Reading structure on Flasher

[ted4887]

Is there a write up on how to do this? I'm brand new to using one of these, and am just looking for a little help. I am using a Vexilar FL-8

[fishwater]

Interpreting specific structure is a little tough since your viewing a cone. You can get an idea of the slope and bottom composition and you'll see returns from objects off bottom, so you know something is there.

Vexilar has a ton of great info on their HSOforum to get you started learning about your new toy.

[Borch]

Figuring out structure using a flasher or a graph for that matter involves some visualization based on the available data. The more holes you have drilled gives you more data about the structural elements you are fishing. Sometimes it helps to write the depth in the snow next to each hole. Do this for 20-30 holes drilled and you can figure it out pretty accurately.

[hardcore365]

solid red usually means a hard bottom. red with greens that sometime look like fish means its weedy. after you use one enough you will figure it out. writing the depth in the snow helps a lot. always make sure the ducer is free of snow and ice on the bottom of it or it wont read correctly

[Duffman]

If you have access to an underwater camera, it would really speed up the learning curve. Or try going to where you already know what the bottom structure is like (Rock,muck,sand,short or tall vegetation).

Otherwise....experience, experience, experience.

[PerchJerker]

Lots of good info here already. I haven't looked at Vex's site in a while but they used to have some really, really good info to get you started. And if you have access to an underwater camera that is really the only way to know for sure what you're seeing on your flasher and what it looks like on your flasher. Other than that .... you just need to put in your time.

[Ed Carlson]

Is there a write up on how to do this? I'm brand new to using one of these, and am just looking for a little help. I am using a Vexilar FL-8

With a Vexilar you will gain knowledge of the bottoms configuration and aggregate composition. Hard (Red), Soft (Orange), and weeds (Green) as a softer Green and/or Orange return.

To put the puzzle all together you really need to combine the bottom composition you are reading on your sonar, to a map for comparison. This helps combine information to put together a plan and better paints a picture to work from to establish a pattern to fish.

When you compare the topographical features of the map to the sonar reading your readings at the time, things start to come together.

A prime example is a Fast drop off on a map, and is usually an very good indication on a map of a hard bottom content situation, you may first see this on the map and confirm it on the sonar. You may establish a Base Line hardness there and then work off to the side of the structure and then note a distinct change in bottom composition like less Red and more Orange and Green....you just found a transitional area, and often a key location to fish.

The deeper or thicker the bottom reading of the Red is, the harder the bottom content is.

Gain adjustment will greatly influence what you see.

Another key factor is the orientation of the sonar target inside the cone of the sonar beam, dead center is the strongest (Red), outside perimeter the weakest (Green), and mid point runs in the Orange to Green range. Again, Gain is a highly contributing factor in this.

So once you establish a Base Line Gain Setting, try to keep it constant if your trying to establish a transition from hard to soft. Also when trying to compare bottom consistency and hardness. If you alter the gain when exploring an area you will also alter the base from which you are trying to establish hard or soft returns.

The sonar will show a strong return signal, usually in Red on hard dense bottoms. Clay although not hard is very dense, so it often reads as a deep Red. Density is a better way of thinking of bottom content, as that is the most contributing factor in what the sonar will read.

Mixed aggregate bottoms of gravel, sand, or mud may be Red to Orange.

The very softest of loamy bottoms in the Orange to Green.

The thickness of the bottom color is an indication of the depth of the hardness or softness as the case may be.

With a bit of practice this all becomes second nature. My biggest tip for you is use a map and the sonar to better understand why fish are where they are. Once you do, you gain the power to repeat the situation in another like area. As a system it will keep you on fish.

Vexilar has a good selection of Videos to watch to help gain some insight to this process. You-Tube is also a big help. Seek and you shall find.

I hope this is proves helpful.

[nubote]

Well said, Ed.

[JeffB]

Wouldn't it be cool if they developped a unit that would give you a 360 degree view around your hole. Kind of like the side imaging boat sonars. Multiple transducers working togather to show the bottom and fish movement around you. Look at the side imaging and down imaging for summer fishing, it makes me think they could give us so much more for the money we spend.

[nubote]

Actually, I've heard of guys twirling the ducer to get it to look at the sides. I would think you would only get a brief flash because the ducer is moving, but it would show fish outside the normal cone.

[Ed Carlson]

Wouldn't it be cool if they developped a unit that would give you a 360 degree view around your hole. Kind of like the side imaging boat sonars. Multiple transducers working togather to show the bottom and fish movement around you. Look at the side imaging and down imaging for summer fishing, it makes me think they could give us so much more for the money we spend.

Yup...it would be.

Yet I think at the present it would very likely require multiple transducers in a set pattern, or grid, in order to collect and triangulate sufficient data for the processor to paint a true 3-D picture in real time. A Very expensive proposition I would think.

I've dreamed of this gadget a long time myself.

Someday......maybe?

[jsnides]

figuring out structure is a difficult skill to master but not immpossible. I would reccomend you use your flasher for this year to gain knowledge about how your flasher reacts to different bottom types. for example if fishing on a hard bottom substrate the flasher will show the bottom as a nice red 1/4 inch blip on your flasher. you can confirm this by using a depth wieght attached to the line and lowered to the bottom the weight shouldnt sink into muck or have any extra "pull" on it when you lift the weight off the bottom.

A soft bottom will be displayed as an orange or green orange then red talling off the backside of your flasher. This display tells you the transducer is reading some scattered clutter on the bottom of the lake, or a softer bottom than the discribed above situation. You can check it the same way as a hard bottom with a depth weight but you will feel the wight sink into the mucky bottom with draging sediments coming witht he weight as you pull it off the bottom.

Now for structure interpretation, if you notice that on low gain your flasher is marking an unusally large dark red bottom approx an inch in size you may be on the slope of a dropoff. When you setup on a steep slope or dropoff the transducer shows a larger bottom because the cone is reaching the bottom which is 16ft on one side of the cone and maybe the other side of the cone is reading 18 feet depth, thus showing you that it reads 16feet in depth but the tail of the flasher is unussally large so the other side of the cone is reading a greater depth thus displaying a larger red bottom. hope it helps but it is very confusing first starting.

Also weeds will shoe up as green blips coming off the bottom but they will not move up and down like fish holding on the bottom. If your vexilar is marking a orange or green dash elevated from the bottom but never leaves the flasher you are most likely finding sunken timbers or other structure. its all in the way the flasher reacts to the bottom so pay close attentition and keep learnig with your flasher as it will soon be your best fishing tool by far.