and the rod pod taking up so much space in the BG Prowler II. I have been told by folks that have used the side imaging at night that if you think it is good in the daytime that I should see the screen at night. I don't fish at night anymore but maybe Merv or someone else can elaborate on using si at night. While the rod pod is a great platform for the sonar you give up a lot of open space in the cockpit. Still it was a fun morning...those red ears fought hard. If the weather holds I am headed to Pickwick in the morning to try and get some largemouth while they have the gates open. Life is good!


Regards

[Jim]

Nice fish as usual!

Interesting comment about using sidescan at night. I am not sure what they are seeing as sonar works the same during the day as at night. You do have to turn the screen brightness way down as it can be blinding, but other than that it seems identical to using it in the daytime to me.

It will be interesting to see everyone else's comments,
Jim

[Alphahawk]

Originally Posted by Jim

Nice fish as usual!



Interesting comment about using sidescan at night. I am not sure what they are seeing as sonar works the same during the day as at night. You do have to turn the screen brightness way down as it can be blinding, but other than that it seems identical to using it in the daytime to me.



It will be interesting to see everyone else's comments,

Jim

Thanks Jim......I suspect they are talking about not having to deal with glare on the screen......as you say sonar doesn't care if it is night or day. I do know until one gets some screen time it is easy to miss fish.


Regards


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[nomad60]

Nice going, Alpha.

[Travis C.]

Nice jpb Alpha.

Have you noticed anything new regarding the gills beds now that you have the sonar or maybe solidified something previously guessed at?

[Alphahawk]

Originally Posted by Travis C.

Nice jpb Alpha.

Have you noticed anything new regarding the gills beds now that you have the sonar or maybe solidified something previously guessed at?

Well it has been really surprising on Blue Cat at Williamsport. I have scanned half the lake and only found two beds...large ones though. I kept expecting to find more but whole banks have no beds on them. At Laurel Hill I have only gotten into one cove....not even twenty percent of the lake and have found beds all over the place. Center Hill is the most surprising. There is this huge area that my son and I started fishing from the bank about 5 years ago. The area was full of big Gills and we just assumed there were beds everywhere....but after mid May we would never catch anymore Gills until the next spring. Well I have now scanned the whole area.....not a single bed. It must be a staging area. I did put in about a half a mile from that area and found lots of beds. Having the si just makes putting in the kayak a lot more fun....just trying to discover new things. I did find a bank Monday at Blue Cat that held all the fish in the lake I think. It was about 900 yards long and was just a straight drop to nine feet. I have been very one dimensional in my fishing..and have done reasonably well.....but on my next trip to Blue Cat I will have 3 rods instead of one. I will have one to vertical jig with...a TM rod...and a small crank bait rod. Going to try trolling that bank with some small cranks and see what I get. Should be interesting.


Regards

[TNtroller]

Good luck on your next trip !

[Transplanted Sportsman]

great fish and pics Mr Randy!!, the one of the beds is really good and sharp, my HB does not show detail like yours since i have the stock transducer, so I cannot think how good your Hb will show the detail at night, the sharpness and detail show in an incredible way, you have to reduce the light to a level suitable to your eyes or it will blind you, it can also attract bugs too, i run mine at level one later once it is fully dark, my favorite view though at night is the DI, do you think Bedford lake has any gills of this quality??

[Alphahawk]

Originally Posted by Transplanted Sportsman

great fish and pics Mr Randy!!, the one of the beds is really good and sharp, my HB does not show detail like yours since i have the stock transducer, so I cannot think how good your Hb will show the detail at night, the sharpness and detail show in an incredible way, you have to reduce the light to a level suitable to your eyes or it will blind you, it can also attract bugs too, i run mine at level one later once it is fully dark, my favorite view though at night is the DI, do you think Bedford lake has any gills of this quality??

Bedford has Gills big enough to give a great fight on UL. It has some really good shell cracker. The bed image was taken using the 455 kHz setting with the si. I paid 85 bucks for the upgraded transducer to use the 800khz setting but wish I had not. I very rarely use it. I need to test it out more but with the 800khz setting you will lose some spread....meaning with settings being same the beam darkens up much closer out than the 455 setting.....you then have to play with the sensitivity settings. But I do need to go out and take same shots with both settings and really look at them. While I keep my settings within 1 or 2 of each other most of the time I usually keep sharpness turned off. If I want to see Gills in the bed or fish at or close to bottom I will turn sharpness to medium. It really makes fish in those areas pop out. I know I can get so wrapped up using the unit I lose a lot of fishing time....LOL. Using it really makes time fly. I would be out now using it but Dr visit and car service is keeping me off the water today....LOL.






Regards

[Alphahawk]

Thanks for the comments.



Regards