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[font "Times New Roman"]I am thinking about getting a Humminbird with side imaging for the boat next year. I have never used or seen side imaging in action. For those that have and use side imaging, what are your thoughts? Do you use it a lot, and is it a game-changer for showing fish around the boat? I fish the lakes from Pineview down to Strawberry on the boat. [/font]
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I find SI a game changer when sturgeon fishing. I have yet to have much success with it for other species.
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Don't leave home without it.....If you Bass or Crappie fish, it is great for showing brush and sunken trees off to the side of the boat. It is on almost every one of my combo screens. Often times I only use the SI screen when Hunting certain species.
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Good fishing to all. Hue
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I love it. Been using SI since it was first introduced a lot of years ago (don't exactly recall how long ago I bought my Humminbird with SI way back when). I have used it on my float tube, pontoon boat, my main boat, my shallow water tin tub (I move it to the water craft I am using at the time) and I have even used it ice fishing.
Mainly I use it for locating structure to fish but I have also marked many species with it.
As other mentioned, It does have a learning curve to master it though.
The newer versions are much better now and I am considering getting one...
You should also look at DI (down imaging) as well as SI (side imaging). Some sonars come with both - some don't.
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Seeing schools of kokanee would be of interest at Strawberry. I am more interested in using SI to see fish to the side of boat. Is that the wrong idea with SI? During the summer at the berry we are only over deep water, would I see individual cutts?
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Is that because sturgeon are big and on the bottom? Any idea about a tiger muskie?
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I have a humminbird solix
this is deer creek you see the fish as white dots
look at the bottom and you can see what CHIRP - Frequencies I'm using
in the attachments are some snap shots I took at deer creek this week
I don't use it in deep water for cuts you see here I"m in about 50' water
and set to 80' each side in 80 feet of water you need to set it to over 120 feet each side and you lose some detail
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Thanks for posting the pictures. My interpretation is the featureless bottom of the lake makes it easier to see the fish against the side image bottom background. That is what I am interested in with side imaging. Having seen the bottom of the lakes around here on low water years, I don’t expect to see much on the bottom with SI, but if I can see fish against a mostly uniform background of a featureless bottom, it would let me know if there are fish in the general area.
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[quote talyn]
Is that because sturgeon are big and on the bottom?
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Primarily because they are big and having them close to the bottom in water 45' deep or shallower makes it much easier to see anything on side imaging. It is actually easier to see them if they are a foot or two off of the bottom. Then they cast a better shadow.
[quote talyn]
Any idea about a tiger muskie?
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Yes, tiger muskie definitely show up well on side imaging.
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Check cabelas. Pretty sure in their email for black friday, they are selling the helix 7 SI and DI for $399. I no longer have the email so I won't verify for certain. Not a bad price to get started on side imaging
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That is encouraging to hear for tiger muskies, thanks. Don't know if I will ever be fishing for sturgeon but I allows enjoy your posts when you report on your adventures for them. Those guys are huge and would pull me from the boat.
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I too, have been interested in the advantages of SI. Don’t have it now and think I do ok, but possibly could do much better if I had it. As you know I troll mostly for kokes and try to spend most of August trolling for silvers/kings in the ocean and Columbia. Seems like SI could pick up thos side schools that are just out of range. As a side interest, I love to fish for perch and finding schools of them can be difficult! Wondering if anyone has been using SI to locate perch???
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Do a search on the net for Lucky Duck Fishing (guide) who fishes Odell in Oregon for Kokes. They spend a lot of time casting to and jigging kokes and use the SI (360* scan) to locate the schools and stay on them, from what I’ve seen with the schools of perch it could be very effective.
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[quote 2knots]Do a search on the net for Lucky Duck Fishing (guide) who fishes Odell in Oregon for Kokes. They spend a lot of time casting to and jigging kokes and use the SI (360* scan) to locate the schools and stay on them, from what I’ve seen with the schools of perch it could be very effective.[/quote]
I can not believe this post.
I bought my humminbird 360 because of a video Lucky Duck made finding kokes with it
he is on a fish form in Oregon, I use to post the big Kokanee we were catching in Utah and Flaming gorge. He use to know me.
At strawberry you will see schools of kokanee and chubs you need to learn how to tell the difference some times it is hard.
I made a video showing what chubs look like on a fish finder. they look the same on 360 and SI.
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I would get garmin live scope. It's a game changer.
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Like trolling
I think he’s probably one of the best using his sonar to stay on the kokes and the catch rates are very high with his methods during the right time of the year, a much smaller grade of fish in that lake. Has some great videos of him using his equipment
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Never heard of this, watched a few youtube videos and it looks really cool. Do you know anyone who has this? Would be great for jigging.
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Based on Liketrolling’s post he has it. I believe the Duck has the transducer mounted on his bow mount trolling motor, not sure what other mounting options they have.
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I have it and use it to locate bass in the shallows. my transducer mounts in the back and does side and down.
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