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  1. #1
    Member Hez's Avatar
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    Graphing Technique - Breaking down a section of the lake

    I am trying to learn how to properly graph a section of the lake to try and find stuff offshore.

    When you guys idle around looking for offshore spots, what technique do you use?

    Do you idle around the perimeter of the area you want to graph, and then just criss-cross?

    Idle aimlessly until you see something interesting on the side imaging?

    What types of methods and techniques can you guys recommend or suggest?

    Wishin' I was fishin'...


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  2. Moderator Fishysam's Avatar
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    #2
    Depending on what structure your looking for you can go 20-30mph on plane and find offshore points/reefs with 2d. There is noting aimlessly wondering always be looking at the map and try to use deductive reasoning to narrow the search or shave off a few feet that really shouldn't have any ground breaking discovery there. With 2 stroke motors it's best to be going faster than idle, say 4.5-6 mph depending on boat/setup. But in initial looking set range wide with say 455 not mega, then if you find something bring the range in to say 50' and go to mega frequencies
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  3. Member
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    #3
    I either have an area that I have already fished and am trying to expand from it. If I’m on a new body of water I use the seasonal conditions as a starting point along with mapping then use side imaging to locate areas to try

  4. Dogfish_Jones
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    #4
    I first look at my mapping on my graphs to find irregular spots, i.e. drop offs, flats, creek channels.
    Then I will idle over those areas and look at my DI and SI and see if I see anything worth fishing there. The key to me is not find those spots before I go hunting, it sure does save a lot of time on the water.
    If I did not have any practice time before the tournament, I will spend more time with Goggle Earth and my PC mapping to find spots. If I do have time for practice, my main objective is to find where the fish are at, not really to concerned in catching any.
    Now, if this is a lake I have fished often, I pretty much know where I'm going and I might just hot a few spots for seasonal patterns I have not chanced before. I will not spend to much time just going from spot to spot hoping fish are there, I have usually 8 hours to make the best of it and I try to use it wisely.

  5. Member DrewFlu33's Avatar
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    #5
    What's the structure? Is it just a big flat, or is there more to it? Do you have a starting point from a mapping perspective? So, so many variables involved here. Give us something to get you started?

    Just going off of your location: If it's a grass flat, get ready for some seat time. Side scan loses its effectiveness there as you probably know, but you can still learn some stuff. I actually won a tourney by graphing that type of thing this past year on a lake that's absolutely had my number for years. It's a lake with a ton of structure and where it's not uncommon to go and catch over 50 or even 100 in a day, but it's dink central and fishing the obvious drops, points, humps, weedlines, etc. means you'll catch 7 lbs if you're lucky. This is a lake where you'll have a 20 boat tourney with 18-19 guys between 5 and 9 lbs then one or two guys will sack up 17-20 lbs to win it. I knew generally where guys were doing their damage, so it should've been pretty easy to figure out. The problem is that it was on a huge grass flat that covers one side of the lake, probably over 2 miles long by a quarter mile wide. Good luck finding the needle in a haystack that way.

    So what I did was use a trick I learned ice fishing to find hard bottom: If you set the range on your 2D to be more than double the depth and start idling, you can identify hard bottom through the weeds. When it's a soft bottom, it'll look exactly like you'd expect in that scenario. Then when you go over an area with hard bottom, you'll get a "double bottom" return. For example, if you're in 10 feet, you'll see that bottom return at 10 feet, but you'll see a second return at 20 feet. It worked! I dropped waypoints on the edges where I saw the double return appear until I could play connect the dots to map out the hard bottom areas on that big flat. It took me a good 10 hours to get through a good portion of it, but once I did I started concentrating on the transitions I had marked with waypoints earlier and treating the edges just like structure by focusing on points, turns, etc. When I practiced that for the last couple hours in my practice day, I had 15 lbs in the boat hitting different spots to check them which was a good 5 lbs more than I had ever caught on that lake. Ended up winning the tourney going away!
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  6. Member Hez's Avatar
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    #6
    Thanks for the feedback guys.

    Quote Originally Posted by DrewFlu33 View Post
    What's the structure? Is it just a big flat, or is there more to it? Do you have a starting point from a mapping perspective? So, so many variables involved here. Give us something to get you started?

    Just going off of your location: If it's a grass flat, get ready for some seat time. Side scan loses its effectiveness there as you probably know, but you can still learn some stuff. I actually won a tourney by graphing that type of thing this past year on a lake that's absolutely had my number for years. It's a lake with a ton of structure and where it's not uncommon to go and catch over 50 or even 100 in a day, but it's dink central and fishing the obvious drops, points, humps, weedlines, etc. means you'll catch 7 lbs if you're lucky. This is a lake where you'll have a 20 boat tourney with 18-19 guys between 5 and 9 lbs then one or two guys will sack up 17-20 lbs to win it. I knew generally where guys were doing their damage, so it should've been pretty easy to figure out. The problem is that it was on a huge grass flat that covers one side of the lake, probably over 2 miles long by a quarter mile wide. Good luck finding the needle in a haystack that way.

    So what I did was use a trick I learned ice fishing to find hard bottom: If you set the range on your 2D to be more than double the depth and start idling, you can identify hard bottom through the weeds. When it's a soft bottom, it'll look exactly like you'd expect in that scenario. Then when you go over an area with hard bottom, you'll get a "double bottom" return. For example, if you're in 10 feet, you'll see that bottom return at 10 feet, but you'll see a second return at 20 feet. It worked! I dropped waypoints on the edges where I saw the double return appear until I could play connect the dots to map out the hard bottom areas on that big flat. It took me a good 10 hours to get through a good portion of it, but once I did I started concentrating on the transitions I had marked with waypoints earlier and treating the edges just like structure by focusing on points, turns, etc. When I practiced that for the last couple hours in my practice day, I had 15 lbs in the boat hitting different spots to check them which was a good 5 lbs more than I had ever caught on that lake. Ended up winning the tourney going away!
    Congrats on figuring them out!

    I'm in Florida on the Harris Chain...so there are a multitude of different scenarios I could graph....but not the typical scenarios most everyone here is accustomed to...and I understand that.

    I have been selecting an area based on mapping, and graphing that area to see what I find....or if I'm out fishing - I idle from one spot to another while watching the graph, and then checking out anything that looks interesting.

    I went out last night after work and idled around for about 3 hours graphing in a section of the lake, just looking for grass, bait, hard spots...anything "different"....it's just so overwhelming when you're on such a big body of water.

    I do always have my 2D depth setting set to at least double the depth, so that I can identify a hard return - as you state above.

    Wishin' I was fishin'...


    1990 Ranger 374v
    1996 175 HP Mariner - Magnum EFI
    25p Tempest - A45 model
    80 lb 24v MinnKota Maxxum
    Humminbird Helix 10
    Humminbird Helix 7
    Garmin EchoMap 106sv w/ LS
    Dual 8' Power Poles



  7. Member DrewFlu33's Avatar
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    #7
    Sounds to me like you're doing a really good job at it! I think what you said about selecting an area and graphing it is a great approach. Those big bodies of water are really, really daunting so anything you can do to break it down into manageable chunks really helps! I've had some experience with that myself as I continuously work on learning Lake Minnetonka here in the Twin Cities.

    One additional thing that you might consider if you haven't already is to explore some map generating options for whatever graphs you run. Of course most graphs have some version (or versions) of "auto chart" available these days and that can definitely help, but when you're looking for other more subtle stuff that isn't necessarily related to depth changes, that functionality alone can leave a little to be desired. Just as an example, I've currently got Lowrance graphs on my boat. To get more out of them, I've kept a C-Maps Genesis subscription active. I make it a habit to record sonar logs when I'm out and about; of course it's best if you're actively graphing as you get a lot more data that way, but even if I'm just out fishing I figure I might as well record whatever I'm going over so I can analyze it later. Then I can upload those logs (keeping them private as long as I have the subscription), and get maps generated from them in about a day. The contours are a given and are sort of whatever--I can do that with Navionics SonarChart Live--where these maps shine is that they also include bottom hardness and vegetation layers. Being able to step back and see it on a map like that can be super, super useful. I'm always surprised at the stuff that jumps out at me that way...or put another (more accurate) way, I'm surprised at all the stuff I missed while I was graphing. I think the Humminbird AutoChart may actually do the bottom hardness layer right away nowadays if you happen to run them, but I'm not positive on that. Genesis Live on the newer Lowrance units may have that capability too; I've got Gen 3 units that only barely had access to Genesis Live, and unfortunately that software update was very problematic for the Gen 3 units so I haven't been able to use it to see what it does and does not do. Also not sure what Garmin has in this realm but I bet something that does the same.

