Fishing Forum

Hey everyone, Beginner Steve here, fishing from the central jersey area, happy to be aboard this forum!

I have a couple of issues I was hoping people could help me out with. First off regards my fish finder (humminbird 500 series, I think a 560). I'm having some issues getting fish arcs to appear. I have spent many days on the lake and I don't seem to be getting them to appear. I get lots of flat lines and other noisy type things to show up but no arcs. I did a little research on the net and I've seen some other people have the same issue. Anyone have any tips on clearing that up?

Second off, theres a couple of really nice trout/bass reservoirs I fish here in central jersey (round valley, merrill Creek and Spruce Run if anyones from the area) and I was hoping people could help me out with some strategies for locating trout on the lake. Round Valley in particular is a pretty decent sized reservoir and theres a lot of water to be covered, and I was hoping people could give me some tips on places to look for them.

Lastly, Alewife herring are one of the preferred baits for trout fishing here, but I have a heck of a time keeping them alive once I have them on my hook and in the water. We've solved the problem of keeping them alive in the boat, but for some reason once we toss them in the lake they tend to expire within a few minutes. I'm not really sure what we're doing wrong, anyone have any tips on that?

Thanks,
Beginner Steve.
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I have the 565 and I would recommend putting your settings on advanced and if not already. You can make the adjustments their for arcs or fish. Also if in the basic menu what are you set on? You need to be on structure ID to get a lot of the stuff you want as well. How sensitive is it set? 5 is default setting. Where is your fish alarm set at? I just went through the manual again the other day even though I have had this now for over a year, I found that it was a good review and I am going back in on the simulator mode to make some adjustments to it. [cool] Hope this helps![fishin]

I have attached the manual to mine. You can goto humminbird.com and get one for yours if needed.
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Thanks for the reply and the manual mr. trout . I believe our finders are very similiar as I am using the Humminbird 570 model (I read the manual you posted and its features were more or less identical the ones mine has). I've tried toying with the sensitivity all over the place, and I typically leave it on the inverse setting rather than structure ID mode, but I can change that.

I've tried using the fishID+ before and I think it gives a lot of false returns, I'm not sure what other peoples luck has been with that system but for me it seems like every blip and blup on the screen suddenly becomes a "fish" with that mode on.

I do have advanced mode turned on and I've fiddled with different combinations of settings to try and get those elusive archs to show up but no dice as of yet.

The primary thing I want to be able to do is seperate the fish from any of the other clutter the finder is picking up, I just don't feel confident right now thinking that a horizontal line or a bloop on the screen is a fish, even though I'm sure that some of what I'm seeing must be fish returns [crazy].

and in the spirit of success, heres the first rainbow I took off the boat this year!

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Nice fish. Yes the 570 is the newer model or replacement for the 565. I use the fish I'd+ and as a test one day I had my son use my old fishing buddy 3 and we were getting the same beeps and blips at the same depth. I can see the usefulness of both fish I'd+ and arches. I o know that the book stated it should be on structure I'd. Give that a try and see what happens.
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OK, the fish finder issue. Don't expect to see a perfect arch on your sonar's screen. It actually take a good bit of trial and error to be able to properly read a Sonar. The 560 is no golden ace of technology in itself, so that might be part of the issue. But, it does the job. I'm sure you can switch the sonar from line bars to showing actual fish. You can do it in the menu under settings, and that might help a little bit. The depth you are fishing in, and the type of transducer makes a difference too. If you jump from shallow to deep, especially fishing shallow waters, a sonar with a dual beam transducer is almost a necessity. The difference in a high quality sonar and a "get you by" sonar is night and day. But, for the average fresh water angler fishing in 10' or less of water, a high dollar sonar just isn't neccesary. If you're serious about fishing, and want to get a crisp picture of what is beneath, go with a hummingbird or Lowrance with the down imaging feature. They cost a little cash, but they are good units with a great picture. Hummingbird makes a fine sonar, but you get what you pay for. The sonar you've got is going to show you the structure, depth, and probably the surface temp. Don't focus so much on the fish, as focus on finding the structure and water depth based on the time of year and where your target species might be found. You need to know when the fish are spawning, when they are holding deep and when they move to the shallows to feed. If you're seeing long skinny lines on your sonar, that is probably a fish, but a very small one. The longer the line, is simply a dictator as to how long the fish remains in the sonars beam. The thickness of the line is what you're looking for. The thicker the line, the bigger the fish. Large clouds of small little lines is either weeds or trash in the water, or bait fish. In deeper water, a quality sonar makes it easy to identify hard and soft bottoms, and will even show you the thermocline in deeper waters. All key stuff. Color sonars are the only way to go in this department. [] I fish mostly saltwater, but occasionally fish freshwater for catfish. I rely heavily on electronics, both in salt and freshwater, as all the species I target hold to underwater structure. Identifying the type of structure and bottom composit is key for my success.

