This was one of the many screen captures I gathered today while goofing off on wind-blown lake Wissota. Aside from being a nice image, it is really instructive in two different ways.
First, note that I’m showing a split view, with down-looking, “traditional” sonar on the left and Humminbird Side Imaging on the right. As you can see on the Side Imaging panel, I’m in a region that is rich with fish cribs. Toward the top of the frame, note that I’ve driven directly over two cribs (right at the junction of the dark blue water column stripe and the lighter bottom). These cribs are noted with red arrows. Now, look at the down-looking sonar panel….there are the same two cribs.
Instructive point #1: The combination of Side Imaging (for perfect target identification….these are definitely fish cribs) and down-looking sonar allows us to define the height of these cribs…these are about 5 feet high, with the tops sitting about 11 feet below the surface. Now, imagine that you’d like to fish these cribs with minnows and slip-bobbers for some of Wissota’s slab crappies….how far down should a guy set his bobber? How about 10 feet so you skirt the top of the cribs but don’t have to worry about snagging up? What a fantastic way to make your fishing time more productive by dialing in the right depth from the start.
Instructive point #2: Note that the rest of the down-looking sonar view is clean…no additional cribs can be seen. One pass with a locator equipped with only down-looking sonar might make you think that there are only a couple of cribs here. Side Imaging, of course, shows you immediately that there are far more than just two. How many cribs can you readily identify in the Side Imaging panel? I count 17 cribs in addition to the two that the 2D beams identified. 2 out of 19…..
