A quick question for baitboat owners who have sonar

When you find a likely spot at what point do you drop your bait?

Given the scan is cone shaped do you drop when you are directly over the spot, just past it or just before you reach it

I know it sounds like a silly question but I can't get my head around what the scan is showing and if what you are seeing is when your boat is directly over the spot or not

Any help and advice much appreciated

In reply to Post #1
Personally, I do one of 2 things;

Once I find a spot and save it I will take a lead + marker float out with the boat to feel the bottom and confirm what is down there. When I am happy with the spot I let the float up and park the boat next to it and re save the spot.

or

Reduce the angle of the scan to the smallest your sonar allows (mine is 7 degrees) and then depending on the depth of the water centre the boat on the spot before saving it and dropping the bait there.

This needs adjusting if you are able to feel the lead down as there will be some back swing when you do that.

In reply to Post #1
That's a great question, and not sure I can answer it properly. But I can perhaps say what I do.

Firstly though, I use a deeper with my bait boat and no GPS. To be completely honest I'm relatively new to bait boats too and have till now only used a Procat and now a Technicat, but both with just a deeper attached to the back of the boat, approx 10cm behind it using a combination of wire-trace, crimps and clips to attach it to the back of the boat. So it's all a bit heath-robinson, but, it works for me.

Also, if Im honest, I'm not sure I'd trust the accuracy of GPS on a bait boat, even with a radio transmitter rather than relying solely on the GPS. Mainly because I'm skeptical about the accuracy of it. I may be doing it an injustice, but not having one to properly test for myself I cant really comment on how accurate they are. But I would add I do have a significant background in electronics and electronic warfare, including direction finding and position fixing, so its fair to say I do have at least some experience to base my own (perhaps misguided) opinions on.

When looking for a feature to target I send out my boat with my marker rod and use the boat and the deeper to find the boundaries for the feature. If Im being really thorough (which Im often not) I use some line marker to find the near/distant boundary of the feature, so that when I bring it back in, I can use distance sticks to measure the wraps. And I try to find the boundaries to the left and right of the feature, usually about half the distance between the near and far markers using some kind of feature on the far bank - an over-hanging tree or gap between a tree etc.

Then, I take a picture of the area with my iPad and draw an eclipse in the rough area I think the feature is in, and annotate it with the number of wraps for the near and far sides of the elipse and draw vertical lines from the left and right hand side of the eclipse upto the same marks on on the far side of the bank, just so I have a documented reference to refer back to next time.

Then I'll use the marker float, casting just beyond the feature and use it to try and get more of a feel of what's there.

Where I drop my rig would depend on the feature, is it a bar, is it a feeding hole, is it just a gap in the weed, is it a plateau etc - there's so many factors to consider where on the feature to try first.

I do re-check my spots from time to time, sometimes features get bigger, and sometimes they disappear altogether especially if they're holes in the weed and not fished for some time.

I tend to rely more only measurements taken with my marker rod to take the boat out to, by clipping up with the number of wraps I want to take the boat out to with my fishing rods. I make sure the mainline is taught and always measure from the same point.

When I take the initial measurements with my marker I setup my bank sticks in the same place in each swim, and put my marker rod on the bank sticks for the final marking with some pole elastic so that I can measure the wraps afterwards.

I usually have the bail arm off when I drop my rig - so tend not to worry so much about it swinging back. More often than not I use at least 4oz leads so unless I'm planning on dropping it close to the near side of the marked out feature, where I might give it another 6 inches or so just for some peace of mind.

That's what I do anyway, and works for me and I can use my notes to just cast to the spots if I don't have my boat with me.

In reply to Post #1
I usually drop just past the spot as I'm on a tight line and expect a little bit of swing back when releasing the hopper / dropping the lead . . . however I will say I think you can get waay too hung up on trying to micro analyse the sonar reading on a narrow beam etc -

Once your happy with the depth (this is more key IMO - finding the depth that the fish are sitting at in any given session and potentially therefore most likely to feed at) and general bottom substrate (so that you know what the most effective presentation is) then dropping within a 1M radius is more than enough from an accuracy perspective (the majority of the time). . .if you're really anal the only real solution is a winch camera

My method I have always used I have some cotton reel shaped dense sponge with slit cut in it having previously soaked it in a fairy liquid soap solution
this does 2 things cleans the line and the tiny trace of fairy will break the surface tension and sink instantly rather than taking time

I clip it on the line and jam it in the butt ring the rod I get it pointing sky wards to stop the line spilling off due to gravity and keeping as much as possible out of the water
and always have the bail arm OPEN never ever closed as the bait runner will cause horrendous line twist
as your boat gets close to the target lift the rod trapping the line and pull against the boat stopping it but leaving it trying to power away this straightens out your line nicely then!

drop the rod tip under the water for a few seconds sinking all the line and dead straight

THEN !!! SLOW THE BOAT TO ITS MINIMUM SPEED and creep it the final few yards to the target
still with upen bail arm now remember the bar/feature you see on the screen IS HISTORY !!!!!!! you have already gone past it to be able to see it on the screen

so I drop it there and then
I will have put a small nugget on the hook and so give the rig a gently pull back to straighten it unless using a boom section

I have found some times it pays to stop the boat and pull it back off the bar then drop it where I think the better fish will pick off the ones that roll down the sides in the deeper water

this has worked for me over 18 years of boat fishing using 7 different bait boats I have owned and used in that time and I have done all right catching when others have blanked on hard large French lakes

In reply to Post #5
Some great advice so thanks all

I'll try some of these tips out on my next trip

Worth noting that different sonar transducers use different cone angles and that the area within the cone will depend on the depth of the water.
I spoke to Fulcrum designs many years ago (Angling Technics boats have their sonars) and he made me aware of a tighter cone angle on the AT boats and the faster scroll rate to compensate. I've used AT, RT4 Chirp and now use a Deeper.

I wouldn't get to fixated on being deadly accurate, to be honest I don't think there's such a thing for the normal angler, unless you really look into it and know what you're dealing with