I am very new to this, But looks like a sandy hump with fish on the harder bottom and hanging above bottom?? 

In fact this look like a problem i asked about earlier, or atleast i thought was a problem,... Why is it showing the "Surface clutter" all the way doen to 15' or so??  I thought that was only supposed to come down to about 2-3'?? Thanks a lot. I love post like this.

Why does it look like it says "Sensitivity Auto 7%"? ISnt that very low or am I reading it wrong?

Sheldon,

This must be a "trick" question because all I see is a pile of fish on the bottom of a hump and several active fish above it up to about 22' I would fish down to about 20' just above the active suspended fish.

The bottom of a hump with feeding fish = place to fish

I noticed the sensitivity is set to auto + 7% so I don't know what the actual sensitivity was. I do know that when auto sensitivity is enabled on the HDS it will automatically adjust based on conditions and depth plus the 7% bias set by the user. I'd say you were almost directly over the fish based on the hot yellow centers of the arches, strong returns. Looks like pretty good sized fish to me. You might be looking at two different species of fish considering some are hugging the bottom and the others are suspended? With the colorline @ 80% its hard to tell for sure but I would guess you're over pretty hard bottom.

almost looks like a brush pile at the bottom a a slope...'might' be some active fish in/on top of it...

I'm assuming lots of folks up there don't see man-made brush piles planted in deeper water?

Now, tell me what it really is so I can be properly embarassed... 

Those are fish on the bottom for sure. I don't see any brush.

I agree with JD no brush pile those are fish on the bottom with active fish above them. The smaller arches are some kind of baitfish not sure exactly what though. The fish are relating to the structure of the hump.

Looks like a bunch of smaller fish (in red) above all of the bigguns close to the bottom. 

Agree with others, some big fish on the bottom......nice screen shots. I'm trying to get mine dialed in.

The settings are mostly on auto with a 7% auto increase in  Sensitivity to get the image I like to see. I set the screen back to the standard colours like I have used for years as I just like the blue-red-yellow as I can read the screen quickly. Yes you do get some surface clutter with high sensitivity but you know what it is so you just ignore it and it is not to often I am looking for fish or will see fish on my sonar in the 5 foot range when working 30 to 40 feet of water. If you remove the surface clutter or use any reduction settings you will also loose lots of image detail else where on the screen and will often miss sulte marks on the screen that could make all the difference in catching fish or marking bait.

Yes these are fish and they are walleye as I caught them four days in a row. The surface water temp was cool and it was even cooler on bottom in 30 ffeet of water so the higher arcs would not bite. The large arcs stacked on bottom did take large creak chubs live bait rigged with Fin-tech TeckStiks. These where all nice walleye in the 25 to 28" range and they stayed on this break for four days before a heavy wind blew them off the structure.

-sheldon

Sheldon,

Are you convinced that all these arches are Walleye? You stated that that bottom fish would bite but the suspended ones would not. I know fish usually segregate according to size and not all fish are doing the same thing at the same time but are generally pretty much like minded if that close. I'm not challenging your statement, just trying to see what you're seeing and know what you've experienced because I haven't had the opportunity to see that many Walleye in one place at one time in the reservoir I fish.

Sheldon: 

Thanks for posting this thread towards helping many of us better understand what our sonar displays mean!

I too though would appreciate learning your rationale for why the suspended walleye weren't biting. Thanks in advance.

Jay Thomas

 My prediction from experience for this very small area I was fishing was the suspended fish would slide up on the top of the structure to feed, but once they slipped out over the deeper water and suspended they had no interest in the baits presented. I can confirm they are walleye as I seen them with a camera. Tried casting cranks , casting inline spinners, lifting jigs and dropping them slowly, trolling cranks, trolling spinners and floating slip floats with suspended live bait to get the suspended fish to go, but nothing seemed to work. When working bottom very slow and keeping bait in their face with live bait rigs the fish started to bite.

It seems my technique is to start working the high marks first and if I can not get them to take a number of different baits I will start to target the ones on bottom. I first came across this pattern fishing Lake Erie, as it seemed some days the big fish are belly on bottom and very few of the suspended marks will strike.  Now with all that said, some days you will find locations where suspended fish will go and you can usually catch lots in a very short time.

Over the years I have fished many lakes and tournaments where the suspended fish can be extremely finicky and not touch a thing, this is one of the reasons I troll theses areas as I want my bait to go past as many fish as possible looking for the ones that are hungry. If I notice fish on bottom I will usually send a bait or two down to see if they will take it.

So try it all and let the walleye tell you they want on that day. 

-sheldon

Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate it. As I stated, it's rare that I get to graph that many Walleye in one place at one time. I have experienced the same type of situation you described with Striped Bass in another reservoir I fish. The big guys on the bottom will take a bait while the smaller suspended fish refuse.