By Andrew Ragas
Fishing-Headquarters is not affiliated with Lowrance Marine Electronics. Their products solely help me catch more fish and enable me to gain a better understanding of the underwater environment and ecosystem beneath the water’s surface. Throughout the open water season I run HDS and Elite units in my boats. Over the course of 120+ days on the water this year, I’ve scanned some very unique findings with the broadband sounder, dual imaging, and down scan imaging. Pardon the smartphone imagery, I’ve selected a few unique screenshots that captivate and tell an underwater story.
Baitfish and Forage Species
In mid August, I was shocked to find this image, as it is most common during cooler water temperatures. What I found in 72 degree water were schools of yellow perch relating to deep weedlines. On this particular day, I found massive perch schools and kept following them off the edges of mid depth rock bars and grass beds. Smallmouth bass were found, and stuffing themselves to death, though no giants. This bass/perch migration usually sets up for me in mid September through early October so it seems as if this lake I was on and its entire fish population forgot which month it was.
The image above is a side-by-side view of the same perch schools seen in the above photo. On the down imaging, you can almost identify each individual perch beneath the boat! This is my favorite screenshot of the year.
During the months of July and August, I spend most of my time bass fishing the largest, deepest, coldest, and clearest lakes I can find. They generally have the best fishing for me as summertime temperatures reach their peak. This particular lake contains some of the most intense contour a bass angler can fish, and one of the heaviest concentrations of cisco forage that can be supported by any lake. On this outing, I caught my largest smallmouth bass of the year, a 21 inch mammoth pushing nearly 7 pounds. Along with catching, a lot of cisco schools were marked along the deep edges of these contour lines. I love challenging bass fisheries like these complex lakes!
This image was taken in mid October on a lake populated by ciscoes and pelagic baitfish species. Prior to running into this school, I had hooked and lost a medium size muskie on a quick strike sucker rig. As I continued my course around the point, it registered to me that the presence of muskies was due to these schools of ciscoes. With down imaging, you can clearly see individual cisco specimens 14 to 20 feet below the boat.
Underwater Structure
In late September, I did a lot of work on one of my lake’s favorite spots. Over the course of three hours, I zigzagged the entire circumference and drifted several times across a shallow sandbar/rock flat extending far out from shore. Camping on this spot resulted in catching a pair of 21 inchers and smaller 19 inch smallmouths. Scattered throughout this bar are gigantic boulders, fish magnets large enough to sink the Titanic. Due to lake’s 25 foot clarity, it was easy to spot these large underwater structures and I purposely drifted over this large boulder solely for show. Where indicated on Lake Insight HD, big smallmouths were caught from each waypoint.
Understanding modern electronics and all of their uses brought forth by our major sonar manufacturers will make you a better angler, and a better scientific angler as well. Using these units on a daily basis and to their fullest capabilities is an integral part of my fishing. Additionally, using them truly helps me put more fish into the boat, allows me to fish my spots more effectively, and enables me to efficiently break-down a particular body of water and focus entirely on its productive areas through the process of elimination.
