Terrova Transducer and Muskies….An Observation

So my family and my parents were just on a muskie fishing trip in Canada. 2 boats. Mine and my dad’s. Both equipped with Terrova motors with Universal Sonar.
Because of the cool, late spring, we were fishing very shallow. Like 2-5 feet of water, way back in bays.
My boat had fish at the boat a lot and caught 4 on a figure 8. My dad had plenty of follows, but almost all of them peeled off at the boat.
The difference? Because we were so shallow and I could see bottom most of the time, I never felt the need to have my front graph on. In fact, I didn’t turn it on the whole time. My dad on the other hand, always had his on. Out of the water, the transducer makes a very audible clicking noise when the graph is on. I am absolutely convinced that it was the difference maker.

Has anyone else experienced this? Thoughts?

Very interesting observation. I don’t know the answer nor have I had the same experience. I do recall a musky study about the affects of catch and release on fish. Fish were caught and radio tagged so they could be tracked. One of the conclusions is that if a fish was caught by someone in a red boat… that fish would spook from red boats but come on into a figure 8 for any other color boat.

The lake we fish is relatively small and we used to be able to go out and see 3-5 fish in an hour of fishing many times. A public boat ramp was put in and ever since it gets a lot more pressure. Now you essentially never get follows. They either eat or you don’t see them.

My point is that with a long living, slow growing fish like a musky, they encounter certain things that they attribute to negative consequences over time. Nearly everyone fishes with electronics these days and with most musky fisherman releasing the fish they catch, the fish could be associating the clicking/ping of the sonar to a negative experience.

Interesting conversation to have anyway. It will be good to see what others have to say.

You bring up some interesting points too. I just think in this particular expansive, remote Canadian lake, the likelihood that these fish are caught multiple times is less likely than most. And some of the fish that were fleeing my dad’s boat weren’t that old or big.

Could have been movement, color of clothing, reflection off the boat, or any other number of things…. We put many in the boat on the 8 every year with the front unit on and these are educated pressured fish….Then again one never knows with a muskie….

Great i have a red boat! Im doomed! LOL Thats why that big pig i saw last week followed to the boat and then took off like a bat of hell. And i had my electronics on.

You are right on about the transducer

I’ve got a buddy that’s a well known guide, and he’s talked about that very topic several times.

With the exception of very dirty water he doesn’t even turn the front graph on if he’s in 6ft or less. Just for that very reason. He’s swam under the boat with the graph on while he’s in shallow water, and he’s says it’s twice as bad under water

So if it’s loud to us, I’m sure it feels like a bomb going off to a muskie

Well I bass fish but I feel the same thing happens when fishing shallow,I turn my depth finders off because the fish seem to spook easyer w the pinging!
Stan

Your only in trouble with the ones that have been caught by someone else with a red boat… the ones caught be a boat colored other than red… they might as well be virgins!

I don’t know if this helps or not.

Last winter we were doing some filming on a northern lake with our GoPro, needless to say the gopro went down the drink in 11′ of water through the ice. Our camera guy 2 weeks later went back up to the lake – drilled holes at his GPS mark – found the camera and was able to retrieve it with a large 10′ scoop.

Moral of the story:

The video and audio were still running for 3 hours after it went down the hole. There was no video that was able to be retrieved since it landed face down, however, we could hear every conversation and every footstep to and from our ice houses (which were about 30′ away from the camera) throughout the whole 3 hours. It was insane how clear our conversations were from 30′ away and 11′ down.

I learned a ton that day about being quite while on the water.

I am mixed on the subject. I agree high pressure clear and shallow, shutting it off is the way to go. However, I have had a fair share of fish follow in on the 8 only to turn to the spinning trolling motor and watch it go. A few actually thought it could be their next meal

Ben, I’m not talking about the motor spinning, I’m talking about the transducer being on. I agree that a spinning motor doesn’t usually spook them.

Yeah, I’m on the same page. I rarely have the trolling motor in the water without the transducer on, I guess I was looking at it as the whole package.

Quote:

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I don’t know if this helps or not.

Last winter we were doing some filming on a northern lake with our GoPro, needless to say the gopro went down the drink in 11′ of water through the ice. Our camera guy 2 weeks later went back up to the lake – drilled holes at his GPS mark – found the camera and was able to retrieve it with a large 10′ scoop.

Moral of the story:

The video and audio were still running for 3 hours after it went down the hole. There was no video that was able to be retrieved since it landed face down, however, we could hear every conversation and every footstep to and from our ice houses (which were about 30′ away from the camera) throughout the whole 3 hours. It was insane how clear our conversations were from 30′ away and 11′ down.

I learned a ton that day about being quite while on the water.

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I find that very interesting. Having spent more hours in a spearhouse than I should have, I have never noticed fish react to people talking – ever. I have noted lots of reactions to walking, or moving anything across the house floor, no matter how subtley, though.

T