Fishing techniques for live sonar
Forward facing sonar is the biggest change to fishing in a generation, and it has a real learning curve. Plenty of people buy it, stare at a screen full of noise for a season, and go back to what they know. This page is the short version of what gets you past that, whichever brand you run.
Before you look for a fish
Get the transducer deep enough. More bad live sonar pictures come from a shallow transducer than from any setting on the head unit. If it is riding in the surface wash you are looking at bubbles. Telescope the pole down until the picture cleans up, then lock it and leave it. This is the single reason pole length matters on a tall bow deck.
Turn the range down. Beginners run 100 feet of range and wonder why everything is a speck. Set the range just past where you are actually casting. A 40 foot range on a 40 foot cast puts the fish and your bait across the whole screen, which is the only way you will see a fish turn.
Back the gain off until the noise goes away. Too much gain fills the screen with returns and hides the fish inside them. Turn it down until the water looks empty, then bring it up just far enough that your lure shows. If you can see your bait, you can see a fish.
Learn where your beam actually points. Drop the lure straight down beside the transducer and sweep until you find it on screen. Ten minutes of that in the driveway or off the dock teaches you more about your cone than a season of guessing.
Four ways people actually fish it
Hunting, not casting
The first habit to build is sweeping before you cast. Idle in, put the beam on slow, and turn a full circle before you pick up a rod. You are looking for the shape of the school and which way it is facing, not a single mark. This is the technique that a hand turned pole quietly discourages, because every sweep costs you a cast.
Leading the fish
Casting at where a fish is puts your bait behind it. Cast where it is going, land past it, and bring the bait into its path at its depth. Then watch the screen rather than the water. A fish that turns toward the bait and stops is about to eat; a fish that follows and drifts off usually wants a change of speed, not a change of lure.
Working cover without hanging up
Brush piles and standing timber are where a slow sweep earns its money. Creep the beam around the edge of the cover and you can see which side the fish are sitting on, and how far off it they are holding. Fish the outside first. The ones that come out to look are the ones that will eat, and you have not put a bait into the branches yet.
Suspended fish in open water
Crappie and other suspended fish are the clearest argument for live sonar, because there is nothing on a map to tell you where they are. Sweep until you find bait, then look above and below it. Get the bait to their level and hold it there. Most people fish too fast and too deep; the fish will nearly always come up for it, and almost never down.
Three habits worth breaking
Sweeping too fast
A fast sweep smears everything. The screen redraws as the beam moves, so turning quickly gives you a blurred arc rather than a picture. This is exactly why a speed dial is worth more than a couple of preset speeds: the right sweep rate for picking apart a brush pile is far slower than the one for finding a school.
Chasing every mark
Not every arch is a fish worth casting to, and a day spent running down single marks is a day of trolling motor noise. Find the group. Fish that are together are competing, and competing fish eat.
Forgetting there is a fish on the other end
It is easy to end up fishing the screen instead of the water. Live sonar tells you where to put the bait; it does not set the hook. Watch the screen to find and follow, then fish the bite the way you always have. And check your local regulations, because some states and tournament circuits now restrict how forward facing sonar can be used.
Every one of these needs the beam pointed
Sweeping slowly, holding a heading on a brush pile, following a fish while you cast. All of it is easier when aiming the transducer is a foot pedal instead of a hand on a pole.