how would you fish this?

In the picture would the tide be running from left to right or visa versa? OR sorta North to south if you see what I mean.

If the current was running on a N/S plane then I would (if I were clever enough) anchor up to fish one of the gullies. If it were running across the ridges then slightly up tide of a high spot and fish with just enough lead to hold bottom and try to work the terminal tackle down tide over the hump and into the slack just beyond it.

mad mike

left/right - the boat is running along the line taken by the tide.

having the exact position of everything available means that if you are any good you can actually position the boat very exactly relative to the features by working out the angles and back to where you want the anchor 'in' then add a bit uptide ('cos you can let out more easy enough).

Fishing it on the flood (right to left on the screen) at anchor would make it interesting as you dropped the bait back - if you got it wrong it's just going to sit in the face of the bank I presume.

On the ebb would you try and fish the scour tight in to the face or ?

What is the run on the screen? By this I mean what distance does it cover from left to right? BB

You've got a whole variety here. The pinicles and troughs are all obviously rock(orange), but on the left it looks like you've also got an area of shallow sand or mud (blue on top of orange). That might be an interesting spot for rays.

BF

Duncan

If it is the mark that most of the older club members know as banks then the shallowest part I have found is 56' at low water. I usually motor uptide of the peak say 100 metres and drop my anchor then allow enough warp out so that the top of the bank is lying just behind the boat. You can easily do this by watching your sounder and noting the depth. The idea then is to trot you end tackle back behind (downtide of) the bank as described by Mike. This should work for some species i.e rays flatfish etc (if they are present) but others such as bass, Pollack may be in other areas of the bank.

When the tide turns re-anchor and do it the other way. Some banks fish better on the ebb or flood

To be fair this particular set of banks used to fish really well but recent years they seem to be devoid of life other than doggies and the odd ray and occasional bass.

I would be pleased if anyone can tell me otherwise as it is an easy mark to anchor and fish.

By the way it

yep that ties in - the 66ft above that pinacle was at high water Sunday last.

it was here that we lost 6 fish to breaks on the Sunday of the coloured water, and Charlie had 7 conger, so maybe it's an opportunity for after dark some time?

also a 15lb bass taken there at the same time - again those conditions were so different...............

just thought it an interesting picture to discuss - the gully looks so boring relatively but...

Looks at fantastic mark Duncan - its also amazing how clear a picture you get when using a colour sounder....I really am tempted, but Ill wait until they drop down to the 200/300 quid mark (for a decent unit) before I get one...

In a way similar to parts of the ledge. I am intreguied to learn more about this software Duncan - do tell?

I suppose bank fishing is a little like anchoring a wreck, position of the boat, amount of rope and all that has a big impact on how sucessful one is. Now if I only had the numbers for these 'banks'......

Adam,

Firstly I don't have a colour sounder! My B&W sounder enables me to record the actual input sonar data, combined with the GPS data, and Lowrance provide a software program to view this.

That application works just like the unit settings, even down to sensitivity and surface clutter, but is being driven by a 3Ghz PC and displayed on a 42" plasma screen (or at high res).

This particular image is a screen grap to paint then convert to gif (small file) for display on the site.

Charlie has the same capability I believe.

Because of the way it works you can actually import the file into a spreadsheet application and, if you have enough data, it will spit out a 3d map of the bottom - haven't done this though.

Re ground - as Billy hints you need to know the boat speed to really understand what's being shown on the screen - Christchurch ledge at 40knots shows as a pinacle! We all get to relate this on our own unit.

I am in Edinburgh right now but will give some positions from which distance can be calculated - for reference however the boat speed was 15knots on the button.

Duncan, can you confirm what the colours signify?

Is yellow a strong reflection (eg from rock) and blue a weaker reflection (like sand)?

I just read an article in BFM and it states that it is the other way round, yellow is sand. In which case the "pinacle" is not a rock pinacle but a sand bank that you passed over at fairly high speed???

Or maybe it's just the way your program has converted from B&W to colour???

cheers

BF

Also, what was the average wave height on the day? We have to figured that out of the equation when looking at the bottom plot.

(reminds me of a certain day out in Kimmerridge when there were 30ft pinicles appearing in previously flat terrain!!)

cheers

BF

no waves - we ran back in at 30 plus knots!

colours are Lowrance standards so the info from the sea angler articles on the LCX range will be relevant (LCX used for data) but I can up or down the colour map so without a reference.

here is the same sample but in the origional colour format as best I can - had to use a .jpg sample so it's a bit bigger.

Also havew give a couple of reference points for those that want (can) work out the scale - ie how wide is that pinacle - 10 ft or 100ft!

<a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" href="/oldforum/post-3-1100731152.jpg" data-fileid="239" rel=""><img src="/oldforum/post-3-1100731152.jpg" data-fileid="239" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt="post-3-1100731152.jpg">

Not knowing the linear measurement of the picture makes it difficult but from a personal point of view I would be looking to anchor centrally so that I can fish downtide and flick it uptide to find fish if necessary. Sometimes when you downtide you can bounce over depressions. Flicking it uptide means you can drop in to every nook and cranny. You need to use a tad heavier lead fior this but it can be really productive. BB

Now I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think 1' in the E-W direction is equal to 400ft.

You show 16' between your two westerly plots (29' - 13'), which equates to 6,400ft

(16' x 400ft) or 2,100 yds??? Which is just over a mile. Would that make sense???

That's one hell of a long plot if it's true...???

I assume the two X's on the chart are the two cursor plots???

BF

Oops!!

Just noticed those are seconds (") not minutes, so divide everything by 60.

So, the distance between the X's is 35yds (105ft). That's better.

BF