# Perch Sonar Picture



## PerchGuy (Dec 7, 2011)

Does anyone have a picture of their sonar screen showing a school of perch that they could post on the forum or send to me? Thanks.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

There were a couple on here about two weeks ago in the Lake Erie forum from the guys perching out of Ashtabula. Fish stacked from 50' down to the bottom. I'll see if I can find that thread...

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## pearleyes (Nov 28, 2010)

here you go!


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## ErieBoy75 (Aug 4, 2009)

I'll grab one next time out but I gotta tell you I almost never see them schooled up off the bottom. I look for bumps connected to the bottom. It only takes 4-5 bumps close together to make me drop anchor. If there's a bunch, you should see the bumps, a few marks a foot above and some baitfish.


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## dsoy28 (Apr 30, 2010)

That's a good looking screen but X 2 on the bumps. When it looks like rocks on the bottom is usually isn't. Truth is it seems like when the screen looks like a dessert the fishing is usually good ha. 

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## dsoy28 (Apr 30, 2010)

Desert, not dessert ha

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## pearleyes (Nov 28, 2010)

ErieBoy75 said:


> I'll grab one next time out but I gotta tell you I almost never see them schooled up off the bottom. I look for bumps connected to the bottom. It only takes 4-5 bumps close together to make me drop anchor. If there's a bunch, you should see the bumps, a few marks a foot above and some baitfish.


 Not sure what you are trying to say here. Every time we have a screen like this we catch perch as fast as you can catch them! For this particular screen picture, we had 150 perch in less than 90 minutes, just like the 5 weekends prior to this day. The time you can see on the finder, is the time we were done with the limit. Look at the gps speed, when not moving there are no bumps.


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## fossil (Aug 6, 2013)

dsoy28 said:


> Desert, not dessert ha
> 
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I'd consider a screen view like that desert! My best catches this summer were over almost featureless screens. But then my sonar isn't near that fancy. Seems like when I do see the suspended fish I catch more junk than perch.


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## bajuski (Apr 9, 2004)

When searching for perch you're not likely going to see a screen as above. There may be bumps or nothing at all on the screen as the perch are hugging the bottom. As you drop your bait and attract fish into your spot it may become like on the above screen.


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## jamesbalog (Jul 6, 2011)

fossil said:


> I'd consider a screen view like that desert! My best catches this summer were over almost featureless screens. But then my sonar isn't near that fancy. Seems like when I do see the suspended fish I catch more junk than perch.


same thing here


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## Tightlines (Jun 29, 2012)

Im not shure where you guys are perch fishing. I do most of my perch fishing in Conneaut and there have been many times that we went out in the morning and found a perch pack that showed solid fish on the bottom 10ft of water before we dropped anchor. If your sonar looks like that we usually have our limit in under 2 hours. They arent schooled like that every time we go out, but it has happened quit often.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

Tightlines said:


> Im not shure where you guys are perch fishing. I do most of my perch fishing in Conneaut and there have been many times that we went out in the morning and found a perch pack that showed solid fish on the bottom 10ft of water before we dropped anchor. If your sonar looks like that we usually have our limit in under 2 hours. They arent schooled like that every time we go out, but it has happened quit often.


Same here. I fish Bula or Conny. When I setup it's usually over a school stacked up on the sonar...

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## Bluewalleye (Jun 1, 2009)

Tightlines said:


> Im not shure where you guys are perch fishing. I do most of my perch fishing in Conneaut and there have been many times that we went out in the morning and found a perch pack that showed solid fish on the bottom 10ft of water before we dropped anchor. If your sonar looks like that we usually have our limit in under 2 hours. They arent schooled like that every time we go out, but it has happened quit often.


I will be honest. I don't perch fish that far east. Would love to, but the winds haven't been cooperating the last 4 weekends. But over here in the Cleveland area, if you see a sonar like that, it is full of garbage fish with some perch. Until fall anyway. Need the water temp to come down before they will make there way this way... Soon I hope


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## CarpetBagger (Sep 21, 2009)

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## OSUdaddy (Oct 18, 2010)

Capt. Jeff........can you interpret that sonar picture for us sonar dummies.....or at least for this dummy.


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## CarpetBagger (Sep 21, 2009)

Darker colors indicate bigger fish we always look for that yellow mixed with green(bait marks)


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## jimski2 (Jul 23, 2010)

Please consider with biomasses of perch and white bass as you see here, the necessity of keeping their numbers under control due to the fact these fish will be predators on all sorts of fish including walleye fry and fingerlings and we will have a boom and bust fishery for the future. Take some perch home and help the future of our Lake Erie fishery.


