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Is this some type of Washington baitfish?

I was at American Lake today and seen this on my fish finder. From what I've read I know Washington doesn't have shad, so that's out. On the fish finder you can see the fish, but what is that the fish are surrounding? Every big school of fish I came across had the same thing. Is it some sort of baitfish or are my fish finder settings just wrong? I've done a lot of youtube searching and found Doug Vahrenberg's videos very helpful with my settings, so I'm not sure if it's the settings. Thanks in advance for any info.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeff Fancher on November 21, 2014 at 8:27am

I've dropped the camera down on similar looking blobs. Usually turns out to be a school of perch.

Permalink Reply by Darren Thomas on November 21, 2014 at 8:46am

Yep, when I've seen that it has generally been perch.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Caffrey on November 21, 2014 at 9:19am

Perch.... No doubt about it

Permalink Reply by Chris Whitten on November 21, 2014 at 9:50am

Aight thx for the replies fellas.

Permalink Reply by Rodney Heupel on November 21, 2014 at 10:11am

Yes, good schools of like the all the up above said. Turn the fish symbols off, learn to read what the graph displays. Bass Boats Central has a very good section on fish finders, many good posts there with pictures and how to interpret the display.

Permalink Reply by Jordan Doucet on November 21, 2014 at 2:14pm

I agree with everyone else that it's likely perch. On Lake Washington I've seen huge schools of Stickleback that look like this as well.

I'll also second Rodney's comment on the fish symbols. Turn those off immediately! Many times those are deceptive and will show fish where there's not and vice versa.

Permalink Reply by Chris Whitten on November 21, 2014 at 4:02pm

It's my first color, side, and/or down imaging, so I'm still trying to get used to it. I had the fish symbols off at some points throughout the day. When I'd come across that type of image I'm thinking to myself is that all baitfish or what. So I turn the symbols on and would see what I think is fish and baitfish. That's the whole reasoning for this post. Thanks for the input much appreciated.

Permalink Reply by Willie Parsons on November 21, 2014 at 5:23pm