how can i catch my first dhufish

hi, im having trouble catching my first dhufish i might just be unlucky or havent found the right place yet. ive been out a few times in albany and peaceful bay but havent landed any, maybe im not going out deep enough or something im only just learning the boating thing. im looking at going to bremerbay/doubtful island next fishing trip but could change my mind if i get some help or tips on where and when to go thanks


Oceanside Tackle's picture

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target the ground;

Wed, 2010-10-06 10:32

Dhufish like structure so look for that and depths can vary but 40-80m is popular. Structure can be 2m high and upto 6m high holding good fish but paying close attention to your sounder is the key. Any reef lump, reef ridge and a rise in ground with flare ups is very likely.

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As honsu said, but you will

Wed, 2010-10-06 11:08

As honsu said, but you will also find dhuies in caves! If you have a colour sounder, look for gaps in the bottom reading (should be pretty easy to see) and fish these as well! I have caught many a dhuie with no fish showing on the sounder, but just drifting over these caves! Also a good chance for a baldie too. I have had most success in depths between 15 to 50m. But in saying that, I have caught them in as deep as 110m before as well! Biggest thing is to just keep plugging away at it mate, as is the case with everything, practice makes perfect! My biggest tip would be to learn your sounder inside out! This is the most valuable piece of equipment on your boat! Hope this helps ya out mate!

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good advice motty except

Wed, 2010-10-06 14:40

good advice motty

except it's impossible to see caves on a sounder screen

cracks maybe, but not "gaps" as in caves

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ummm, not true Drew! Depends

Wed, 2010-10-06 14:59

ummm, not true Drew! Depends on the quality of the sounder i guess, but the ones on our charter boats do actually show up caves! they show up in a curved formation! We know this as we have had a diver look at the  bottom whilst over a spot we thought was a cave, so that way we knew if we were over caves or not! I am speaking from a charter perspective here of course, so I am not sure if your average transducer would show it up or not! I am not really that technical with that sort of stuff!

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I can see caves,overhangs

Wed, 2010-10-06 15:01

I can see caves,overhangs etc on my Lowrance 525.

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I can see them fine in a

Wed, 2010-10-06 15:20

I can see them fine in a Raymarine A65, either drew bought the wrong one, or doesn't know how to run it.

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Lowrance 525

Wed, 2010-10-06 16:02

Drove over the top of the HMAS Swan (even though you're not supposed to) a couple years ago, and the "gaps" appeared, indicating voids within the vessel, so yes, you CAN see caves/ledges on a sounder.

 

I know it's a big ask, but if you're specifically after dhufish give jigs a try...weeds out a lot of the pickers and general crap that seems to follow bait around. Hoping to get out to the first bank off Jurien again this week and I'm seriously considering banning bait from the boat entirely...the kids can use octo jigs...and see how we go.

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Maybe a little different

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:35

Maybe the steel or whatever the ship is built of would allow the soundwaves to penetrate more giving a stronger echo than rock showing the voids...just athought

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ask paul g for a deckie

Wed, 2010-10-06 16:19

ask paul g for a deckie spot. lol

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hmmm

Wed, 2010-10-06 17:10

obviously some of us don't understand how sounders work

it's a matter of physics - can sound waves "penetrate" structure, and "read" "sub-surface" structure (ie. displaying a cave or void)????  I don't think so

but don't take my word for it - go and talk to a sounder guru - John Adams from Fremantle Boat School

are you sure these "gaps in the bottom read"  (Note: not "cracks") aren't a "second read"?

I personally think 99.9% of the "cracks" are simply a misread (interference or something, or the transducer simply not receiving a return echo for a split second for whatever reason)

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Before I sold my boat, I

Wed, 2010-10-06 17:25

Before I sold my boat, I dived my spots and they clearly show either cave openings on the sounder, or in another case, a huge overhang. Sure, they get a bit blurry the further back they go, but whats on the screen does equate with whats on the bottom.

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My Raymarine A70 certainly

Wed, 2010-10-06 17:38

My Raymarine A70 certainly shows what looks like caves and overhangs, and they usually co-incide with lost gear on the drift and fish.....in shallow water to 10 m we have seen some overhangs using a glass bottom bucket (me and Great Whites  are mutually exclusive so I dont dive....) and they show up on the sounder as a double reading with a nice horizontal gap....really does actually look like a cave. Of course, once you understand the physics of the sounder operation, the sounder display is not actually the same as the bottom, but as you get more experienced (I am slowly getting there....) you can certainly call a cave or overhang with some degree of confidence.

 

John

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John if you understood "the

Wed, 2010-10-06 18:24

John if you understood "the physics of the sounder operation" you would know that the "double reading" is not a cave

but knock yourself out

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adjustments

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:15

 John I have the smaller unit and would like to know what you change in the manual settings to get the most out of it?  cheers

*sorry for the hijack , pm if you like*

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it's true drew i run a 585

Wed, 2010-10-06 18:13

it's true drew

i run a 585 with a 1kw tx.

after some good advice to back off the gain , you'd be very surprised what the sounder will show. different textures of the bottom trace showing caves pretty clearly

now coming to realise when you whack the gain up too high , you can lose these subtle details.

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ok if you say so fellas i

Wed, 2010-10-06 18:22

ok

if you say so fellas

i guess, as dill said, i just don't understand how to run my sounder

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what sounder are you using

Wed, 2010-10-06 18:44

what sounder are you using drew??

maybe someone on here could help you with your settings

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I'm a bit of a sceptic but

Wed, 2010-10-06 18:58

Just going on the basis that a sounder works by recieving the soundwaves it sends out then bouncing of a solid object back to the receiver I find it hard to see that the soundwaves could penetrate a solid object such as the roof of a cave show a hard (or soft bottom) espescialy when it could be several metres of thick rock then back through the roof of the cave and back to the receiver when a bottom trace would dissapear (in that I mean what your white line or colour line call it what you will will show)would show up on the display of only a metre or so.....but having bought a hds 5x earlier in the year I'll take more notice next time I'm out but as drew says the physics of the sounder would not suggest it's possible'

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ok guys an gals put up some

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:07

ok guys an gals

put up some pics to prove the right or wrong?

 

is it that people look at things differantly?

bring on the pics!!!!

Paul G's picture

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I run a furuno700f with just

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:14

I run a furuno700f with just your standard 600 transducer .I have no problem picking up overhangs and cracks,caves Its hard to explain. Overhangs are easy to pick up cracks are a little tricky I'll try to get some pics ,could be a couple off weeks.

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Caves and swim throughs

Thu, 2010-10-07 20:07

Paul if you take a run close in on the SW side of the Map or Malley reef[ the out side one], there are a number of big swim throughs and caves there that used to show up well on the sounder. Had to dive on a pot there once and took ages to feed it back through all the holes, the bottom has lots of old pot bases where they have given up trying to get them out.

And if I remember correctly there is one on the northern side of Cook's lump as well.

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OK..furuno fcv620

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:15

fisho-ron's picture

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thats the way to do it

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:27

thats the way to do it chrisp!!!

looks like a cave to me?

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that is not a cave - it is

Wed, 2010-10-06 20:59

that is not a cave - it is fish giving off a strong echo return - reason could be that it is dense, or the gain is set to high

email your pic to John - john@fremantleboatschool.com.au

and see what he has to say about it

 

I do believe you can "read" "ledges" - because with a ledge the sound wave (or echo) is not "penetrating" bottom and then relaying this info back through an echo - it is just echo straight of the bottom (or side) - would be easier to explain with a diagram

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I dont think it's fish

Thu, 2010-10-07 06:44

it's strange how the "roof" of the cave follows the profile of the bottom reading almost perfectly....Looks like a double reading to me....but i stand to be corrected.

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Well that just goes to show

Thu, 2010-10-07 07:25

Well that just goes to show that you're not understanding how a sounder (and transducer work)

my money would be on the fact that what is seen on the sounder there is not how it looks down there - that is not the profile of the sea bed (you need to take swell into consideration)

the "edge" of this "cave" is simply caused by the boat either moving off the fish or the fish swimming through the beam and away

fishy fingers's picture

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I do understand them very well

Thu, 2010-10-07 07:31

but you dont understand what I said....I agree with you! I dont think it's a cave or fish....maybe read what I said a little earlier.

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it seems I'm a little jumpy

Thu, 2010-10-07 07:36

it seems I'm a little jumpy - knew I should have taken my meds this morning

why do they call you fishy fingers anyway?

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HaHa

Thu, 2010-10-07 07:42

no worries......some girls dont wash!

grayzeee's picture

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just to clear one thing up ,

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:23

just to clear one thing up , i understand caves to actually mean voids, as though the mouth of the cave is pointing upwards

overhangs look to me like two bottom traces (not a double echo) close together.

