salmonbarry
9/5/2016 4:38:00 PMYep those are sockeye down deep around 80 feet! Nice you made it out and keep at it, you'll find 'em!
gcban
9/5/2016 5:00:00 PMSalmonbarry, do you know what all those bait fish down there are? Are they stickelback or minnows or something else? I have never seen so much of it. Solid practically from SW corner of Mercer to the Cedar River area.
salmonbarry
9/5/2016 6:43:00 PMI'm no expert but figured they were just schools of sockeye with just some bigger ones above them making the marks. Your transducer with pick up fish even when they are not directly under your boat hence the smaller blue marks; but when they are under you that is when you get the big arches and yellow color; so again my thought would be you are seeing schools of sockeye.
gcban
9/5/2016 7:21:00 PMI thought that also also initially. My unit does side scan and down scan sonar imaging also. I should have taken a picture of the split screen with both of them on. As I rolled along this mass of fish I would switch over to the down and side imaging modes to see if they were normal fish or a milky looking blob which is what schooling bait fish shows up as. Most of that red and blue underneath the larger arches was a constant milky blob with an intermittent solid speck (single fish) blended in once and awhile. This new fish finder technology is amazing. Got this Humminbird 999SI a year ago and I'm still absolutely in awe of the thing. It can look out to 240 ft on either side of my boat or directly below with 455khz or 800khz beams and see bait or fish with amazing almost picture like detail. All that red and blue mass below 80ft just looked like a film of murky white on the image screen. That's why I figured it was bait, but I have never seen such a big mass of it like I did on Saturday. Hope I run into you someday and get to say hello out on the water at Lake WA. Thanks for responding. -G
salmonbarry
9/5/2016 9:44:00 PMWow you've got that thing dialed in! Like I said, I am no expert by any means and just guessing! Cool and it's weird that some areas are completely void of that mass but also of any marks once they are gone! Likewise hope to see you someday out there- may be running around the south end early on Wednesday; if you make it out look for the Tin Cup and say hi!
ilikefish
9/6/2016 7:02:00 AMI think this lake is closed for the months of September and October this year to protect coho runs so be careful out there. Not trying to be internet game warden, I just read the regs for this lake because I was going to go bass fishing while my daughter has rock climbing. I could be wrong, but there are a lot of changes in there.
gcban
9/6/2016 10:19:00 AMilikefish, thanks for the heads up. With this years fishing season boondoggle it can be a moving target and changing all the time. Back on August 11th 2016 WDFW issued a rule change undoing the Lake WA and Lake Sammamish closures for Sept 1 thru October to protect coho hatchery retrun. Link is attached. At least there is some good news. Can't catch and keep coho but at least we can keep fishing the lakes. Be safe, -G
https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=1846
https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/erule.jsp?id=1846
ilikefish
9/6/2016 11:37:00 AMThanks for setting me straight, now I don't have to be bored for 3 hours, 3 times a week. Good luck out there
pcorazao
9/9/2016 3:50:00 PMColor, vibration, sound and smell is so important at that depth. Only green and blue colors are visible that deep (60ft or greater). UV is important, if you got it, use it. Definitely need a dodger to broad cast vibration and get attention. Sound, the wedding ring setup is ideal because the beads crunch and make noise down there. Now for smell. If it is Kokanee, shoe peg corn in tuna oil, add in kokanee feast or dipping sauce. If you really want to trigger a bite on what ever that might have been, try some pro cure garlic bloody tuna, pro cure had amino acids in it that help trigger a bite, even when it is not time to feed.