What kind of fish is it?

[Texeye]

I would like to know from some of you out there who have had experience reading your graphs if you can tell what type of fish you are seeing on your graph by what the hooks look like on you screen?I have used a graph for years but still find myself wondering whether it is carp,catfish,sandbass,crappie,or walleye.I tend to assume when I see the hooks form a tree type figure it is usually a school of crappie.I feel that sand bass tend to be a lot of random hooks and are seemingly shorter arcs.I tend to associate hooks that look like they are attached to a ledge as being walleye,or when I think I see them under bait they seem to be longer arcs.I sometimes see long arcs stacked on top of each other and have caught some nice eyes when I saw this.I am not trying to answer my own question but I would like to know what kind of pattern or what kind of arcs some of you look for when you are looking for walleye? Thanks,(didn't mean to be so long winded!)

[stewart]

The arc depends on how long the fish is in the cone. A fish swimming along under the cone for a while will make a longer arc for example. So it can get tricky to interpret exactly what your seeing. However, the width of the arc can tell you if the thing down there has some mass.

At best it's educated guess work to figure out what species it is, for me anyways...

[SUPERTROLLER]

Great answer stewart! There is NO way to know positively what is below your boat without visual proof. Without an underwater camera to show you, it just an educated guess. Schools of bait fish can be more readily identified but the big arcs could be catfish as easily as walleye, carp, pike, muskie.