4/1/13 Finally got out!

[Nightfisher]

Actually my second fishing trip since last week. We only caught a few small ones, but the toon ran GREAT and I got to get to know my new depth finder a little better.

A beautiful, sunny warm 70 degree day till the wind kicked up around 2. Had a fun time getting her back on the trailer after a bumpy ride back in!


Was very pleased with how my new Lowrance stacked up against the descriptions and photos from the ads. This is an actual screenshot I took myself as I was coming back into the marina. You can see a log on bottom as well as a school of baitfish and a few suspended fish...

[bigkahuna]

Congrats Nightfisher.........

Still a bit chilly for us here. Probably be closer to May before we get out. Going to take my boat down to the Marina in a couple weeks to have the impeller changed before the big rush. Let us all know when you catch that first BIG Cat of the season...............

[Moser]

I love to see that spread of rods across the back of the 'toon. Those are some of my very fondest pontoon memories, just sitting back watching a rod tip bounce. With all the grass in the Raystown now the bottom fishing is getting harder and harder. It is becoming a trolling with live bait game now, not anywhere near as laid back and relaxing.

What kind of Lowrance did you get, I know you told us but I forgot already? What is the difference in the two pages you have up?

[Nightfisher]

I got an Elite 7 unit. A HUGE upgrade from the $80 unit I had previously. The pic I posted is a screen grab from the unit in spit screen mode. This particular screen puts the color sounder on top and the downscan image underneath. The color identifies fish arches more clearly and the downscan pinpoints structure better. You can see how the fish show up as dots on downscan compared to the arches above on the color. By comparing the two images you can very quickly tell what is going on down there. The to images can also be overlayed onto each other which makes fish really stand out. The unit has additional screens for color sounder only, downscan only, chart only, chart/color, chart/downscan, downscan/color/chart all at once, and compass only. I'm getting the depthfinder part figured out pretty good, but the chart is still on my to-learn list.

[Moser]

Very nice, when I bought my LMS-480 a few years back Lowrance had an emulator on their website that let you download the product you were interested in to your home pc. You could then get familiar with the controls and functions of the unit on the pc. It made the 480 easier to understand once I got it. One thing about Lowrance, if you figure one of their units out, you've got them all figured out. The controls and their functions have remained very similar over the years.

I don't know what they are but there is a PILE of fish hanging in that top screen. I feel sorry for that little pod of bait if they are pounding on them.

[Nightfisher]

They look to be all shad. Big ones scattered and a small school of little ones. We did see a bigger school of shad earlier that had three or four bigger fish on them. Of course when I tried to get a screen shot I hit the man overboard alarm instead and missed it. lol