Curious fish

[Wayne P.]

I dropped a 15# mushroom anchor several times while drifting to see how it marked the bottom.
Then several hours later I scanned that area and some fish seemed to be interested in those depressions:

[Wormdunker]

That is really interesting, likely because some sort of prey will eventually take up residence in them. Are the sonar shadows in the holes?

[XingEyeballs]

Very interesting and good observation, we’ve had some strong storms lately adding some new cover to the water. Strange how fast the fish locate and use it, I suppose it’s happening in their living room....

[Bob B]

With a little work .... you could mis-direct other fishermen thinking those were spawning beds ..... Not that you or I would ever do anything like that.

Maybe you fooled that fish into thinking those were spawning beds and it is looking for lunch.

[Wayne P.]

That is really interesting, likely because some sort of prey will eventually take up residence in them. Are the sonar shadows in the holes?

It looks like six of them are high enough in the water column to have their shadows far to the left. Two of the small ones seem to have their shadows in the depressions.

The smallest fish near the top of the view has its shadow close by, but not as close to the bottom as the pickerel leading the pack.

[BigFishSteve]

I"m struggling here. Looks like I see 7 fish and their seven shadows. Help me understand.

[DonnieG]

Great image, Wayne

[Buccaneer]

Fish swim in single file? Learned something today.

[Wayne P.]

Fish swim in single file? Learned something today.

Those did, guessing they were checking out the depressions from the anchor and the right side was the "safest" route.

I checked that area yesterday and no fish were anywhere close to it.

[FishNChip]

I'm no expert, but you have some incredibly well organized fish, assuming they are the white lines and you anchor holes are the shadow. You have a fish for each depression, even in the double set that is the second from the top of the image. Too much of a coincidence I think.

[Wayne P.]

I'm no expert, but you have some incredibly well organized fish, assuming they are the white lines and you anchor holes are the shadow. You have a fish for each depression, even in the double set that is the second from the top of the image. Too much of a coincidence I think.

The only part of the anchor holes that has a shadow is the bottom and side towards the transducer. The opposite side of the holes is bright since it gets a more direct sonar pulse to reflect. Same thing when scanning a creek channel, sonar cannot see around a corner.

[FishNChip]

Your creek channel is a text book example of bottom facing away and towards sonar source. The image at the bottom of your first post is a fish and a shadow. I think you can see the fins and tail pretty readily. The next two dark spots up appear to be anchor depressions as you can see the brighter edge facing the sonar. However, the elongated bright lines to the right don't have a shadow as the lead fish which is curious. Beyond that I can't say what is anchor depression and what is fish shadow.

[ezfishn]

With being in only 2.4 FOW, the missing fish shadows are most likely off to the left in the darker area of screen or not at all as Wayne indicated. The brighter bottom on both sides of the water column in 1st image must be the beam pattern overlapping which is really showing up at that depth.

[Wayne P.]

With being in only 2.4 FOW, the missing fish shadows are most likely off to the left in the darker area of screen or not at all as Wayne indicated. The brighter bottom on both sides of the water column in 1st image must be the beam pattern overlapping which is really showing up at that depth.

The false anomaly is mostly due to cross talk with the DI pulse.

[FishNChip]

Let's switch gears here a bit. Being from LA, the first fish image, (closest too the bottom of the pic), if this was recorded in South LA, I would have to interpret as a gar, as nothing else we have down here would be elongated like that. Or so I think. Wayne, what do you think your fish are? Pike? Don't know the VA species much at all.

[Wayne P.]

Let's switch gears here a bit. Being from LA, the first fish image, (closest too the bottom of the pic), if this was recorded in South LA, I would have to interpret as a gar, as nothing else we have down here would be elongated like that. Or so I think. Wayne, what do you think your fish are? Pike? Don't know the VA species much at all.

Already stated what species in the second paragraph in post #5.

[188Musky]

I find it far more likely that it is one fish moving in and out of the transducer beam.

Interesting shot, though.