# Fish Finder pics OR a place to find submerged structure



## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

First question - anybody have any pics of their fish finder showing submerged structure?

Second question - can anyone offer a specific spot where I can find submerged structure, ideally on either Alum, Hoover, or OShag? PM me if you prefer. If you knew how often I get to go, you'd know you have nothing to worry about over-pressuring y4our spot.

Background - I just made my first trip out with a newly acquired fish finder. I'm on a canoe, so opted for the smaller, portable Garmin Striker Plus 4cv (plus has ice fishing capability for this winter up north). My maiden fish finder voyage was Hoover this past weekend, and while I'd say it was productive and the fish finder helped, I can't say I really got the full benefit. I expect the most basic answer is time and practice....but thought I'd ask this forum. What I am after is some help (beyond blogs and youtube, which I've scoured) knowing what structure looks like. I am most interested in largemouth, crappie, and saugeye.....with the first two most relating to structure. Also, the 4cv is supposed to feature Garmin's "Clear Vu" with good down-scan type views of the bottom and better structure definition.....I just didn't see much of that at all on Hoover, which admittedly was deeper near the banks than I expected.


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## HappySnag (Dec 20, 2007)

AKlo said:


> First question - anybody have any pics of their fish finder showing submerged structure?
> 
> Second question - can anyone offer a specific spot where I can find submerged structure, ideally on either Alum, Hoover, or OShag? PM me if you prefer. If you knew how often I get to go, you'd know you have nothing to worry about over-pressuring y4our spot.
> 
> Background - I just made my first trip out with a newly acquired fish finder. I'm on a canoe, so opted for the smaller, portable Garmin Striker Plus 4cv (plus has ice fishing capability for this winter up north). My maiden fish finder voyage was Hoover this past weekend, and while I'd say it was productive and the fish finder helped, I can't say I really got the full benefit. I expect the most basic answer is time and practice....but thought I'd ask this forum. What I am after is some help (beyond blogs and youtube, which I've scoured) knowing what structure looks like. I am most interested in largemouth, crappie, and saugeye.....with the first two most relating to structure. Also, the 4cv is supposed to feature Garmin's "Clear Vu" with good down-scan type views of the bottom and better structure definition.....I just didn't see much of that at all on Hoover, which admittedly was deeper near the banks than I expected.


when you go testing,take with you 3 milk jugs 1 galon,put them on rope,fill them with water,but they have to float,put sinker on them 3' roap,put them in water,they will be 3' off botom,turn the unit on and go around the marker,now you can experience what you can see.
you can do that with scrap 2x4,just get comfortable what you can see.


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## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

That's a good idea - thanks for that. With it being a canoe, I can get by with a simple 5lb dumbbell as the anchor.....will just tie a few to that, probably wood so I have some flotation.


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

Look on you tube. There should be plenty of screen shots to look at. Most guys on here won’t post screen shots because the waypoints show exactly where they are fishing. If you want to take the time you can go through previous posts by deerfarmer. He has posted screen shots in the past.


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## Earthworms (Dec 15, 2014)

A lot of saugeye


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## Brahmabull71 (Jul 30, 2014)

Here are a couple shots at Alum with my Garmin 93SV Plus. I just have 2D CHIRP and side imaging CHIRP shots.

These are going into a deep cove in the south pool with a large tree on my Starboard (right) and a shelf/hump on my port (left). The 2D image is showing suspended crappie in the channel. If you zoom in on the side imaging you will see small white-ish specs which are these suspended fish also. Saugeye/walleye because of their swim bladder size/bone structure and shape will be long on high definition as Earthworms picture illustrates. Crappie, white bass and other species will just be more dot shaped on high definition. On 2D sonar, the thicker the arch/return, the more dense and larger the swim bladder is. The top of the arch is the closest in proximity and hardest return to where fish actually are in the water column. Remember that fish finders don’t tell you how deep fish are, but rather DISTANCE from the transducer. It’s always safer to be above fish as they feed UP!


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## MDBuckeye (Sep 29, 2009)

The Garmin seems to be more clear than the Hummingbird with similar capabilities. I watched a video on their newer Panoptics which was super cool in addition to the 2 and 3d.


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## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

Funny stuff Earthworms. 

Big thanks Brahm. I don't have side imaging, but the 2D view makes sense. Amazing how well you can see that submerged tree on the side view. I think I was seeing small dots on my clearvu right before getting into some crappie. Makes sense on the fish size thing and how they show up.

I think this will come down to practice, what doesn't right? It also didn't help for my maiden fishfinder voyage that we had strong winds that were drifting me pretty quick. Couldn't really study the fish finder and focus on fishing. I'm going to look for a really calm day and probably hit up OShag which I expect would have a lot of fallen timber. Go slow, try to zigzag over some areas, mark a few waypoints and then go over them a few times.


