Reading the bottom

[Kickin Bass]

I have never been taught how to read the bottom with a vex. Last night I had a very short band of red with a several small bands of green. Most nights I have a very large red band followed by several small bands. SO, which is rock? Which is mud? What do weeds look like? Does sand look different than rock? Some pointers would be great.

[Sandmannd]

I have been wondering the same, those are great quesitons. Hopfully you get some good responses. One thing I could say to do is hit up some of the FM Get-togethers. You can pick some brains and have fun at the same time.

[bturck]

Are you using an FL8 without zoom? How deep was the water and were you on the correct setting 1 or 2 depending on depth. Generally the narrower the band the softer the bottom, the green lines could indicate bottom weeds or small rock and boulders as the signal will jump around some looking for definition. If it comes and goes it could also indicate bottom hugging fish in the proximity of you. Just some thoughts. Bill

[Kickin Bass]

Thanks bill. That is helpful. It is a murky lake so I figured maybe it meant that it was mud. surprises me with such a steep break though. It was an FL8. Was in 17 feet of water. Had it on the 2 setting, then switched to the 1 because my friend said it's best to fill the circle rather than leave 1/3 unused. Had the gain as low as it could go. If my understanding then is correct, the thicker the red line equals the power of reflection, so it would be wider on rock and gravel, but smaller on mud and MAY even have some green above the red if there are weeds (as long as they aren't fish). Is this correct? What about sand, would that have a strong signal, or would it absorb the signal a little?

[Tom7227]

The Vexilar HSOforum has a video you can watch that explains how the thing works. Might help to check that out.

[wlmrs]

Yeah the video is pretty informative.

[CSP88]

This article should help you out.

Vexilar tips

Chad

[slipperybob]

Talked some about it here.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1219996#Post1219996

plus, another thing to help determine bottom is getting a read from an echoed signal. You just bump up the depth to double or even triple the current depth and if you get an strong echoed signal read, then it says that it's a pretty hard bottom. That's without weeds absorbing the signal.