# Catfish Sonar Fishfinders?



## wilded (Feb 5, 2006)

I am wanting to get into deep water catfishing on lake Buchanan as I will be moving within a short drive in the next year. What kind of sonar or fishfinders are you guys running to help you locate blues? I am hoping for something reasonable in price and that I can understand and use effectively.Thanks, ET


----------



## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Others may have a different opinion but to me there is no particular model of finder that could be called a "catfish" unit.
Some units are much better than others in defining imagines near or on the lake bottom which might be a slight advantage in locating catfish.
The nature of blue cats finds them on the lake bottom in a very loose group or school. Unlike white bass or stripers that hold above the bottom in large tight schools the lowly cat fish does not normally form a dense enough school to return a good echo.
Large individual fish a few feet above the bottom might give a good signal but it will take a very experience operator to understand what they are seeing.
Cat fish on the bottom just look like more bottom.
Blues are very agressive feeders and come up in to the high water column chasing shad. But there again they are not in tight schools like the whites or stripers. They tend to be individual fish feeding under the fast moving predators. 
Those fish can be seen in the same schools as the predators but there again it would take a real depth finder nerd to pick them out.
So in my humble opinion a finder that gives good bottom definition so that you can see structure and timber is about all you need. Look for the places catfish like to hold and then find the cats with hook and line.


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Some of the new units with a good color selection menu can be adjusted in such a way as to show cat fish in yellow, and most large scale fish in red. The cat fish's soft and scales skin make a different kind of return signal than do those with hard scales like bass/buffalo/crappie/etc...
In most cases you will have to experiment with he settings until you get it adjusted to show the difference in cats and scale fish.

Blues that are on a frenzy will look just like stripers on a frenzy on my black and white cheap sonar. It will show fish arching up to the surface chasing bait and a hard mass below of fish below connected to the bottom.


----------



## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

wilded said:


> I am wanting to get into deep water catfishing on lake Buchanan as I will be moving within a short drive in the next year. What kind of sonar or fishfinders are you guys running to help you locate blues? I am hoping for something reasonable in price and that I can understand and use effectively.Thanks, ET


I don't target catfish, but I can see them on my units and normally can discern what they are vs other fish.

The part about reasonable in price is one of those what may be reasonable to one may not be reasonable to another.

Same is true of "understanding and use effectively"

I can tell you that I could not discern catfish with my original Lowrance sonar, nor my HDS Lowrance sonar, but can do so with my Lowrance downscan working with the Lowrance HDS sonar.


----------



## thecoach (Oct 2, 2011)

That's my problem I want to put a new sonar on my first ever boat but don't know which one is the most user friendly. I don't want to spend 600 dollars and not know how to use it.


----------



## skipjack express (May 11, 2010)

Lowrance hds 5 works just fine for me


----------



## tpool (Aug 21, 2005)

I believe most Lowrance units have an online tutorial that will help you out - they are downloadable demos that walk you through all situations (and there are several youtube videos from users that can tutor you)... Probably all the other major brands too.

T-BONE


----------



## tpool (Aug 21, 2005)

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Support/Video-Library/


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

You can tune a modern unit with good control over the color settings to display cat fish in yellow, and hard scale fish as red.
Tuned this way I have found that units will display shad in yellow depending on the density of the school of shad.
Shad scales are barely scales at all, and they are very soft, this is why they show up yellow in schools that are thick with shad.
I will have to say that decisions about where to fish for blue cat fish is made for other reason that what I see on the sonar screen, as opposed to white/striped bass where I depend on what I see entirely.
With cat fish it's more about location and time of year/conditions than searching out a feeding school for me.
I do know some pro juggers who seek out schools and drop their jugs over them and mop up, but I mostly drift with rods and reels.


----------



## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

I second what SS said about location rather than schools. Drifting the 28 to 40 foot water of Livingston with fresh, I say fresh, bait gets the big ones.
There may be detectible school of small 10 to 14 inch cats but those big boys are loners.


----------



## jamesgreeson (Jan 31, 2006)

You may not see catfish but you can see the channels.Channels are like paths bait fish use ,therefore catfish will be there also.


----------



## humble one (Jan 31, 2011)

shad slinnger I believe you and obiewans could catch fish in a bar ditch with a safety pin and a piece of bacon for bait,using a car radio antenna for a fishing pole!who needs a depth finder?, good to see ya;ll guys carrying on . tight lines to you.Derral


----------



## humble one (Jan 31, 2011)

and top of the day to you also mr. sun beam! been laying off of to cool fishing for quite a while,due to fall gardening, but going to crank back up and try to fool some trout in lavaca river and 6 mile creek , fishing for trout is going to get hot with winter weather coming , good to read your post, always enjoy. Derral


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

humble one, don't be a stranger!


----------

