I'm tired of reading bait color threads... does the ping/tic of your transducer alert and put off bass from feeding on your lure?  Are some sonar brands better/worse in this regard than others?

 

 

oe

  Some of the pros say it does  . I could see where pressured bass become alerted of depth finder noise . Others say no way , never, sonar absolutely, 100 percent does not scare bass, ever .

I don't think it causes any problems. if it did, how do we catch fish while drop shotting right besides the boat? on most lakes, the fish are acclimated to sounds of transducers, outboards, and every other sound we can make.

Yes, absolutely scares the hell out of them....unless that noise is coming from your Hydrowave, in which case the fish will then school around your transducer speaker, and some might even try and eat it 

 

-T9

I believe you met noise. Tranducers don't make a sound that we can hear above water, the sonar pulse wave can be felt via a basses lateral line and more than likely not close enough to use their hearing sense. If the bass are use to boat traffic, angler pressure or presence the TD pulses is a common background. If the bass are wary of angler presence and shy away from boat sounds, those bass are turned off from TD pulses. 

The lakes I fish big bass seem to be nervous when feeding up shallow during the day light and TD pulses can shut them off. Same lake at night and the same bass don't seem to be alarmed by TD pulses, they may be more comfortable being in shallow water at night.

Tom

 

I was once told by a very successful guide that smaller baitfish are more susceptible to being bothered by td noise, not bass themselves. I dont know but it made sense to me. 

 

Chris Lane is a strong believer that sonar pulses will alarm bass in heavily fished waters (i.e. every big lake).

Chris has been doing very well on the tourney trail, so I wouldn't summarily dismiss his theory.

I've experimented with this a little bit, but haven't arrived at any respectable conclusion.

Unscrewing the sonar cable during operation is not recommended, and waiting for the unit to boot-up

after every holding site can quickly get old  

Roger

Having driven over countless bass for over 40 years using flashers, paper graphs, color sonar using only my trolling motor or drifting and visually watching big bass swim away, there is no question in my mind they detect sonar pulses. The routine I developed is not to have my sonar on while targeting giant bass when I know their location. Before leaving a area I always make a circle with the sonar on to meter any bass that may be in the area, so I can determine if to fish that area again later. It's not unusual to meter big bass suspended over deep water that may be waiting for me to leave! Fun fishing for bass I rarely switch off the sonar unit because it doesn't appear to bother average size fish or Shad schools.

Tom

11 minutes ago, WRB said:

Having driven over countless bass for over 40 years using flashers, paper graphs, color sonar using only my trolling motor or drifting and visually watching big bass swim away, there is no question in my mind they detect sonar pulses.

 

Perhaps some of those bass detected the giant boat floating overhead, and not the sonar pulse?

 

I've had smallmouth school in the shadow of my boat, drifting in <10 ft of very clear water with 2 sonars running.

 

Methinks this is going to be another case of "it matters when it matters" and nobody can prove otherwise  

The only reason I make long 40 to 50 yard casts with a jig is to up the odds of catching giant bass without warning them of my presence. Any cast with a jig over 30 yards decreases my odds of detecting strikes and getting a good hook set, no other reason to make a long. The fact I catch giant bass using jigs, making long cast proves these big bass are wary of anglers.

Tom

Yea but that doesnt mean it's the sonar .. lol 

Where's Wayne with his thumper video? That video will make you think twice about boat noise/transducer noise.

There were about a hundred BASS Elite pros vertical fishing using sonar last week at Cherokee Lake.

 

 

16 minutes ago, Wayne P. said:

There were about a hundred BASS Elite pros vertical fishing using sonar last week at Cherokee Lake.

 

 

Do you still have that thumper video?

No, I would have to look up the product. Just do a web search for Bobo's Thumper.

On 2/10/2017 at 1:55 PM, WRB said:

Having driven over countless bass for over 40 years using flashers, paper graphs, color sonar using only my trolling motor or drifting and visually watching big bass swim away, there is no question in my mind they detect sonar pulses. The routine I developed is not to have my sonar on while targeting giant bass when I know their location. Before leaving a area I always make a circle with the sonar on to meter any bass that may be in the area, so I can determine if to fish that area again later. It's not unusual to meter big bass suspended over deep water that may be waiting for me to leave! Fun fishing for bass I rarely switch off the sonar unit because it doesn't appear to bother average size fish or Shad schools.

Tom

 

 

I'm in no position to debase or champion any method used in California, but this much I can offer.

The mean year-round catch-depth in most of Florida's dishpan lakes is "FOUR-FEET" (you read that right).

Differently put, the bass my boat passes over are bombarded by close-range sonar pulses

originating at a mean distance of 4 feet. Throwing caution to the wind (sonar ON / fluoro leader OFF)

we do manage to boat our fair share of double-digit bass.

 

Roger

 

 

45 minutes ago, Wayne P. said:

No, I would have to look up the product. Just do a web search for Bobo's Thumper.

I couldn't remember the name. Everybody look up bobo's thumper and watch what the fish do!

38 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

 

I'm in no position to debase or champion any method used in California, but this much I can offer.

The mean year-round catch-depth in most of Florida's dishpan lakes is "FOUR-FEET" (you read that right).

Differently put, the bass my boat passes over are bombarded by close-range sonar pulses

originating at a mean distance of 4 feet. Throwing caution to the wind (sonar ON / fluoro leader OFF)

we do manage to boat our fair share of double-digit bass.

 

Roger

 

 

The differences are manny, very little cover, average depth big bass hold in is 20' and water clarity is about 20', sonar down looking signal @ 20' is close to 7' diameter. 4' depth the sonar signal is about the size of a dinner plate, smaller then the length of the bass. Bass in cover usually stay put, that is why flipping works.

Tom