How to differentiate between bass and other species on your fish finder

[@Barbus__Barbus]

Very informative, easily understandable and for a Angler who uses only a kayak ( myself), you give great direct information which can be applied when purchasing and not having to do the trials ourselves, which can be a expensive endeavour ✌🏽

[@claytonkr05]

Cool concept and a great idea. That's a pretty cool test. To me it confirms what I've learned over the past few years using electronics harder on the water, the 3D tools like down and side scan are better for locating the structures and features that might hold the fish, while the 2D sonar is really best suited for locating the actual fish.

[@paulroberts7767]

Neat idea. A few things: Down imaging in particular images the fish's swim/gas bladder. Bass (both black and white) have a close bladder which mean they cannot regulate for depth pressure changes quickly. So, catching a bass in 5fow then dropping it to 17 would compress the bladder, making it physically smaller. It also may well be uncomfortable for that fish. Which is probably why it was at the top of the box, trying to swim back up shallower. Catfish have a ducted swim bladder, which allows them to decompress quickly by burping air when quickly moving shallow. Such fish can also gulp air at the surface to gain air for a deep dive. Not sure how long it takes for them to generate gas to fill the bladder though. However, your cat appeared to have been caught near the test depth. Returns are hook shaped bc of the how an object is recorded as the transducer 's cone shape passes over the object. The length and angle of the hook are greatly affected by speed of the pass. The more scrunched hook on the bass was likely due to a slightly slower actual boat speed pass. Also, exactly where in the cone the object is will affect the shape of the return. For the sides imaging scan, the same square shaped object you ID'd as the bass was also present on the catfish pass. I think you must have misse seeing that. Interesting. Perhaps the side-scan picked up the shape of the box itself? The sunfish you caught is a Redbreast Sunfish. Provided the pass is exact, the density of the fish may show in the thickness and color of the hooks on 2D, as you'd interpreted. The down image is as I'd expect, with a sunfish's small swim bladder. It appears it was caught at near test depth too. I've always found that ID'ing species by return alone is tough, with all the confounding variables. Instead I make educated guesses based my understanding of species habits (where found, where in water column, how they are grouped or school) coupled with my knowledge of the particular water body. Good stuff. Thanks for doing it. Always interesting learning more about sonar.

[@FishOclock89]

Very thorough explanation. I agree with everything you said. Also, in regards to the comment about the side scan, I do believe that the side scan was picking up the plastic container, while down scan and traditional the container wasn't as noticeable in the sonar return. I suppose this might be because the higher frequency that mega imaging is using. One thing I noticed is that side scan can ID certain species of fish with ease and others not so easy. I was able to very easily identify gar and drum with sidescan maybe because of the hard scales the sidescan appears to bounce off the entire fish rather than just hitting the air bladder like in down scan and traditional. Just my observations.

[@UnLikeU]

Im watching as i type but knowing the work you pit into this i have to say WOW. SUBSCRIBED

[@bradleyrussell1973]

Plus, everyone naturally assumes that the fish they go over are magically alighned into the sonar cone either nose or tail first, parallel with the boat hill. Realistically that probably happens one out of ten fish or more. Hitting a 20lb catfish with the very edge of the cone passing over only it’s head will produce a very small dot, but will have good color. Color tells density, where there’s color, there’s also size. As far as species ID with sonar, forget it. Go by the habits of the fish. Sometimes the air bladder gives the dominant return, sometimes a hard-scaled, broad-backed fish like a carp or even a sucker will give a clear return from it’s back, not necessarily the air bladder. Then again, THAT may depend on which way the fish is turned in relation to the cone. There’s no sure way, we’re just seeing echoes. Even the Navy has to use microphones in addition to sonar to identify crafts.

[@FISHERFOLK777]

Great vid. Much need on the tube

[@YooToobz]

I find this very informative & useful. Thank you

[@thomasriding3194]

The intro music was louder than your voice which is an easy fix in your video editor by putting the music in a different audio channel and turning it down a bit. Great video!

[@FishOclock89]

Appreciate the feedback will make sure to correct that on the next one!

[@thomasriding3194]

@@FishOclock89 killin' it boss, keep doin what you're doin! Please!

[@luckyleelopez3147]

Great video bud much appreciated !

[@jpmorgie]

Great video! One thing that this video can’t replicate is where the fish is located in the water column or where it locates itself in relation to structure. As you indicate in the video, different species have tendencies that you can spot on sonar.

[@djboogiejay1616]

Great experiment sir!

[@marcsantoro2792]

Nice job on a great and interesting topic. I'm always trying to figure this out on my lake and may try a similar experiment

[@FishOclock89]

if you do try this experiment you should definitely post it on KZbin and send me the link. I am very curious.

[@Crappie_Hunter_Seeker]

Interesting. Good Experiment.

[@jimordway9287]

Thanks for the effort for our mutual benefit. This question is on all our minds

[@CatfishWeekly]

This was a great compairson! Good job!

[@FishOclock89]

Thank you!

[@HeeyManFishing]

Great job! If you have forward scan like Livescope do one on it! Thanks.

[@xt0283]

This is really inspiring video. I believe with enough training image, and environment data like image size, water temp, depth, then the AI can be training to identify species with high accuracy. In the future(10 years) the Sonar may be smart enough to tell you the fish's species and length. It's really really good video and answered lots of my question when using sonar. Really appreciate your hard work in triple digit Austin hot summer day.

[@FishOclock89]

I have had similar thoughts on the AI thing. I bet garmin and hummingbird are already looking into training an AI model to identify the species. Thanks again for the watch!

[@monzsterman]

Pretty neat video. I recently bought a Garmin with down imaging but have not used it yet. After watching this kind of wish i hadnt spent the extra on the down imaging and stuck with traditional only.

[@FishOclock89]

Coming from someone who went from a striker 4, to a striker 4cv, to an echo map 73SV, every price tier up has some huge benefits. Personally I think down scan is very useful when your trying to see fish that are buried in cover. Having only Traditional will not give you the target separation you need to do this.

[@monzsterman]

@@FishOclock89 thanks for the info. I cant wait to get out and try mine out.

[@AmbitiousAnglerFishing]

What a great video, thank you for doing this, I'm sure it was alot of work! I am learning my fish sonar at the moment and having tips like these is great!

[@FishOclock89]

Thanks !

[@KissmyBasss]

Nice work, I'll test myself on the water. AT2 helps if they aren't on bottom but I'd like to be able to identify on 2D when scanning.

[@raymondferguson4802]

Great video Thank you Just subscribed Keep it up

[@GmanfromTexas]

Very interesting experiment. Never seen it before. Looks like traditional sonar is still super useful. Thanks. Side note: the music was very distracting to me at least.

[@FishOclock89]

Thanks for the comment and feedback!

[@GmanfromTexas]

@@FishOclock89 great content I subscribed

[@dtrain1476]

Awesome information thanks for sharing

[@FishOclock89]

Thanks for the comment! Looking forward to making more videos

[@bradleyrussell1973]

The size of the arch is relative to speed. The more time the object has in your cone, the longer the arch. Go by color, nothing else.

[@costea66]

Show me how you put the transducer?🤔

[@FishOclock89]

If you want to see how I installed the transducer I have another video titled mastering fish finders it’s in the first few minutes of the video.

[@KastkingAngler]

Nice video but your background music is really annoying.

[@FishOclock89]

Thanks for the watch and the comment! I can't modify the video after it's been posted, but I plan on doing another test like this in the near future. If you subscribe to the channel you can be notified when I produce the next one. Also KastKing Products are great, I use them daily!

[@bobbya4346]

NO need for music playing while you are talking..........

[@dboyMMA7100]

Damn music made me quit watching

[@FishOclock89]

Thanks for your feedback and for watching! sorry the music was distracting. I have definitely fixed this issue in later videos.