What am I seeing on my Lowrance

Not the best picture but this was on Bay Lake in Deerwood MN. What is all the clutter on the top half?

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It’s bearing grease ….sorry, too soon?

I have had the same issue on Mille Lacs this year with my Garmins. I can’t explain it, but it has pretty much gone away now. My buddy with a brand new Hummingbird had the same thing. I am interested in what people have to say about it.

School of baitfish? Shad? White bass? Saw something similar on lake Pepin Memorial Day.

Depends a lot on the context (lake, time of year time of day,etc…). You need to combine what you see with what you know. If I had to make a call it would be larger bait type fish, tullibee if the lake has them and a bug hatch.

Comparing the down image to the standard image it looks like bugs or small baitfish in the upper half and medium sized fish just below them.

Probably want to turn the sensitivity down slightly.

The whole lake was like this, I can see if it was just a area above a flat or something. It was set to auto, High Chirp

munchy wrote:

Comparing the down image to the standard image it looks like bugs or small baitfish in the upper half and medium sized fish just below them.

Probably want to turn the sensitivity down slightly.

Does it make any difference what speed you were going? We were finding it more at 1/4 throttle and up.

At idle

sticker wrote:

Does it make any difference what speed you were going? We were finding it more at 1/4 throttle and up.

Bug hatch?

I wonder if it has any thing to do with light penetrating the surface? I use my Hook 5 for ice fishing and see the same thing during the day and it clears up as the sun goes down. I usually just ingnore the top 5 feet on it. The other thought I have would be particles or debris in the water, or maybe a combination of the two thoughts.

If it’s the entire lake and the same depth I would say turbidity in the upper half of the water column with a few fish mixed in.

Also Auto is not a good setting to get consistent readings. Making adjustments manually will give you much better readings and won’t throw garbage on the screen.

Looks like a bunch of Snook to me….

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Fishflies (midges)

bigcrappie wrote:

What is all the clutter on the top half?

Summer.

Biologies in water are much more complex that walleyes and Baitfish.

Influxes of water can contribute sediment that stays for a while suspended.

Wind can stir things up good.

Fish activity and bug hatches can stir up the water well. The last to settle must be the uppermost water as it is the most agitated.

Algae blooms

Zoo Plankton

So much can be said about the clutter….. But I rarely adjust my depth finder sensitivity due to it, more I keep it the same so i can monitor changes. Furthermore recognizing fish size and identify only comes with consistent sensitivity settings and time on water.

Feel free to adjust sensitivity down until clutter is removed. You’ll also lose you Baitfish and your outside cone will be weaker. That all depends on the strengths of the clutter.

This was my graph on Mille Lacs this weekend, got my graph dialed in!.

If I saw what you’re seeing I would assume bugs, just because it was starting to show up this weekend in spots when we were out there.

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I agree with others, most likely very small bugs. Even minnows will show up darker. IMO I ignore anything that isn’t marking hard. 99% of the blue clutter I ignore.

Backing up your theories with an underwater camera will get you to the point where you can look at your Lowrance and say hey there’s panfish or there’s walleye, bass or northern. A camera is a great tool to help you learn your electronics.

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