Structure Scan: What am I Looking At?
As the Lowrance Structure Scan becomes more of each fisherman's tool bag, I seem to be getting more questions on how to read what you are looking at on your screen. Every day I put fisherman in my boat that have newly acquired an HDS Lowrance unit and have it equipped with Structure Scan or down scan; the problem is the first time they take it to the water, it seems to just add confusion instead of clarity.
I must tell you I was no different, my first look at the bottom was also confusing to me so here is what I suggest and also a few ideas on how to clarify the bottom. The first thing you must remember is this is a tool that you have to learn to use and if you have never seen this type of screen or read the bottom before in this format it will for awhile be confusing. The key to clearing it up is to understand a few concepts. The 1st being that if you take a lake and let's say it 50,000 acres there is a good chance that 40,000 of the acres is just bottom with nothing to see. Meaning' that most of the time there is going to be nothing to view on the bottom, so it takes time using the unit to find structure. I bet I have spent 25 hours just riding and looking in areas where I believe the bottom has something to show me.
This helps in a couple of ways; one your adjusting your eyes to pick up things on the bottom and second learning what you're looking at as you ease over the top of it. The next thing is to use your zoom in capability of the unit, when you see an object, hit the arrow button move the cross axes over it and zoom in it will clarify what you are seeing. This magnifies the object and clears it so the shapes of the objects quickly improve to your eyes. Now you can tell what it is, is there fish on it, and is it structure I should fish? You will be surprised how clear and how quickly you will pick this up.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry