I need some corn chips! 10.29.15 RKE side

[primetime]

Ha Ha, Jason brought a bag of them this past Sat but I didn't bring any on 10.29.15.  I started towards Mormons about 945am.  I noticed the water turned muddy a little past Mormons. I threw and threw and couldn't catch a gizzard. I continued to look and throw and throw.  I finally caught one with a HUGE stick in my net. I thought this one was not going to get away.  My first gizzard that I ever caught made it to the bait tank.  I continued to look for more without any luck.  Well,  I decided to pull one PB for about a half hour. That was enjoyable. I had 3 strikes without a catch.  It is heart pumping to see the swirls behind the board and watch the shad come out of the water.  Im addicted, invested, and was wet!   haha.  It was getting late and wanted some more shad.  I went into the back of another creek and caught my second shad in all my life.     Went back to the dock about 6pm and loaded everything up.  

The water was littered with timber, leaves, and debris.  So be careful.

Wt - the further up river I went 58, I don't know if thats rite but thats what i was reading
       a majority of the day it was 63
Cloudy into the late afternoon, sun came out afterwards
Hunted for shad, not deer 
Before the hunt was on, i had to hunt for gas. Indian Points pumps were off. Went to Bridge water.

i need to practice throwing my net.  This was probably a big reason I only caught 2 shad

I did put those 2 shad in my newly made bait cage! 

It was good talking to Yam and meeting drag4striper.  Thanks to drag4striper I did take a fish home for my wife. She was happy!  I also apologize for not asking drag4striper if he needed help pulling his boat out.  Were here to help one another

I did arrive at my boat about 9am to this pic!

[Deleted]

I don't think its your net throwing. The one time I saw you throw, it was much better than me at your stage. Even a half open net will find gizzards if it is thrown in the right spot.

I simply think it is your lack of experience. Once you put more time on the water, as long as you allow yourself to try your own thing and not become too attached to everything you have learned, you will magically find gizzards.

For me, its a combination of using electronics, knowing general bait locations, looking for blips (easiest), having an arsenal of different nets, and most importantly, a real PASSION for each and every throw.

Great meeting you!

[Gator]

A little luck never hurts either. But I am almost certain that if you had corn chips with you....that tank would be overflowing with mongos!!

[drag4striper]

I am with Gator on the luck and Yam on the time, experience and electronics. I like a good old PB+J with shad scales stuck to it

rather than corn chips.  

[Deleted]

PT, a few other thoughts.

First, don't feel bad for not offering to help at the ramp. We all have our routines when working alone and chances are that others helping do more harm than good.

Second, really try to hone in on what big shad look like on your electronics. I have learned to look for what I call cauliflower bushes on my downscan. As shown in PIC1, I cruised over two separate "bushes" at 2.4 mph. PIC2 shows what one "bush" looks like at a slower speed. 

PIC1


PIC2


Other notes on the above screen shots.

• You can clearly see a striper or catfish on the sidescan of PIC1
• I look for separation between the dots (See PIC2 Downscan). Peanuts typically look like blobs on downscan or with very little separation.
  
• I would use 455kHz exclusively rather than 800 if I were you
• 200kHz is great on traditional sonar if you want to shoot a smaller cone at your targets. A smaller cone means more precision, a larger cone (83 or 50) means the targets could be more to your right or left. 200 is a bulls-eye in my opinion. However, arches are much prettier on 83. 

Finally, perhaps one of the best lessons I have ever learned was when I was on the water and met Travis. He basically told me to turn off my electronics when the shad are blipping. That lesson has served me well! Throwing at the blips is much more productive than trying to land shad with your electronics, especially in warmer water when the shad are very fast. Often times, I find that when I throw at a blip, a second or two later, the blob I was throwing at shows up on my screen. Had I waited these 2 seconds to throw, I would have missed it. In essence, electronics serve as your way to verify that shad are in the area and it is time to get out your net. In the colder water, electronics are deadly tools though when the shad are slow and balled up.

Thursday (10/29/15), I found a large concentration of shad out in 35 feet of water at Moormans. While others were throwing at the shore and docks, I was out in the middle with a light 1" mesh (stays open longer as it sinks) and pulling up real BIG shad from the deep! Without my electronics, this would not have been possible.

[primetime]

Oct 31, 2015 7:20:03 GMT -5 Yam said:

PT, a few other thoughts.

First, don't feel bad for not offering to help at the ramp. We all have our routines when working alone and chances are that others helping do more harm than good.

Second, really try to hone in on what big shad look like on your electronics. I have learned to look for what I call cauliflower bushes on my downscan. As shown in PIC1, I cruised over two separate "bushes" at 2.4 mph. PIC2 shows what one "bush" looks like at a slower speed. 

PIC1


PIC2


Other notes on the above screen shots.

• You can clearly see a striper or catfish on the sidescan of PIC1
• I look for separation between the dots (See PIC2 Downscan). Peanuts typically look like blobs on downscan or with very little separation.
  
• I would use 455kHz exclusively rather than 800 if I were you
• 200kHz is great on traditional sonar if you want to shoot a smaller cone at your targets. A smaller cone means more precision, a larger cone (83 or 50) means the targets could be more to your right or left. 200 is a bulls-eye in my opinion. However, arches are much prettier on 83. 

Finally, perhaps one of the best lessons I have ever learned was when I was on the water and met Travis. He basically told me to turn off my electronics when the shad are blipping. That lesson has served me well! Throwing at the blips is much more productive than trying to land shad with your electronics, especially in warmer water when the shad are very fast. Often times, I find that when I throw at a blip, a second or two later, the blob I was throwing at shows up on my screen. Had I waited these 2 seconds to throw, I would have missed it. In essence, electronics serve as your way to verify that shad are in the area and it is time to get out your net. In the colder water, electronics are deadly tools though when the shad are slow and balled up.

Thursday (10/29/15), I found a large concentration of shad out in 35 feet of water at Moormans. While others were throwing at the shore and docks, I was out in the middle with a light 1" mesh (stays open longer as it sinks) and pulling up real BIG shad from the deep! Without my electronics, this would not have been possible.

This is VERY helpful, Im going to book mark it on my phone so I can look at the next time Im catching bait.  I haven't used my downscan while looking for bait but I will now.  Is there a reason that you have the sidescan as your main pic or is that just personal preference? Also, on sonar, is that thermocline?  Thanks Yam, this is very helpful.  It helps to understand exactly what Im looking for with explanation.

[Deleted]

Its just personal preference. You can do 4 screens but these three are all I need. 

In terms of thermocline, I suppose you are talking about the stuff at the top. If so, that is just surface noise. I don't think a thermocline could exist in this shallow of water...well not one strong enough to affect sonar.

[coheasion]

Man Yam - this is a money post! Thanks for posting those screenshots. This is going to ghelp a bunch. Now if you can get the camera hooked up to the cast net and we see a live action shot along with the sonar screen shots we may be able to get you an Oscar for best Director!