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fishy fingers's picture

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whereas me

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:26

i understand a cave to have the mouth horizontal or thereabouts facing up i would see as a Hole!

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Crisp That would be a

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:28

Crisp That would be a overhang or a cave ,more likely a overhang .We look for these when going diving most times its a edge with a undercut ,I have some 4-5 m high and the go back under 2-3m.

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fisho-ron's picture

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yes paul we have seen your

Wed, 2010-10-06 19:41

yes paul

we have seen your overhangs with all them yummy crays under there!!!!!

 

would be good to see the sounder pic compared to your video, now that would prove right or wrongs wouldnt it?.

 

p.s make sure it has gps co-ords on the pm to me.....lol

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Correct me

Wed, 2010-10-06 21:45

if i'm wrong but i thought this thread was about catching Dhuies not how to read a sounder?

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ok peoples i think it has

Wed, 2010-10-06 21:47

ok peoples i think it has gone off topic a bit.

the best way to catch dhuies is to get out there and keep trying. fresh fillets of fish work well and also livies if possible. most of our dhuies have been on fillets of wrasse

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Brody's picture

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Can i knock myself out too?

Wed, 2010-10-06 21:54

Can i knock myself out too?

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Please don't I shop at your

Wed, 2010-10-06 21:56

Please don't

I shop at your store all the time and don't want to miss out on those great prices

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true matt but sounder

Wed, 2010-10-06 21:58

true matt

but sounder reading is very very interesting. (the most interesting bit to me)

when you look at the quality fish some of these guys bring in , i'd listen to their interpretations of what the sounder is showing over someone that has been to sounder school once.

 

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I agree Grayzeee That's why

Wed, 2010-10-06 22:19

I agree Grayzeee

That's why I posted to speak direct to John who is a guru (he is someone held in high esteem by Ryan Thipthorp (for his sounder knowledge))

 

 

Brody's picture

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Ha. That sounds about as

Wed, 2010-10-06 22:10

Ha. That sounds about as sarcastic as my reply.

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(No subject)

Wed, 2010-10-06 22:15

Wink

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Oceanside Tackle's picture

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I spoke to Ryan tonight

Wed, 2010-10-06 23:51

I spoke to Ryan tonight earlier and mentioned this thread, he said he see's caves and ledges with his Furuno sounder for sure. As for John Adams, nice guy for sure and he was asking Ryan to read his draft copy of his new sounder book and valued Ryan's thoughts!

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well Ryan is no mere mortal

Thu, 2010-10-07 07:27

well Ryan is no mere mortal - he's unbelievable

even if it's impossible I reckon Ryan could do it

 

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Jeezus

Fri, 2010-10-22 00:27

Get a room would ya....

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.

Fri, 2010-10-22 15:45

SurprisedLaughing

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Caves around Rotto that I

Thu, 2010-10-07 07:48

Caves around Rotto that I have dived are mainly made up of limestone. These caves have heaps of holes and pockets that go into the main chamber. I think that a sounder picks up on the entrances and the little holes and pockets more than the main chamber. I'm no expert but I cant see how a sounder can send a eco through a solid structure go into a chamber and then receive this singal back.

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Spot on seaquest

Thu, 2010-10-07 07:59

Spot on seaquest

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one of you guys could just

Thu, 2010-10-07 08:25

one of you guys could just give me a dhufish for starting all this hahaha

Paul G's picture

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Blowfish fill in your user

Thu, 2010-10-07 16:23

Blowfish fill in your user profile so People can get a bit of a feel for who there talking to ,then who knows you may get to deckie for someone from the site .And catch your first dhuie.

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ok mate im only new to this

Thu, 2010-10-07 19:30

ok mate im only new to this thanks

Dreamtime's picture

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lol

Thu, 2010-10-07 19:48

hahahaha this topic covered so many points about fishing, talk about a thread gone awol

harro's picture

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good sounder

Thu, 2010-10-21 20:52

once u got the sounder specs spot on u can see the caves etc , agree with brendan with the echo, i have dived many of my fishing spots also and it makes u understand the echoes received, gottal love the foruno,s

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Dived this one today, didn;t

Fri, 2010-10-22 15:29

Dived this one today, didn;t manage to get the diver's view though, Tim's camera ran out of batteries! Its a cave with a top entry, and another facing West.

 

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