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## chris1162 (Mar 12, 2008)

Shot from my garmin 73sv on the ohio river in a kayak. That is a barge. Sorry for potato quality pic


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

I think you may be trying to get way to technical and expecting too much. Structure that fish relate to doesn't always and many times doesn't, mean a rock or stump, or submerged bridge, etc, etc, etc. The vast majority of the time fish not up on the backs are relating to contour changes, creek channels, points. These underwater changes tend to work like highways for the forage base and predator fish to navigate. The number one most important piece of structure for any offshore fish is contour change. A contour change is not exciting or sexy on a fish finder, it is just a change in depth, some gradual some fast. To me the number one most important function of a fish finder is depth reading and the ability to pinpoint contour change. The actually fish finding part is secondary for bottom relating species. Suspended schools of crappie or white bass in the main basin not relating to bottom contour in the summer is a different story. A fish finder can play a big role in those situations.

We would all love to go out and find a secret submerged bridge on all of the lakes we fish but the reality is you fish finder is not going to reveal much to you on most lakes because it doesn't exist. If you go to Alum, about 100 yds from the mouth of the sailboat marina, within the buoy markers there is a submerged bridge in around 30 ft of water. It doesn't not attract many fish most times of the year but it is there if you want to go and look at it. Alum has tons of what I call structure but it is all just contour change, points and creek channels. There are some stumps and old road culverts on Delaware but they are not pronounced pieces of structures.

Find the points that drop into deep water, near a creek channel all the better. Locate banks with the main creek channel running along it, it will typically have some good contour changes, find old roadbeds on the maps, they will just show up are a depth change on your fish finder. Any quick contour change on the bottom is about the the best structure you will find. Locate those areas in the correct depths to match the time of day and the season and the fish will be there. They don't have anything to do in their lives except spawn and eat and they are all done spawning for the year.


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## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

Thanks Lundy. Really helpful, very similar in advice about contour as the thread Anatomy of a Point a while back....that thread was awesome. 

I wouldn't say my expectations were too high, just that the main problem with youtube and blogs is that they are curated to drive expectations way too high....nothing but super primo pictures/examples of submerged bridges, trees, and guys heaving 5 lb. bass out of the water every other cast. However, absent more time on water with the electronics, all I have is advice from forums like this and youtube/blogs. I've made the jump off the shore and now to electronics, so just trying to maximize the still rare times I can go.

Last thing, for the guy who finds this thread 3 years from now but is eager to improve his fishing or just got a fish finder (I was/am this guy).....this site is excellent for planning a trip. Zoomable depth and contour charts that are reasonably accurate for all the local water (Alum, OShag, Buckeye, Hoover, Griggs, etc). Really easy to see those points and contours with this.
http://fishing-app.gpsnauticalchart...charts-navigation.html#10.26/40.1032/-82.8925


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## JayBird77 (May 14, 2012)

Twin bridges ramp at Hoover has a lot points and submerged trees fairly close to the ramp. Might give you an idea


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## HappySnag (Dec 20, 2007)

AKlo said:


> Thanks Lundy. Really helpful, very similar in advice about contour as the thread Anatomy of a Point a while back....that thread was awesome.
> 
> I wouldn't say my expectations were too high, just that the main problem with youtube and blogs is that they are curated to drive expectations way too high....nothing but super primo pictures/examples of submerged bridges, trees, and guys heaving 5 lb. bass out of the water every other cast. However, absent more time on water with the electronics, all I have is advice from forums like this and youtube/blogs. I've made the jump off the shore and now to electronics, so just trying to maximize the still rare times I can go.
> 
> ...


 Anatomy of a Point
where is that post ?
i would like to read that.

i got that.


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## bassmaster1 (Feb 6, 2006)

I may be wrong but I believe the Garmin CV series does not actually scan right under the boat, but leaves a section out. It leaves that section out and then stitches the two returns together. This is with the CV transducers I think, side scan does the whole bottom though. I’ve read about it on some forums awhile ago. I did have the Striker 4cv on my old yak and it worked fine, who knows what I missed though. I’m waiting on a Ray Marine to come in the mail for my new kayak.


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## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

HappySnag....great thread here, basically aligns right with Lundy's post about contours. https://www.ohiogamefishing.com/threads/alum-creek-anatomy-of-a-point.300372/

bassmast....I think you're right about CV and directly down, something about a patent dispute with Lowrance and their DownScan tech. I just need practice with the new device.


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## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

Hey guys, quick update......hit OShag-hennessy last night for an evening cruise mostly to get some practice running over some points and known logs with my fish finder. Figured I'd troll this craw colored guy while I went just in case, but fishing was not the priority. Water temp about 80, and water was way down from the early June trip (I think June, maybe late May). Clarity was actually pretty good.......I'd say 18 inches, maybe a tad more.....I know because I bottomed the boat on some rocks near the zoo which would have been a huge problem if I didn't already know they were there and watching for that hump/saddle on fish finder.

Was hard to get all the phone pictures of things I saw, but here are a few. Definitely helps to know the contours and be watching for that on the unit as you approach. Also helped me see some fish that were holding near these countours, sometimes on top, sometimes just off. As someone else has said on here before.....it's like 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. None of these spots are knowable/findable without a contour map and electronics, unlesss you just guess based on shorline elevations. 

Sorry I don't have more examples......hard to pay attention to fishfinder and get good pics. Caught this beauty (lure is over 4" bill to tail) off a nice point (map shot attached). Overall a good little purposeful trip.


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## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

doh. pics here.


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## AKlo (Apr 19, 2016)

one more...of the point I went over a bunch. ton of fish here.


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