Can't help you with the trout. I don't trout fish.

We use thread fin herring and shad in our area for catfish, and the closely related menhaden in saltwater. I'm assuming you figured out that in order to keep them alive in the boat, you need a round baitwell with a raw water feed. They need constant fresh water to stay alive, and the round livewell keeps thier noses from getting beat up, and thus killing them in a short period of time. On the hook, well, I guess my first question is how are you hooking them right now? Depending on what i'm doing, determines how I hook my bait. If i'm in strong current, I hook them through the eyes. This keeps their mouths open to get plenty of water, and doesn't obstruct their ability to filter water and breath. If I don't do that, I'll hook them just behind the dorsal fin, above the latteral line.
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Appreciate the responses, I thought the 560 was a decent finder but I guess that shows you what I know [unimpressed]. Haha I guess I might want to look into something a bit nicer because Im frequently fishing in 50 feet or deeper water and am almost never targeting fish in 10 feet or less.

I had read that getting "perfect" fish arches was pretty rare but the problem I've been having is I don't get anything arch like at all, mostly just blips and flat lines. I was thinking maybe the flat lines were fish but I'm nervous about operating on that assumption, could waste a lot of time out on the water chasing phantom fish you know?

Yeah we've got the round live bait container thing figured out, we really have no trouble at all keeping them perky while they're in the boat. Typically we either hook them in the dorsal or through the lips, I hadn't thought about hooking them through the eye. I'm wondering since Alewifes are so fragile whether the change in water temps from the bait bucket to the lake water is killing them somehow, but this time of year its basically going from cold water to cold water so I'm not sure if thats the issue.

I was hoping to be back on the lake by today but its raining cats and dogs here in jersey, but next time I go I'll be sure to fiddle around some more with the ole finder.
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Just note, that sonar you have is a good one, but there are much better ones. [] If the fish don't sit still very long, they may not show up on the sonar. Like mackerel in the ocean. They are constantly on the move, and though you're catching the hell out of them, they'll never make a smidgen of a mark on the sonar, because they don't sit still long enough. LOL [:p] Think about it. If something looks good on the bottom and it makes sense, go with your gut. Don't roll by it because you're not marking fish.

One of my favorite fish to target in the ocean is black seabass. The only thing we ever mark is baitfish, unless it's a huge school of tiny ones. We zoom our sonar in as far as it will go, and look for tiny little pieces of structure. We drift it with live bait, and usually pluck one or two trophy sized fish off each tiny little piece of struture; and never marked a fish. While everyone else is fishing the main structure that is heavily pressured, we're a mile away fishing structure you can only see zoomed in, many times smaller than a trash can. that's a pro tip, write that down.

Don't hook live herring and shad through the mouth, that will kill them deader than a door nob. In one eye, and out the other. Or, in the back behind the dorsal fin. (not through the dorsal fin) You can also hook them in the butt hole, if you want him to swim up. The bait is going to swim against the grain, naturally. So, if you hook him in the back, he'll swim down. If you hook him in the butt hole, he'll swim up. Write that down too. [cool]
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Your FF is very decent. I just hooked mine up and set it to simulation. I started to play with the fish id+ feature and noticed that the arches that are being shown are very small similar to dots. When I hit the zoom view then I could actually see the arches. You might need to use the zoom feature while on the water to get the arches you are looking for. I know I plan on it next time I go out. I fish waters that are in depth from shallow 6 ft to 40+ ft. So my recommendation would be on your next outing use the structure ID screen and Zoom views. Also set it up in simulation mode on your kitchen table and play with it and see what it can actually do. I know there are a lot of features that I am still learning to use. In fact I am thinking of getting the speed sensor accessory. I use a float tubes and pontoons to do my fishing so I didn't think it necessary but my last outing I was starting to think otherwise. I have a small electric trolling motor attached to my toon and would like to know how fast I am actually moving at times. That would probably help me set my chart speed a little better too.
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Thanks for the tip about not hooking them through the mouth, that was the primary method we used! [crazy].

I guess I'm just going to have to try and fiddle with the finder some more, I'd love to be getting back out there this week but jersey has rain rain and more rain for the next 5 days at least.

I appreciate all the help from everyone, I'll be sure to post some pictures of any fish ya'll helped me catch [].

Beginner Steve.
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