Reading Your Sonar

Answer

I usually have the sensitivity set very high and the ping speed set to maximum as I like to see everything in the water column. I like to use the manual settings to adjust the unit, but the Lowrance auto settings work extremely well. I also zoom in on the area I am targeting so I only see the top 40 feet of water when fishing in 130 FOW. In the image you can see fish coming up from the bottom to feed in the top section of the screen and then going back down.

You always want to fish above the walleye as they almost always feed up. Often on clear bodies of water like The Bay of Quinte fish running at 40 feet will come up to feed in the 10 or 15 foot range. Many anglers see the marks at 40 and send down the cranks on down riggers etc. problem is those fish at 40 feet are actively feeding at 15 so they do not strike the baits.

Lowrance units make a difference, they show what depth they are coming up too and where most of the action is happening. If I do not see yellow/red marks indicating big fish then I move on. I look for these fish on the sonar before I put a line in the water.

Try to watch for active fish on the screen. The line you see running horizontal on the left side of the image above is a big fish swimming directly under the boat in the same direction as the boat.