spooking fish

[clancy]

I recently read some archived posts which suggested that the pulse of a high-powered LCD will spook a walleye when the fish is hit by the beam. Is this something that you guys worry about when vertical jigging or live bait rigging directly under the boat? Should you turn the locators off when finding a bunch of fish, then fish blind? All the videos I have watched and magazine artcles (Walleye Insider, In-Fisherman) I have read, never address this issue.

Probably a dumb question, but I'm a walleye rookie with much to learn. I seem to mark way more fish than I ever catch, and am wondering if "frying" them with my Pinpoints makes them lose their appetites or move into the next county. Maybe I'm just sitting on a bunch of carp and suckers, but I don't think so. Thanks

[ebijack]

if your fishing in clear shallow water (5 ft and less) your boat would "scare"/alert the fish that something is very big above them( that is if they didn't swim away first) if your vertical jigging in 10,15,20ft etc, you need your electronics to tell you the mood of the fish by how they are relating to structure (humps,holes,ledges etc) i run 2 units constantly, one for me and one for the guy in the back of the boat. not only does it help you read/interept what's going on down there, you get information like bottom content etc. if you believe it's "scaring" the fish, you'll have more confidence with the unit off, but not be able to use the unit for what you purchased it for. shallow water i have my baits away from the boat/transducer angle (casting). if i'm flippin at docks or structure where the fish are in an protected/attact type position, i don't believe your going to get the transducer signal to bother the fish here either. IMHO
hope that helps

[clancy]

Thanks for your imput ebijack. I too have always used two locators - bow and stern and I catch fish riggin' and jiggin' under the boat, but I'm sure that I miss (spook?) plenty too. Just got to reading some lenghty discussions in the archives about lateral lines on fish and so forth, and how they probably detect the pinging of a transducer. A couple guys went so far as to say that a human can noticably feel the pulse of a transducer if you swim under it. Something that strong should definitely get a fishes attention.

[blake]

The thread # you need to review on this subject is 13543, posted Jan. 11th, '02, titled 3000 watts of power. This will give very good insight on your question.

Blake