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## Meerkat (Aug 10, 2008)

Could there be a difference in the way the perch school in the deeper water east of Cleveland? I fish Avon Point to Kelleys and I catch fish but I am with Erieboy, Desoy28 and Fossil in that I have never seen patterns like those shown here - but the water depth on these screenshots is way deeper than anything I have fished. I look for those (red & yellow) bumps on the bottom with a white line underneath separating them from the bottom.


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## BFG (Mar 29, 2006)

If we see one bump on the screen in the western basin we drop..reason being the cone is about the size of a dinner plate.


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## dsoy28 (Apr 30, 2010)

Pearl eyes I know that hummingbird unit and do you use the sidescan mode for perch? Wondering what the same screen would look like with side imaging.


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## Meerkat (Aug 10, 2008)

BFG, Good point about the size of the cone in the shallow water vs the deep water. I knew about that but never really put it together with what perch will look like at different depths. Learn something new every day...


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## pearleyes (Nov 28, 2010)

I use side imaging in the western basin for walleye, you can see suspended fish real easy. Perch that deep are hard to see on imager, works for locating shell beds though!!


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## rod bender bob (May 19, 2004)

BFG said:


> If we see one bump on the screen in the western basin we drop..reason being the cone is about the size of a dinner plate.


Wow, what transducer u using?


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## mercuryjoe (Mar 25, 2013)

Here is a picture just east of Ashtabula harbor. We got our limit in under two hours that day. I should mention there were times the fish were marked from the bottom all the way up to 29 ft! Yes 20 feet of fish!

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## 68bucks (Aug 17, 2013)

I took a 20 oz soda bottle filled it with sand and lowered it under my boat on a string when I was anchored to get an rough idea what a decent size perch would look like on my new sonar. Based on my experience when I'm on perch I see an almost continuous line of targets right along the bottom. You can usually see the target is separated from the bottom a little though. When I tend to see a mass of targets that extend much more than a foot off the bottom I'm catchin' junk fish. Next time out I'll take a couple screen shots and post them.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

I have been marking them like MercuryJoe did. Last trip out we only caught one junk fish all day. Marks like that for me usually mean quick limits!!!

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## mercuryjoe (Mar 25, 2013)

I agree marks like this mean quick limits and very few junk fish. I think they are schooled up so tight other fish stay above them.

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## puge (May 14, 2009)

bajuski said:


> When searching for perch you're not likely going to see a screen as above. There may be bumps or nothing at all on the screen as the perch are hugging the bottom. As you drop your bait and attract fish into your spot it may become like on the above screen.


This has also been my experience in my short time (4 trips) perch fishing.








Vermillion 30 ft. steady action small fish








Cleveland steady action 8-11in fish








Cleveland up and down 8-11in fish


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## dsoy28 (Apr 30, 2010)

puge said:


> This has also been my experience in my short time (4 trips) perch fishing.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What he said...


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

These were the marks we had off Conneaut in the summer. Needless to say the perch fishing was on fire


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## 1fisherbill (Oct 5, 2013)

I'm new to using fish finders, but I have found this very helpful. I would just like to say thanks to everyone that has posted. I have seen something like what is showing up an my fish finder. Mine is a Hummingbird, but most of the time just shows fish in one of 3 different sizes. The next time I am out I will have a better idea of what to look for.


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## reo (May 22, 2004)

1fisherbill said:


> I'm new to using fish finders, but I have found this very helpful. I would just like to say thanks to everyone that has posted. I have seen something like what is showing up an my fish finder. Mine is a Hummingbird, *but most of the time just shows fish in one of 3 different sizes*. The next time I am out I will have a better idea of what to look for.


Sounds like you have the fish id turned on. If it is showing little fish symbols this is the case. TURN IT OFF! Go into the sonar menu and turn off the fish id option and your screen will mark like the one in this thread.


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## 1fisherbill (Oct 5, 2013)

reo said:


> Sounds like you have the fish id turned on. If it is showing little fish symbols this is the case. TURN IT OFF! Go into the sonar menu and turn off the fish id option and your screen will mark like the one in this thread.


THANK YOU I will do that the next time I am on the water. I do remember seeing a screen Like I am seeing here But I did change it to see the size of the fish. As I said I am new to this but I can see where just looking at the sonar would be the way to go. THANKS


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

I usually leave my fish ID on. I really don't care if I see humps or fish, but I do like to the the depth of the fish, especially when I am walleye fishing. I get to see the bait balls either way. It's just a personal preference for me...


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