There’s no better feeling than pulling up on a flat, taking a peek at the sidescan, and watching a horde of redfish or speckled trout appear within casting distance. Sidescan is a vital tool for one simple reason: it helps you locate fish that you would otherwise never know are there. When the waters’ gin clear or the fish are showing themselves on the surface it’s not all that important. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been surrounded by a school of redfish in dirty water that I NEVER would have even known were there without electronics.
- First things first, you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to get sidescan anymore. Most of the major brands have a unit equipped with side scan for $500 or less. Kayaks and boats with a very shallow draft will be able to utilize sidescan effectively in extremely shallow water. In three feet, you should be able to see them up to about 120 feet with a top-end unit and at least 60 to 80 feet with a lower cost unit (maximizing screen size is the critical factor).
- If you’re looking to pick out individual fish, set your unit to a higher frequency. Higher frequencies have more detail, but less range. This makes it a lot easier to pick out a fish hiding behind an oyster bed or some other kind of structure.
- If you’re looking for big schools, or large fish like bull redfish that give a very good return, set it to a lower frequency then boost range. This will increase your range while sacrificing some detail. Fortunately, when there are a ton of fish, or a couple big ones, you don’t need that extra detail to see them.
- Each time you change frequency, play around with the contrast so that the areas near your boat are bright, but not too washed out to see a fish or structure on the bottom.
- If you get mirroring on the other side from more solid structure like oysters, or even a big fish, turn down your sensitivity until the mirroring stops. You want your sensitivity as high as possible without any mirroring present.
- As you move into different areas and different kinds of structure, it’s important to make small changes to your settings to maximize its capability without creating those mirrored images.
Finally, always remember: it never hurts to cast if you see a funny mark!