School of Walleyes caught on Panoptix!

This is so cool, I had to post it. Last week, James, Pat and I headed to Leech Lake for two days and we were on the hunt for Walleyes. We got to play with a few features on the Garmin units, and while we were doing so – we came across a nice school of Walleyes. Watch this quick clip to see how these fish move while being viewed on Garmin’s Panoptix LiveVu Down. You will see the fish come off the bottom, probably about five or six of them (roughly 2 foot off the bottom). As they move across the screen, the fish leave a red/pink trail that shows the historical movement of the fish (also tracked by the small screen on the left side of the image (that is the historical view). Has anyone else had a chance to play with Panoptix, and do you have any cool footage to share?

Video here:

Looks like an ultrasound. I kept expecting to see a baby!!

Very cool tech.

@suzuki My wife just had twin boys, and I kept telling the ultrasound tech about Panoptix. She couldn’t believe it! I should send this video to her! It is the same technology.

Wicked.

Those look awesome. Glad to see you guys last week.

More importantly …

…did you catch them ??

What was that at 15ft towards the end? Bait fish or what?

Been working with both the Panoptix PS-31 and PS-30 Transducer. I have mounted the PS-31 for example on one boat just off center portside pointed back on the transom, then I set the angle at 40 degrees starboard (remember the transducer is forward orientated so if pointing backwards need to set to sweep starboard side if you want portside coverage) I set at 40 degrees do it will sweep from zero 40 degrees to the portside. Which if back trolling the area the boat operator is fishing or area boat is moving to. On the other boat I have a PS-30 and Ps-31 the 30 on the transom and the 31 on a terrova for scanning.

The Ps-31 shooting forward is great for staying on a contour trolling crankbaits for example.One can stay on the exact depth much easier.

Sorry about the multiple pictures of the same photo

#910 PS-31 at a 40 degree angle showing portside back off transom boat is in 28′ sweeping to the top at 10′, 70′ horizontal distance. As I move along 40 degrees portside’ could be a plus back trolling knowing what is ahead of you or behind you as you go backwards.

#901 PS-30 showing suspended walleyes

#768 PS_30 suspended walleye chasing a my jig which I caught

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bigcrappie wrote:

What was that at 15ft towards the end? Bait fish or what?

That was school of bait. Seeing how aggressively those walleye would come up off the bottom to charge through the schools opened my eyes to how much distance a walleye will cover vertically to grab a meal.

FryDog62 wrote:

More importantly …

…did you catch them ??

Some, yes. Jigging raps worked best.

Gary, good post too… looks like great technology. Also affirms that walleye will suspend and feed upwards at times.

@garykorsgaden Thank you for submitting your photos, and contributing to the post. It is just amazing to watch the behavior of the fish towards a bait or bait fish, and even more amazing to know the direction the fish is heading. As far as 2D sonar has come in the past 10 years, the future hold some endless possibilities.

FryDog62 wrote:

affirms that walleye will suspend and feed upwards at times.
1997 Yar-craft 1678bt, 2010 Yamaha 60 hp

I think that is more true than traditional walleye anglers would admit. This video is a great example. Also, this past weekend on superior we caught a 22″ eye at 30′ in over 100′ of water. Which was the 4th eye the Team Crush charter had caught in similar circumstances this year, with them all over 20″ and the biggest being 29″.

I have been working on catching suspended fish for a lot of years crappie and walleye. Pinpointing location has a lot to do with cone angles of the transducers. Up until now The Vexilar Edge is the best piece of electronics for pinpointing exact locations of fish with dual transducers. Incorporating side by side, one wide and the other narrow on the same screen, for example see fish on the wide angle transducer and not on the narrow know immediately the need to adjust to one side or the other. Wide for scanning a area the other narrow for pinpointing exact location. In deep water with a wide cone angle transducer your bait could look to be close to the fish but in actuality double digit feet away from them, dependent on depth they are. When trolling suspended fish, before panoptix 2d sonar would show the fish but many times too late to get the baits on them. Now with live vu forward anglers can see forward where the fish are and direct a pass right on them. With live vu down see the reaction to the jig like when vertically jigging. it should be noted too that suspended walleyes, as I have seen with my setups, drop down when and boat passes over head.

It was once thought suspended fish were neutral feeding fish. I have found them at times to be very active feeders, but with a lot of choices. The attached photo shows a nice walleye working its way up to feed on bait fish hanging off bugs. One slide shows a comparison on my Lowrance HDS 12 Gen 3 and the other slide fish chasing ciscoes relating to bugs

FYI in both of these outings I took walleyes, one trip 6 and the other 8 but three were too large.

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I have been enjoying the panoptics view & education as well! Wow is all I can say. So old guys can learn a new trick or two ! :]

Perfected a technique I call ‘pushing a night crawler and a spinner.” Using a 14’ rod with a small bait cast reel and monofilament line. Use a 2 1/2 oz, 3 oz or 4 oz pencil weight with the spinner and a crawler on a 8 foot, leader. Point the rod tip straight forward off the bow set in rod holders mounted to the floor on pedestals, on the live vu you can see the weight and the crawler and spinner. Instead of pulling your pushing it and the sinker will drop back towards the bow of the boat and stay in the forward view of the ps-31 live view transducer. Note the heavier the sinker the more vertical of angle off the bow. Easy to adjust to keep in the fish zone when one can see the sinker. Fun to see the fish come up and smack it or if they turn and go away change color or blade until the right one is found.

