how to identify species of fish on sounder?

[crowser]

wonderin how ppl identify wat type of species a fish is on a sounder and how large it is..

plz help,
crowser

[disorderly]

Have a look at the "Sounder Reading" thread on Electronics.
Ought to keep you busy for a while.
Some real good stuff there too

Scott

[loophole]

didnt know u could go that far ?

[Hamish73]

I would imagine that determining the species would be about as accurate as playing darts blindfolded

[FNQCairns]

I am no expert but i think it comes from getting to know the species in the areas they fish, with time they become recognisable as the best guess, at least that is what I have found.
Fishing an unknown region with little experience in the fish that it should contain even an expert may have no hope at the species level until they pull a few up and build an understanding.

For instance up here we can have spanish zipping around a bait school but out side sydney the fish zipping around may be Kingfish, it would be interesting to see an expert sit in a sounder simulator so he has no idea what region the sounder reading relates.

But again I don't really know, I am not that good at reading sounders.

cheers fnq

[crowser]

just wonderin, cauz on a thread other day, someone asked bout a sounder and some guy said its a queenfish bout 40-60cm or something..

crowser

[kingtin]

Some of the older colour sounders(I think Eagle was one of them) reckoned you could identify the fish by the colour of the sounding. This (apparently), was based on the density of the swim bladder but related mainly to American species such as walleye. I haven't seen any claims such as this in a long time so perhaps it was just sales hype to push a product. Either way, I haven't seen any of the modern sounders claiming this, but then again, I'm not familiar with them all.

kev

Professional footballers have hit the headlines recently for indulging in gamesmanship - diving and playacting and so on. Well at least they are now limiting their disgraceful behaviour to the pitch these days. It wasn't so long ago that they were out beating up Pakistanis, pissiing in car parks and gang raping women in hotel rooms. Let's give credit where credit is due.

[disorderly]

I am no expert but i think it comes from getting to know the species in the areas they fish, with time they become recognisable as the best guess, at least that is what I have found.
Fishing an unknown region with little experience in the fish that it should contain even an expert may have no hope at the species level until they pull a few up and build an understanding.

For instance up here we can have spanish zipping around a bait school but out side sydney the fish zipping around may be Kingfish, it would be interesting to see an expert sit in a sounder simulator so he has no idea what region the sounder reading relates.

But again I don't really know, I am not that good at reading sounders.

cheers fnq

I am no expert either,FNQ,but in certain situations where fish have a tendency to school over certain types of ground ie nannygai over rubble bottom.Its pretty easy to differentiate between the bait and the reds above them(when they are there).On my new furuno 620 the reds actually appear as red blobs.and generally a bit up off the bottom.
To try and find a Coral Trout in a bommy though...No chance!

Scott

[choppa]

Some of the older colour sounders(I think Eagle was one of them) reckoned you could identify the fish by the colour of the sounding. This (apparently), was based on the density of the swim bladder but related mainly to American species such as walleye. I haven't seen any claims such as this in a long time so perhaps it was just sales hype to push a product. Either way, I haven't seen any of the modern sounders claiming this, but then again, I'm not familiar with them all.

kev

Professional footballers have hit the headlines recently for indulging in gamesmanship - diving and playacting and so on. Well at least they are now limiting their disgraceful behaviour to the pitch these days. It wasn't so long ago that they were out beating up Pakistanis, pissiing in car parks and gang raping women in hotel rooms. Let's give credit where credit is due.

here we go,,,,,,, a bloke who is respected by all as giving good ""knowledgable" (??) advice,,,

goes into hospital and comes back on the boards due to the fact that he can't do much else,,, and offers a newbie the above,,,,,,

and more to the point,,, his tip of the day is discrimanation by 10 fold,,,,

swim bladder,,,,,,,,,,, please,,, it may be a fish with ,,,,, well problems

there was a thread about ""cheese as bait"",,,

i warned ya in my pm,,,,,,,,,

now back to your query,,, i have been on charters that the skipper has seen color and shape on his sounder and called the fish,,,,, most of which where correct,,,, but then again,,, we fished over """his grounds""

to me,, it would be like buying a radar,,, and calling what species of duck i shoot

unless of course they were from america,,,, and hungry,,, and didn't swim,,,

pm on its way

choppa

[VoodooChile78]

Man I remember when you went fishing and just hoped you anchored up or drifted over the "right" spot...no GPS, no sounders etc

How much more do you want? *jokes* then fishing becomes catching and where is the fun in that??

[VoodooChile78]

Man I remember when you went fishing and just hoped you anchored up or drifted over the "right" spot...no GPS, no sounders etc

How much more do you want? *jokes* then fishing becomes catching and where is the fun in that??

[kingtin]

"New fish finders have the ability to not only locate fish, but also differentiate between species of fish. Different species of fish actually have different shaped and sized swim bladders. These differences cause sound to reflect differently from each fish. Therefore, by studying the return echoes, scientists can now find 'signature echoes' for specific species of fish."


http://www.dosits.org/gallery/tech/of/ffs1.htm

[revs57]

It all comes down to experience crowser.

When you know what you looking for and in what depth you can narrow it down. Pearlies stack themselves in vertical columns over wire weed, its pretty obvious usually in depths over 80 metres. Amberjack and kingfish school up and hang in the lower third of the water column. The bait school comes up streaky as they carve through the fish show as elongated arches. Snapper are quite obvious in terms of where you will find them hanging in relation to structure. Ususally on the lee current side of the top of a structure in the lower 1/4 of the water column, although you can burley them up. Reds and nanny's hang very close to the bottom up to a couple or 3 metres.

I think there is a reasonable expectation of reading what's there once you get the hang of it. Certainly a better chance than flinging darts blindfolded, once you get the feel of it you can quite reasonably predict and target the species you are chasing by where you fish a structure and what hangs with what.

Cheers

Rhys

[snelly1971]

I reckon it is a load of BULL....You may be able to narrow it down to a handle full of fish by knowing your area extremely well...but as for picking up certain species hahahaha....

Look at the big trawlers running 100 000 sounders and they still cant determine what it is exactly until the net is retrieved...

Mick

[Tropicaltrout]

Well I think its aload of cr%&* no one can look at a screen and say oh that arc is a shark, um mako by the looks .... oh there's a corination trout oh gee if he doesn't get a riggle on he will get eaten by the mako. lol.

No the truth behind it is if theres a few arcs on the screen give it a try t the depth shown and then hope the arcs are what your targeting. gee wizz it would be like window shopping if you knew what it was.

all I reckon is that the fish your targeting is the one that is on the sounder, and the bigger the arc tha more or bigger the prize

tt