Shell bed images

[Skeeterboy1]

Does anybody have some shell bed images I can view

[TNperry]

I would be interested in seeing that too Skeeter since I live on KY Lake in Tennessee and have done a lot of mussel diving in years past. Some of the mussels are buried or covered with mud and slit and only a part of their shell is above ground. There are or were zillions of shells on the bottom of KY Lake in past years when I was diving and selling mussels. I am personally interested to know what relationship a bass has with a mussel bed and/or mussels and I asked this question once to Kevin Vandam and he said he wasn't totally sure other than maybe current was a factor. In regard to current and the life of a mussel, in my experience you could find mussels in back of creeks where there is no current to speak of. His other statement was "I try and locate the bass, if a mussel shell is present then so be it" lol.

[Wayne P.]

I don't have any mussel bed images, BUT the Side Imaging Red/Green pallet is what most use to find them easily. That color combo is for finding hard/soft bottom transition areas.
I have seen them at Guntersville using someone else's unit.

[TroyBoy30]

Doug has posted shell bed pictures but I can't find them

[Doug Vahrenberg]

They are in the Sticky Thread for images 10' to 20' and here is the blue color pallet and the special Red/Green which makes finding hard bottoms easier - especially Shell Beds - this is a Humminbird Exclusive

Shell Bed...



Shell Bed with Red/Green Color Pallet....Much easier to locate these hard bottom structure...

[Skeeterboy1]

Thanks Doug that is awesome

[Fish4fun1944]

I purchased a 898csi unit in the early fall of 2012 so I am a relatively new H-B user. I noticed almost every time (if not all times) I used the red/green pallet I had a red line directly below the boat just as shown in the example in this thread in addition to sometimes showing shell beds in red on one or boths sides of the boat. Is the showing of red directly below the boat a function of the red/green pallet or does it truly indicate a narrow shell bed below the boat? I was using the red/green pallet on Lake Barkley and the red line below the boat occured both on the main lake and in the bays.
Looking forward to your insights.
Thanks

[Doug Vahrenberg]

That's because the sound wave is bouncing back very strong

[Fish4fun1944]

Doug:
Thanks for the quick response
Larry

[procraftmark]

how do you know those red areas are shells and not just rock?

[Wayne P.]

how do you know those red areas are shells and not just rock?

That is what a heavy jig or Carolina rig will indicate whether you locate them with or without sonar.

[Fergwannville]

I don't claim to know more than van dam about catching bass but I have a theory.. Here on Guntersville fish on shells are best caught dragging lures, most commonly jigs, across the shells . Think of a bass attacking bait such as a crawfish in the mud. He gets a mouth full of mud and can easily lose the bait in silt.. Now imagine that same bass attacking bait on shells.. The hard bottom greatly enhances its ability to successfully eat dinner . Just my theory

[TMARK]

I have fished KY Lake for many years, and have fished many shell beds. The majority of shell beds look like "VANILLA WAFERS" a wavy bottom composition that cant be mistaken for anything else. it doesn't matter if its sonar or down scan, it looks like Vanilla Wafers. I have had my best luck, catching them with dragging bottom techniques, like...Carolina rigs, jigs, and Texas rig, with secondary baits of swim bait, drop hot, and shakey head. Based on what I have witnessed what fish are eating upon catching them on shell beds, I have seen crawfish and shad.

[Squire]

I don't claim to know more than van dam about catching bass but I have a theory.. Here on Guntersville fish on shells are best caught dragging lures, most commonly jigs, across the shells . Think of a bass attacking bait such as a crawfish in the mud. He gets a mouth full of mud and can easily lose the bait in silt.. Now imagine that same bass attacking bait on shells.. The hard bottom greatly enhances its ability to successfully eat dinner . Just my theory

Mine is similar but different. Bass have very poor hearing for sound, and its in the very low hz range. Since a bass is more or less blind in 20ft of water with any stain to it, I figure they like the hard bottom areas in that they produce food, but also, the same effect it has on sonar, it has on their ability to detect sound. Thus, they can hear the mudbugs better until they can get close enough to eat them. One of the things I do is either use my secchi disk or a white spinnerbait and drop it down until it disappears. Double this and this is the depth I like to target fishing and then adjust. I believe that allows them to look up with a advantage of the light. Probably way over thinking it, but they are a predator and figure they use what they have to their advantage, ie, sight (primary) and sound (secondary).

[Ladr6]

Anyone have some settings they find works well on green/red pallet? Seems everytime i try to use it, it is either all red on the right or no red at all. For some reason i just cant find that happy meduim.

[Wayne P.]

Anyone have some settings they find works well on green/red pallet? Seems everytime i try to use it, it is either all red on the right or no red at all. For some reason i just cant find that happy meduim.

Use the Sensitivity setting to adjust the intensity of the red. You have to get the right balance of red and green to see when there is a change in bottom hardness.

An all sandy bottom like in Florida would not do too well with that pallet. Soft bottom to shell beds (hard bottom) is what most are looking for.
On glacial lakes, it works well to find those bottom hardness transition areas (why that pallet was created).

You could move to a known soft bottom or decayed vegetation area and adjust the Sensitivity to not show any red, then ride around to find areas with a hard bottom/no vegetation.

[Ladr6]

So maybe leave the contrast at say 8?

[Wayne P.]

So maybe leave the contrast at say 8?

Using any Contrast setting other than default (10) is not necessary. Sensitivity is the setting to adjust.

A lower Contrast just washes out what you can do with Sensitivity.

[Ladr6]

On any pallet color or just green/red?

[Wayne P.]

On any pallet color or just green/red?

Same applies to all colors.

Red/Green is specifically used for that purpose. You certainly can use other colors to distinguish between soft and hard returns like the blue pallet posted above.

If you have a Helix, there are a couple more bi-color pallets you can try. Otherwise you would just have return intensities of the monochrome colors to indicate the difference.

This is Amber 1 with light and dark shades to indicate between hard and soft returns: