Do salmon show on FF's?

I haven't had much experience with fishfinders and salmon fishing.  The other day day I was coming into Caspar and saw a few silvers jumping near the beach.  Caspar Creek, which empties into the bay, is a good coho creek so I assumed the fish I was also reading on my finder near the beach were staging coho.  We haven't had enough rain around here yet to get them up the creek.  When I told my story about the coho I was reading right near the creek mouth to a local experienced salmon fisherman, he kinda scoffed at me.  He claims that salmon do not show on FF's  Is this true?

My guess is that when they're out in the open water they're too fast for the finder, but when they're staging in a shallow bay waiting to get upstream they're as readable as any other fish.  I mean how could they possibly not reflect sound waves?

Any opinions?

Absolutely they will show on a fish finder, provided the settings are correct.  When there is no significant drift, I can watch my 4 inch plastic lure drop down to 100 feet and see the fish move up to hit it.  Not everything that shows up as fish are actually fish, though.  I used to have a crappy FF that displayed weeds as fish when I had is set up to display those fish symbols.  I never operate it in that mode now that I have a fair idea of what I'm looking at.

nomad~
What kind of crappy FF did you have and what kind do you have now???

He claims that salmon do not show on FF's  Is this true?

This is an ancient debate.  The theory is that their small swimbladders make them tough or impossible to mark.  I saw phoey as I have seen MANY things without a swimbladder (e.g. my jig) show up.

I regularly mark a 1/32oz crappie jig on my FF at 20-30 feet.  I doubt salmon could hide from one.

MolBasser

I had a Bottomline 'fishing buddy' which i used with my float tube.  Now I have an Eagle FishMark 480.

When salmon fishing from a bo*t, you usually look for balls of schooling baitfish; not necessarily salmon themselves. However, there is no way a salmon can evade a FF...regardless of how fast they swim or how small their bladders are.
I HAVE heard this theory before though....so maybe there is/was some truth to it at some point in time..?

PK

I had a Bottomline 'fishing buddy' which i used with my float tube.  Now I have an Eagle FishMark 480.

I've got the 320.  I bought it like 2 weeks before they came out with the 480.....

Love it though.  Great unit.

MolBasser

There was a nice discussion abou this on Coastside back in June..

http://www.coastsidefishingclub.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=general&Number=328498

I saw a nice screencap from a high-end FF that clearly showed salmon, a mooching rig, the salmon taking the bait and subsequently getting reeled in.  Pretty conclusive to me.  The author did say that it took a fair amount of tweaking of the settings to get salmon to show up - appearantly they give off a fairly weak signal.

FFs generally slow down their 'pings' in deeper water because it takes longer to hear the echo (or if you manually set it slow), since salmon swim quickly in mid-water they may pass through the transducer cone quick enough that they only get 'pinged' once or twice, or may get pinged at sufficiently different depths that a typical fish 'arch' is not observed. 

For the most part, trying to find 'fish' on the FF is a waste of time.  Find baitfish or bottom structure (where the fish are likely to be) and you are more likely to catch something than if you cruise around waiting for the FF to show a fish-arch and attempt to cast to that specific fish.

For the most part, trying to find 'fish' on the FF is a waste of time.  Find baitfish or bottom structure (where the fish are likely to be) and you are more likely to catch something than if you cruise around waiting for the FF to show a fish-arch and attempt to cast to that specific fish.

I agree with you about mostly looking for structure, but I also mark schools of rockcod (mostly blues and blacks) with it too.  Usually there's a nice ling hanging out right under them.  I'm just learning how to use this thing.  And I still use the little fish indicator things...dooh.

BTW: Coho started moving up the creeks around here over the weekend.

Spotting the salmon on the ff, now that's something to be proud of

I'm sure the ff makers will get that dialed in one of these days and put settings on the box so you can just dial it to salmon, rockies or whatever Maybe a 'GW approaching' alarm

I'd just stick to the video games  You dont get wet no sharks to worry about and you dont need pool noodles to keep you from drowning

OMG! Dude, too funny, seriously, your either almost expecting or the baby is already here and its time to go fishing!!!  Not enough salmon love Blue?  Maybe you can come out to san pablo bay with us for sturgeon, the fishfinders only act as depth finders as we come in at a minus tide, trudging through mud.  Better yet, for christmas, i'm gonna buy a lap top computer and hook it up to my tarpon 160 so I can globally track the salmon.   jtf..

Spotting the salmon on the ff, now that's something to be proud of

I'm sure the ff makers will get that dialed in one of these days and put settings on the box so you can just dial it to salmon, rockies or whatever Maybe a 'GW approaching' alarm

I'd just stick to the video games  You dont get wet no sharks to worry about and you dont need pool noodles to keep you from drowning

I thought it was pretty cool (if that's what was happening).  I like fish and I like knowing more about fish, so yeah, I guess it is something I'm proud of.

Dude, you make me laugh   There's plenty of guys on this site that have done their time in shark territory, from freediving, surfing, and kayak fishing......and they like fish finders.  I like using mine when going spearfishing as well as fishing.  And I dive around Westport where the guy got his head bit off a few years ago.

C'mon up and we'll go out freediving and leave the ff in the truck....it's all good.

Yeah, to be honest, I'm quite confused on the salmon on the fish finder thing myself.  This has been a very interesting post in my opinion.  Many times when marking arches underneath bait balls it hasn't produced.  My sole reason for the finder is for depth reads and looking for structure while fishin for rockies.

Its no wonder Blue kayak that you havn't met anyone while out on your salmon missions.  I know the two guys in the small boat you met.  I actually saw you once off of point pedro when I was in my hobie outback.  I thought to myself, "oh, another kayak angler" and tried to catch up, but, to no avail..... you were gone with the wind....  now, I have a more seaworthy yak... jtf..

seriously, your either almost expecting or the baby is already here

11 lbs 1.2 oz on the digital scale - I'm pretty sure of an anadromous species


For my smalltime purposes I need the salmon mystique and the fact that the fish have a sporting chance The electronics would pretty much kill it for me


I’d join you for a little freediving but nowadays I’m running on about 2 out of 6 cylinders and it’d be like a bad game of russian roulette My freediving days are probably over unless my wife goes on a business trip in which case I better survive or I'll be in a world of shit with her That's married man's logic at work

First, congrads on the birth of your child.  Wow, 11 lbs is a big kid.  I'm sure he/she will be seen miles offshore in about 15 or 16 years.

Second,  I totally get the mystique thing, but being a guy that mostly targets the rockfish complex i find that it actually adds to the mystique because it helps me "imagine" the bottom.  In this case, I wasn't even thinking about catching salmon, I was just wondering what species I marking on the finder right near the beach.  Then I was wondering why the sonar physics didn't work on salmon (as claimed).

Third,  I'm sorry to hear about your health stuff with regards to diving, but the invite still stands.  Just change the target from spearfishing to salmon fishing.  Even with all the "help" I get from my ff, I SUCK as a salmon fisherman.  This year: 0 for 4.  Last year: 1 for 4.  So I would be stoked to learn from the master.  FF optional.