New 997 SI Picture of one Large Spoonbill

TableRockGuide · Post by **TableRockGuide** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:44 pm

Guy's here is a really cool picture, this was taken on Sunday on Table Rock up the James River. This fish is a monster! The fish is point up or to the top of the picture, take a look at the shadow on the left, you can see the long bill and at the bottom of the shadow you can see the forked tail. Right after we passed by this guy we snagged a 70 pounder. Not sure if it was the same fish I don't think so, is one in the picture went well over 100 plus pounds.

Good Fishing Everyone

Capt. D

Second picture is of the fish we snagged, notice how big this one was compared to my clients son.

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FireFighter28 · Post by **FireFighter28** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:49 pm

Wow, bigger than the kid!! Very nice

carl · Post by **carl** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:16 am

Did you ID the fish on the unit then go after it? Carl

TableRockGuide · Post by **TableRockGuide** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:15 pm

Carl, yes we tried, right after we seen that fish we hung into the fish that I posted. Same fish I don't think so.

Good Fishing

Capt. Don

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:57 pm

Capt. Don,

That is just amazing, you can really see the shape in the shadow on your 997. This weekend should be my first trip out with my 997... can't wait to use it.

mofish · Post by **mofish** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:50 am

Ok I'm not saying this "IS" a catfish but it sure looks like one to me laying on the bottom. I'm only scaned out to 28ft so the detail is pretty amazing. If you look you can see the dorsal fin and tail in the shadow. Open the picture up with some program that you can zoom in with, and tell me if you think it is a big catfish laying on the bottom. If its a stump or log it will be there next time I go into this creek. Then I will know for sure.

I zoomed in on the school of fish in the red box and never noticed the other till I go home and put it on the computer. Pretty dence school of fish to leave a shadow like that on the bottom.

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brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:39 pm

So my tournament partner and I got out on Saturday for the first time with my 997 si. I wish I had known that you need to buy an SD Card in order to take snap shots. I would have loved to post some of things I was imaging.

A few comments about the unit as a first time user:

1) I don't think people can fully grasp the concept of this unit until they see it for themselves. I would recommend to anyone who has a friend who owns one of these units to ask if you can tag along one day just to check out the side imaging.

2) The amount of water that you can cover is unbelievable! One pass through a given area and you see EVERYTHING in the area. Every, rock, tree, hump, ditch, road bed... you name it. I was able to find things in seconds that normally would take hours to find using normal sonar and the fact that you can just drop a weigh point and circle back right to the target just completes the whole package. INCREDIBLE is all I can say!

3) Finding "The sweet Spot" or " Spot on a spot". There is no more guessing where the sweet spot on a piece of structure is anymore. You just see it. I was following road beds that stretched for miles and in minutes was able to find the intersections, breaks in the side wall, turns, culverts and everything else. "Oh look, there a hump over there that's shaped like a kidney bean" and there are fish staging off the southeast corner. The fact that you can visually see exactly what a particular piece of structure looks like before you even fish it, saves you an incredible amount of time. You have a perfect mental picture (or should I say visual picture) before you even make your first cast!

4) Getting confident with fish identification is something that I can see taking a little time. It was difficult to say for sure if what we were seeing was fish or just objects on the bottom. We would have to spin around and drive over the area to see if anything came up on the sonar as far fish and bait fish were concerned.

5) "What was that?"... We said this a lot on Saturday. Streaks or lines that could have been small ridges or ribs in the bottom. Possibly fish in motion as you would see on a sonar unit? Not really sure.

The potential is there to be perhaps the most innovative piece of electronics to ever hit the market. This takes the game to a whole different level and unfortunately people who fish tournaments without one of these units are going to get left behind. I think that is the one negative thing I can come up with... not everyone can afford to pay for these units... I really hope they come down in price so more people can experience this new way of locating cover and game fish.

I'll be posting more as I get more time on the water with this unit.

I'm still in shock from what I was seeing out there.

TableRockGuide · Post by **TableRockGuide** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:22 pm

Brendan, welcome to what I have been seeing for over two years now.. Now you can see why I'm so excited over these units. I can now pinpoint fish without even really fishing. And Yes you do need a $19.00 1GB SD card to keep those picture, I should have put that on my other posting. One thing I can tell you, always keep this SD card clean, you can really add up on pictures that you have taken, I always clean mine after every trip save the pictures to my computer. It has happened to me I find something really cool and my card was full! But I just GPS it and then go back and retake my picture.

The more you use it the more you will understand what you are seeing, practice alot. I have even went and put items in the water just to see what they look like, that works really good.

Even better I get guys in my boat for a training trip, they tell me they know of a tree or foundation or something they have found with 2D units, I tell them just give me a close area and I will find it without there help and it works everytime!

Glad to see you like your unit, you or anyone else needs any help understanding a picture or even just basic question drop me a post, I will do all I can to help out.

Good Fishing

Capt. Don

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:40 pm

Is there a size restriction on those cards? They are just memory cards for digital cameras. They make them in 2 GIG also, that's what I was going to buy.

Finding stuff is a joke... Like you said, just point me to a general area of the lake and it's on the screen. I went to areas where I know certain small pieces of structure are located... I was 175' away and could see what I was looking for. Hit the "mark" button and then "go to" waypoint and it got me right on top of the structure.

I am afraid for the future of fishing... if everyone had these units, no fish would be safe!

I'm going to give you a call to discuss a couple of things that I think might be too difficult to explain via post or email, if that's OK?

Thanks for all the info... I'm sure everyone reading this appreciates the detailed information you share on the boards here.

mofish · Post by **mofish** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:53 pm

Brendan I bought the Scan Disk Extreem III card 2Gig. The time it takes to download the picture is great. It was highly recomended by the yahoogroup on side imaging. Works fantastic. A little more than $19 but to me it is well worth it. I tried the cheaper cards and seem to be slow.

This stuff is just great!!!Wish the price of gas would go down now!