Better hook sets too as the flex in rod bend backwards is stout and sets hook well mostly top of the mouth of the fish

Very deadly..don’t find many walleyes that will resist a juicy crawler and spinner put right on their noses.

Always room for more tricks, right?! They are sweet units.

Cool, May just have to check it out!

What about panoptix for ice fishing?

ClownColor wrote:

1) Do you have to be moving? (I’m guessing no similar to an ultrasound)
2) Any chance this can be used for Ice fishing?
3) Have you seen a huge battery drain with this technology?
4) Is this one transduce for both 2D and ultrasound technology (sorry-not sure wha u call this) or is it two separate transduces? Then do you need a third one for DI/SI?
5) Good separation in weeds?
6) whats the depth range? I can’t see this going to deep but maybe/hopefully I’m wrong?

I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

1 – no, you don’t have to be moving.
2 – I’ve not tried it. I’m sure you could make it work but given the size of the transducer I’m not sure how practical it would be at this point. I know efforts are being made to continue to downsize the Panoptix transducers as well as lower the cost so in the future… anything’s possible.
3 – I’ve not paid any attention to battery drain nor have I noticed anything out of the ordinary while using my Garmins with Panoptix in my boat. Measuring current draw wouldn’t be hard but I’ve not done it.
4 – Panoptix is its own transducer. 2D, down imaging, and side imaging are all accomplished with a second transducer. I run a GT52 for 2D, down and side imaging.
5 – I’ve had very good results in weeds with Panoptix. I’ll take some screen captures the next time I’m out and share them here in the Garmin forum. Seeing fish move through the weeds towards your bait on Panoptix is pretty awesome.
6 – The depth range is 300′. I’ve not tried it that deep but I have used it regularly at depths over 100′ and it works very, very well. Here’s a video we did last year using Panoptix on Superior chasing lakers if you’re interested.

Just to be clear. When looking at the screen the right side of the screen is fore and the left side is aft? When I first started with this I looked at it like SI with the distances on the top of the screen were left and right to the boat.That being said, if the right side of the screen the bottom comes up that means than as you move forward the depth will come up? I need more time to just figure this system out.

mojogunter wrote:

When looking at the screen the right side of the screen is fore and the left side is aft?

If you’re talking about the video Nick posted the right side of the screen is starboard, the left side is port. If you look to the very top of the screen you’ll see distance marks that increase as you move out in either direction from the center. That distance marks tell you how far a fish is located off to the side, and if the fish is swimming, the direction it is moving, etc., which is info that other forms of sonar just can’t provide.

Simply, AMAZING. I used to work on Medical UltraSound and I oft wondered “Why didn’t Marine Sonar do what Pan Optix is actually doing now?”
What a technicoligic world we live in! THANX. NOW, if only the expense would come down so that all could afford.

ClownColor wrote:

Sorry…one last question. What’s the cone angle like. Can’t find it. To be honest, I’m more exited to see this for ice fishing given it has a large enough cone.

Well played Garmin!

Because a Panoptix transducer has many smaller transducer crystals firing in an array we’re not talking about a single cone angle as we would with a traditional transducer.

Panoptix “cone angle” is expressed as beam angle and provides an idea of how much area the Panoptix transducer is covering as the array of transducer crystals sweep the area below the transducer. The area covered is far larger than what is covered with a single transducer crystal found in a standard transducer. The beam angles available using LiveVu Down are as follows.

From Garmin’s website – User selectable beam shape: 120°/10°, 120°/20°, 120°/40°

At 120°/40° you’re sweeping 120° degrees side to side and 40° fore and aft.

The array is also electronically steerable meaning you can tell the PS30 to look up to 45 degrees fore or 45 degrees aft without physically moving the transducer.

From Garmin’s website – User selectable beam direction: Electronically steerable over 90° region (+/- 45° fore/aft)

With the ps-30 the side view is to be 14′ on both starboard or portside. What transducer features do you find best for fishing so far on the transom.

The PS-31 will give farther distance on live view forward. Any thoughts and why for either of these two

PS-30 or PS-31

Gary Korsgaden wrote:

With the ps-30 the side view is to be 14′ on both starboard or portside. What transducer features do you find best for fishing so far on the transom.

The only Panoptix view I use (I have a Ps-30 installed on the transom) is the LiveVu Down.

The PS-31 will give farther distance on live view forward. Any thoughts and why for either of these two

PS-30 or PS-31

I’m sorry but I’m not sure I understand the question. Can you provide additional info on the decision you’re trying to make?

Spoke to a Senior Engineer at Garmin today. Got some very good insight into the application with the PS-31. Thanks for trying to help out.

Stay tuned