How do you decipher?

I have never invested the $$$ into a good locator and if I did I woundn’t know how to decipher a walleye near the bottom compared to a hump or rock. I hope to purchase one that will show me what I’m hunting for but still will be unsure of what it’s showing me. How does this work?
Thanks

Here’s a down-looking screen capture from my Humminbird 1197 that I took on Lake Bemidji this summer, while looking for deep fish near some rocks. The hard, rocky bottom is apparent….it’s the irregular bottom, red in color, with rounded shapes that certainly look like rocks. The fish that are obvious to me on this screen capture are highlighted with red arrows. Note that some of them are well-separated from the bottom and are easily discernible from the rocks. Others are much closer to the bottom. This is when I rely on the colors that represent the sonar returns from the individual objects to help me determine what I’m looking at. On Humminbird sonar units, red represents the hardest types of targets: rock, hard packed sand, etc. If you look all the way towards the left, you’ll see something tucked among some (red) rocks that has a different color pattern…a lot of yellow with a tiny bit of red. That’s something close to or on the bottom that is softer than a rock….possibly a fish.

Here’s another screen capture from my 1197. I took this on the Mississippi this summer, close to Everts. The river channel is quite deep here, with hard packed sand for the bottom. There’s a rock spine (not a wing dam, a natural rock bar) that runs perpendicular to the channel in this area; that rock spine is the prominent red bump towards the middle of the screen. Note the presence of the fish (red arrow) associated with the top of the rock spine.

A lot of the guesswork is taken out of the equation when you move beyond down-looking sonar and look at the same area using Humminbird’s Side Imaging locators. Here’s an SI screen capture of the area shown in the down-looking image above. The original rock hump is obvious….it’s the end of the rock spine (shown in the right hand side image). The original fish is still there, shown clearly as a white return associated with the hump, towards the middle of the image (which represents objects closer to, or directly underneath, the boat).

Spending quality time with the rod down will help you get used to the unit. Even better is to get some seat time with someone who has it down for the unit you are running. A few hours in the boat with someone like that can be phenomenal, that’s what I did when I moved from Lowrance to Humminbird. One afternoon of playing around on the water by myself, and 2 hours with someone who knew what the heck they were doing. But, I am continually learning and don’t believe anyone is 100% accurate on what is down there. Side Imaging does help quite a bit.

Start off with a small area that you know really well. Mark it off with buoys and keep making passes. Sometimes it helps to go back to the same areas at later dates and re-scan and see if the same things show up.

Can be frustrating, and time consuming, but it is rewarding as heck. Technology is awesome these days for on the water sonar.

WOW I guess the more I learn the more I find out how little I know. I have never had a colored sonar and can now see the great advantages.

Once you use color, you’ll never go back to greyscale. Not only is it easier on the eyes, but the information provided is far superior to that provided by a greyscale locator.

And once you go SI, you’ll wonder why you ever fished without it!