Sonar & Night Fishing

[timcauliffe]

For all you dudes who night fish from a boat -

 

Do you turn off your sonar when night fishing?

Do you feel it has any effects aka spooking fish?

 

Let's hear it!

[jtipton91]

No effect at all in my opinion, unless your facing the screen down into the water....

But really, with a dim sonar screen in the horizontal or somewhat vertical position, I just don't see it causing any problems.

[Csweitzer]

I turn it off when fishing glidebaits. Mostly a confidence thing I think, I've had some big ones not commit and then I look at my graph and its on, then I'll turn it off and get bit later on. 

[Bigbasser]

On YouTube there is a video of the sound they make under water there is no doubt that they can def hear it but will it make a diff in getting bit probably up to you to decide they do show fish feeding with it on and they don't feed like they normally do, they are being more cautious then they do with out it on!

[bigpoppabass]

I am convinced side imaging spooks fish. I have humminbird si on my bboat and on cartopper with a fishing buddy. My buddy allows me to point si at a location dock etc and it will tell me the distance the fish is located. Every single time I do this the fish scrams and reading disappears.....so I would turn off what u can, sometimes at night the ff screen provides all the light u need in the boat....

[Mountainryan]

I do t like to hit bottom lol, it blows out my night vision, so I dim it as low as it can go and face it vertical so I'm not looking directly at the screen

[waynem]

I think its pretty well accepted that bass can sense the sonar pings.  The higher the fishing pressure, the more fish get wary.  I tend to use sonar under conditions where I need it and shut it off when I can.  For example, you're better off running the sonar and staying right on a good drop-off than casting blindly around it.  But when you can use visuals or GPS to stay on target, I'd turn it off.  That goes either day or night.