Muskies on the Bay

Here was a wolf pack of walleyes that had us all tempted to pick up a Rippin’ Rap quick!

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Nice! No mistaking those shadows! Do you happen to have any without the zoomed in window? Ya know, for those of us without the MEGA stuff… Sorry, but electronics get me excited. The technology we have access to is amazing. I toggle back and forth when telling people what my favorite feature is. My Structure-Scan, or my Xi5!

Great shots! Those alone would get the blood flowing to stay in the area and cast, cast, cast!

Thanks. Great report guys!

I do have some that are just cell phone pics of the screen. At the time I didn’t have a blank SD card in the unit to save screen shots.

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WOW! That many together on the screen must have been exciting. The whole Bay, and you found the mother-load!

Fantastic!

That was actually from a month ago or so. Bemidji area.

Have you tried measuring the fish using the cursor feature and targeting the bigger fish? Then comparing to the caught fish? Is that feature capability available while zoomed in on the MEGA?

Like I said, technology brings many great features that are often overlooked by the average fisherman.

Thanks for all the info!

Tim Bossert wrote:

Have you tried measuring the fish using the cursor feature and targeting the bigger fish?

I have definitely done that for walleyes. I guess if I see ANY muskie on the side imaging I try to catch it. I’m quite sure we saw the fish that James caught on the pass before. We circled around on it and James caught that fish. That being said, there was several fish in the area we were fishing and those Green Bay fish sure seemed to move a lot.

Way cool. Thanks much for the additional info.

I love the work IDO does to incorporate the tech into the shows, and really show people how to use, and then trust the technology. We read articles, blogs, and watch videos of people describing it, but it is another to see it in action.

Solid work!

New to the Helix SI… Pat, it seems you’re keeping your SI range fairly low. What’s been your experience with that and finding muskies? My assumption was that larger fish would show up at a higher SI range, while smaller fish like bass/walleyes/crappies would require the greater definition of a smaller range. Obviously, a larger range would be preferable for finding fish, but only if they show up!

I mess with the range quite a bit, but 60′ is my preferred range when break-line fishing. I have found that anything much outside of that on the shallow side gets lost because it becomes too shallow. I also know that I can cast a musky bait at least 60′. So it’s basically telling me what is around the boat within casting distance.

When i’m doing more open water fishing or fishing deeper water, I tend to run it at around 90′. It seems to be the sweet spot for me where I can still make out what everything is and cover the most water.

If I was just looking for bottom changes, rocks, trees, and structure that is going to be very obvious, i’ll crank that range way out when in search mode for structure.

So 60-90′ when trying to find fish, 100’+ when looking for structure.

These are just my findings with the way I have everything configured. Hope that helps.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the general rule of thumb is 3X the depth as a starting point. That being said, I typically run mine at 50′-60′ while fishing water shallower than 25′ (depending on structure size).

On the Lowrance, there are range markers/lines along the bottom edge at a particular scale depending on total range set. I like to have mine in the 50′-60′ range as then my scale is every 5′, so it is easier to estimate size of structure/fish. Bumping up the range also bumps up my scale to a higher value, but also lowers my viewable size of structure on the screen. All of this is relative to what structure I am fishing, or just as Pat stated if I am in search mode I increase it.

I have also been trying to use it while trolling to easier locate bait balls, and the fish that might be feeding nearby. So far, I find myself going back to 2D and watch the hooks go by.

Helpful, thx!

Larry Potterfield

Ok What a Specimen. AWESOME CATCH