Hey all,

Long-time BW guy, mediocre fisherman, who is totally new to fishing electronics. Got myself a Striker 4 for Father's Day. I broke it in on a day trip to Pine Lake with my sister.

I was marking lots of fish but had no clue what I was looking at. I marked fish in everything from 3' to 63'. We trolled into the modest wind on the north side of the lake. I loved being able to keep the canoe at the drop off. We picked up one nice walleye (sunny, midday) on the troll up the lake. Then, I took us into deeper water and we tried jigging some heavy jigs in the hopes of picking up one of those lakers they've been planting.

Anyway, I don't know if I'm seeing a laker/walleye/bass vs. cisco/whitefish/burbot. Any tips would be appreciated.

The second picture could be your line dropping down below the canoe, or you retrieving it. My striker 4 marks my jig as a constant line of fish similar to your picture, which is helpful to know how deep I'm jigging.

I have had fish locaters for decades since the 1970s. I currently own 4 of them for my boats. You asked what am I seeing. I have this same Striker 4 in my pontoon. First of all you have a traditional sonar here, nothing wrong with this but you have the fish symbols turned on. I suggest you go into the settings and turn off the fish symbols. This is because your sonar beam cannot determine between fish and suspended stuff in the water. You think there is fish and it’s just junk. By turning the fish symbols off you will see arcs on the screen. The sonar identifies its swim air bladder and sends a return to your graph. Bigger and brighter the arc, the bigger the fish. The middle picture is a fish raising to the surface. Sometimes you will see this when you have hooked a fish and reeling to you boat. Could be your lure or bait raising. Another would be if a fish is raising to your lure or bait. This is why I suggested that you turn off the fish symbols because it will confuse the sonar and you. Right picture looks like a bait ball of Cisco with suspended other fish. No way to tell what kind of fish it is with this sonar. Expensive sonars like panoptics or livescope and others, you can actually see the shape of the fish and tell what fish is down there. Last week I was up on Vermilion with a musky guide and we were identifying musky on his graph, very cool. I currently look at 3 different sonars screens when I’m fishing. Traditional sonar, down scan, sonar, and side scan sonar. Each one tells you something different. Side scan sonar is fun to spot bass hiding under docks and in heavy cover. Be advised that fishing electronics are really fun, you will need to spend some time learning, and will make you want a better unit.

Thanks for the responses. I had the fish symbols turned on, as that was suggested for total sonar noobs, which I am. But, I'll turn it off and look for the arches. I can understand how these units could become addicting.