The Shadow Knows

ANY BASS ANGLER who doesn’t have a side-viewing graph on his boat’s console is severely handicapped. But even with today’s most advanced electronics, you must learn how to interpret the displayed images to take full advantage of this remarkable technology.

Fish and bottom features are relatively easy to see on the center portion of a side-viewing display because they appear brightly against a dark backdrop. This is essentially what you would see with down-viewing sonar.

Things are not as obvious when they are farther from the boat and show up on either side of the dark center lane. Fish are especially hard to see because they appear as tiny bright dots or thin slashes over a bottom that varies in hue and luminance. The secret to full-disclosure side viewing in this portion of the display lies in the shadows. The shadow that a fish casts on the bottom