Fishing for walleye question

[Kent]

I plan on trying for walleye more this year (didn't fish for them, at all, last year, so it won't be much of a challenge to fish for them more this year).  I have a question on locating spawning walleye, using side imagining.  Does anyone have any experience in how to recognize spawning walleyes, on side imagining, from carp and other fish?

[TubeDude]

Carp have big scales and a puckery mouth.  Walleyes have teeth and reflective eyes.

Hope your side imaging is good enough to show the difference.  Mine isn't.

[Kent]

Mine is good enough to show the shape of sturgeon. Hopefully, it is good enough to show the shape of a walleye.

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[BearLakeFishGuy]

With screen resolution and the sizes of the fish, I think it would be impossible to see on electronics. In MI I fished walleye 100% of the time. We would fish walleye with large lures during the spawn and progessively go smaller the rest of the spring, then go large pencil plugs in the summer/fall.

[Mildog]

I wouldn’t be so sure about not seeing them. The new live action stuff like Garmin pan optics and , lowrance , hummingbird similar technology are amazing.
I’m
Still learning my Garmin pan optix I have a 10 inch screen, my buddy has 16 inch, it is amazing what you can see and with practice can make educated guesses about what you are seeing.
First trip at Utah lake last spring I could watch schools of white bass and tell what they were after casting into and catching a bunch , every now and again longer bigger fish would cruise below them.
I think they were walleye. Never caught one to confirm but a guy about 50 feet away caught a couple 4 lb range walleye that day. When trolling for kokes I can turn it backwards and watch fish chase and hit my lures can often tell if kokes or cutts after catching a few of both. Usually kokes in small schools chasing squids, cutts more often loners, but not always. Amazing technology but it doesn’t make them bite!!

[Therapist]

Kent! those sturgeon are so big you should be able to see them in great detail !! My guess is that the more experience you have with your unit the better you will become at identifying fish. Although as Pat pointed out, identifying specific species is not guaranteed !! Good luck !!

[Kent]

"Kent! those sturgeon are so big you should be able to see them in great detail !!"

As you can see, when the conditions are just right, I can see sturgeon in amazing detail!

[WalleyeAl]

I dedicate most of my time fishing targeting walleyes. Side imaging is by far the most beneficial tool. walleyes on side imaging tend to show up looking like a grain of rice and the school, if they're schooled up....will never be in ball or swirl. carp and white bass will look more round and the schools are swirled. I dont have any good screen shots but i should start collecting some. My graphs read really well with the GT-56 transducer.

[Kent]

I dedicate most of my time fishing targeting walleyes. Side imaging is by far the most beneficial tool. walleyes on side imaging tend to show up looking like a grain of rice and the school, if they're schooled up....will never be in ball or swirl. carp and white bass will look more round and the schools are swirled. I dont have any good screen shots but i should start collecting some. My graphs read really well with the GT-56 transducer.

Thank you, that is the kind of information I was hoping to obtain.  Please define "swirled".

[SkunkedAgain]

Kent, that is a really good question, I've been trying to put in enough time to start to recognize what I'm seeing and it's hard on my 9" unit.  Pretty sure these were crappie 









I caught a 12" LMB right after I was watching the marks below.




Although the pattern is completely different in this grouping, I was catching crappie this morning, but as you can see they were moving through...



I couldn't find any pictures, but I have seen the larger and longer marks showing up when I caught my catfish, but to quantify what is a bigger mark, it's usually just depends on what you have been seeing earlier the same day.  You recognize the difference, but it's very hard to explain... Mine really lacks the detail to tell species, but it does let you know they are there...  Later J