    Similar to the above idea (and given the amount of time you've clearly spent working on this and thinking about it, you're probably already doing it), I've found that marking fish catches with waypoints will really often clue me in on some pattern when I zoom out and look at the bigger picture. When that happens, it's usually the case that it's a pattern that I never would have uncovered otherwise. I'm definitely not very familiar with the Harris Chain aside from what I've learned watching coverage of pro level events there, but this is something that I think applies to pretty much any body of water so may be something to add to your routine if you're not already doing it.
    2011 Skeeter ZX225
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  8. Member
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    #8
    Check out the Smallmouth Crush video Travis Manson did up on Henderson. He goes into detail how to graph areas to eliminate unproductive stretches.

    it all boils down to one thing: seat time and being dedicated enough to spend the entire day graphing and not fishing just to learn a body of water
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  9. Member Hez's Avatar
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    #9
    Quote Originally Posted by DrewFlu33 View Post
    Sounds to me like you're doing a really good job at it! I think what you said about selecting an area and graphing it is a great approach. Those big bodies of water are really, really daunting so anything you can do to break it down into manageable chunks really helps! I've had some experience with that myself as I continuously work on learning Lake Minnetonka here in the Twin Cities.

    One additional thing that you might consider if you haven't already is to explore some map generating options for whatever graphs you run. Of course most graphs have some version (or versions) of "auto chart" available these days and that can definitely help, but when you're looking for other more subtle stuff that isn't necessarily related to depth changes, that functionality alone can leave a little to be desired. Just as an example, I've currently got Lowrance graphs on my boat. To get more out of them, I've kept a C-Maps Genesis subscription active. I make it a habit to record sonar logs when I'm out and about; of course it's best if you're actively graphing as you get a lot more data that way, but even if I'm just out fishing I figure I might as well record whatever I'm going over so I can analyze it later. Then I can upload those logs (keeping them private as long as I have the subscription), and get maps generated from them in about a day. The contours are a given and are sort of whatever--I can do that with Navionics SonarChart Live--where these maps shine is that they also include bottom hardness and vegetation layers. Being able to step back and see it on a map like that can be super, super useful. I'm always surprised at the stuff that jumps out at me that way...or put another (more accurate) way, I'm surprised at all the stuff I missed while I was graphing. I think the Humminbird AutoChart may actually do the bottom hardness layer right away nowadays if you happen to run them, but I'm not positive on that. Genesis Live on the newer Lowrance units may have that capability too; I've got Gen 3 units that only barely had access to Genesis Live, and unfortunately that software update was very problematic for the Gen 3 units so I haven't been able to use it to see what it does and does not do. Also not sure what Garmin has in this realm but I bet something that does the same.

    Similar to the above idea (and given the amount of time you've clearly spent working on this and thinking about it, you're probably already doing it), I've found that marking fish catches with waypoints will really often clue me in on some pattern when I zoom out and look at the bigger picture. When that happens, it's usually the case that it's a pattern that I never would have uncovered otherwise. I'm definitely not very familiar with the Harris Chain aside from what I've learned watching coverage of pro level events there, but this is something that I think applies to pretty much any body of water so may be something to add to your routine if you're not already doing it.

    Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, daunting is definitely a good term in this scenario.

    To your point about marking waypoints when I catch a fish...I sorta do that. What I mean by "sorta" is this: When I get a bite...I stop and work that area pretty good and try to get another bite. If I get two bites out of an area, then I put a waypoint. I have always been hesitant of marking every fish, in case some fish were roaming...and plus, that's a lot of waypoints


    The units that I'm currently running at the console (Humminbird 1199ci si) does not have the auto charting feature...I have a livescope up front on the bow with a Garmin EchoMap 93...so, a little bit different setup - but I'm just trying to maximize my overall knowledge and increase my ability to use my electronics. That's the only way you are going to compete in larger tournaments.





    Quote Originally Posted by ECobb91 View Post
    Check out the Smallmouth Crush video Travis Manson did up on Henderson. He goes into detail how to graph areas to eliminate unproductive stretches.

    it all boils down to one thing: seat time and being dedicated enough to spend the entire day graphing and not fishing just to learn a body of water

    I'm familiar with Smallmouth Crush, I will find that video you're talking about.

    Yeah, seat time is something that I haven't really put in yet for electronics. I went out again for a couple of hours last night and just idled around graphing. I think the more I do it, the better I will get at identifying good stuff.

    It's hard being a weekend warrior...you only have a couple of free days....and I always want to use it fishing....never want to just ride around and graph...but it's becoming more enjoyable...kind of like a treasure hunt

    Wishin' I was fishin'...


    1990 Ranger 374v
    1996 175 HP Mariner - Magnum EFI
    25p Tempest - A45 model
    80 lb 24v MinnKota Maxxum
    Humminbird Helix 10
    Humminbird Helix 7
    Garmin EchoMap 106sv w/ LS
    Dual 8' Power Poles