As I watched my Lowrance, Larry had his head buried in the AquaVue's screen, and I heard him say, "Hey there's a bass… and another one! Chuck, there's 3 bass in the screen at one time!"  I studied the electronics - nothing!  "There's another one! Wow, you ought to see the size of the one that just came into view!"  Before we had gone 100 feet, Larry had seen no less that eight bass on the bottom. And the electronics showed…. nothing!

In the four or five years we have been using the camera to study the bottom of Lake Washington, we have run across this phenomenon time and time again. Fish that are
12 inches (or less) off the bottom rarely show up on the electronics' screen in deeper water. At 18 inches they appear as a hump on the floor of the bottom, and at 24 inches they finally become an arch that we have all come to recognize as a fish. Lesson:  there's a blind spot in your electronics.



For those anglers who have disciplined themselves to occasionally break away from their addiction to shoreline fishing (recognizing that large bass often roam the flats and deeper humps), this means we must not always trust our electronics to locate fish! 

It also means that the combination of camera and electronics is a deadly partnership! You'll learn more about your favorite lake in one weekend with the camera than you have in years of just fishing with the aid of electronics. 

Having said that, I also realize that not every angler has enough sheckles in the bank to get one, at least not right away. Until that time comes, remember: 
just because you don't see the fish on that flat or hump, doesn't mean they aren't there! If everything in your understanding of seasonal patterns says they should be there - they probably are. Chances are they're just in your electronics blind spot! 



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