Can't mark fish!

[dlhomes]

Quick (easy?) question. What do you do when you can't mark fish? This has happened a couple times to our boats. Do you fish where they should be, trying different techniques? move around until you find something? During a tourney this would really put the pressure on!
I had a X-85 and had another boat in our party but both could not mark fish!
What we did was keep trying spots until the eyes finally turned on and had our limit in 1.5 hours. I believe most of the proven spots had fish, we just did'nt find the magic to get them to bite. Have tried humps that (usually)produce and had no luck, could'nt even mark anything. Went back hour later when the wind picked up and did great!

[stevefellegy]

This same post was discussed in depth, about ten days ago under "General Discussion", under the same subject heading. Several
good scenarios were proposed. If you can't find it, I will go into it AGAIN.lol But I have no time now....or energy.lol
Good Luck! Don't feel alone. Look up the other post....

[Walleye Express]

Mr. Holmes.
Heres something you may or may not have thought about. On Saginaw Bay, where I run walleye fishing charters, this delemma often presents itself. In fact, I'm probably asked by more of my clients "Are you marking any fish" more than "Are we there yet" by 5 year olds on a 500 mile trip. The almighty fish finder has been thrust into the role of the fishermen ambilical cord in the last 20 years. It is a great tool, but one misunderstood and expected to practically perform miracles and put the fish in your boat.I don't suspect I have to explain that when the fish are belly down on the bottom, very few finders will mark/separate them from the bottom. Conversly, when they are working the top 3 feet of the surface, few if any finders will mark them in the narrow cone beem generated at 3 feet. And the water depth I fish on the Saginaw is mainly 12 feet or less. Now, given the cone degree, a fish would practically have to come directly up under the finder for a picture for it to mark him. I use the finder more to find the structure and will run a few lines very deep and very shallow when I see nothing on the screen. Don't put all your fishing eggs in the fish finders basket. Capt: Dan, Walleye Express Charters.

Good point about the very shallow and very deep lines. I fish LOW in July a lot and only fish when I mark fish. However, last year we had trouble marking them. We did fish bottom bouncers on likely structure and then moved on if we did not get bites in 20 minutes or so. But, I never thought about a shallow line looking for suspended fish. I am convinced that LOW has suspended fish, but in the past I never had to look for them because we could mark so many on structure. I should try that "shallow/deep" idea next time we are faced with a similar problem.



*** A day spent fishing does not count against one's alloted life span! ***