A Humminbird Side Imaging examination of weedbeds

The lake where my family and I spent our holiday weekend is chock full of beautiful weedbeds. Cabbage, coontail, lily pads…..you name it. This gave me an opportunity to demonstrate how Humminbird Side Imaging technology handles different types of weeds and weed structures. All of these images were captured with a Humminbird 1197.

The first image shows scattered individual stems of cabbage that are just beginning to come up off the bottom. These plants average 12-18″ right now. Each plant is a bright white return. The bottom is pretty sandy in this spot, and on the right side image, you can see the trails cut in the bottom by the prop wash from boats running at high speed through this area. Good thing there aren’t too many rocks!

This next image is right in the middle of an expansive shallow flat of mixed cabbage and coontail. The weeds are about 2/3 last year’s brown weeds (lower to the bottom) and 1/3 this year’s green weeds, which show up as bright white returns among the darker weedy masses. You can also see some trails from prop wash in this area, cutting through both the left and the right side images.

Sweet picture Jason. Those units are amazing!

The left side image in this next screen capture shows some very well-defined coontail clumps on an otherwise clean, silty bottom. We could easily see these stands of coontail, and I’d estimate the smallest of the clumps you see here to be the size of a small dinner table.

This next screen capture has both the traditional 2-D sonar view in addition to the Side Imaging view. As you can see by looking at the 2D view, I’ve driven over a weed edge topping out at less that 7 feet, into some deeper water that is about 15 feet deep. Check out the Side Imaging perspective of this transition. As you can see in the left side image, the bright white weeds have a well defined edge, that moves from the lower left to the upper right, eventually paralleling the boat’s path in the upper half of the right side image.

There are a couple of things I want to point out in this screen capture. First, check out the weed edge in the right side image. The edge is reasonably well defined as it snakes towards and away from the boat’s path, with perhaps a few weeds extending beyond the well-defined edge in the upper half of the image.

A great feature of the Humminbird units is the ability to drop waypoints on objects identified by Side Imaging. As I moved along this edge, I dropped waypoints every 50 feet or so, which will allow me to come back and cast or troll this edge with fantastic precision. No trial and error involved…one pass with the boat at 4-5 mph, and I have the entire weed edge mapped.

The next thing I wanted to point out is the 2D sonar. The down-looking sonar sees a large object extending ~ 4 feet off the bottom, with 3 smaller ones after it. Note that the “tallest” object is farthest from the boat, with the three “shorter” ones are closer.

Now ask yourself…..how would you interpret this screen? Big rock with 3 little ones? Stump with a few fish?

Humminbird Side Imaging solves the puzzle: they’re fish cribs. Look at the dark blue “stripe” down the middle of the SI view….that is the region right under the boat. Count the white objects that are right at the junction between the dark blue stripe and the lighter blue bottom: 4 objects…the same 4 objects identified on the 2D screen. They are bright, and seem to have regular shapes. How do I know they are cribs? Look at the left side image…there are 6 more bright white “boxy” objects that are completely missed by the 2D sonar but stand out plain as day with Side Imaging.

Time for some more waypoints for summer and winter crappies!

Bright white weeds = new growth
Dark weeds = dead
Or are they just more dense dead ones, ie. Thicker stalks.

Spent a lot of time looking for green weeds this last weekend without much luck. Everything looked dark on the screen vs bright like you showed. That would be awesome for this time of year if that holds true. Some of my favorite weedlines should be starting to grow any day now so I can verify myself.

Did you verify this?