Hello Folks,
I received an update regarding this project and have shared it here. Interesting preliminary findings with more to come. Maybe time to get out the boat for a night fish.
"Hi Dan,
Thanks for your interest and support of this project.
Here's a few observations from the data I downloaded Monday:
1. We swapped out the old buoy for a new one (pic attached)
2. Temperature shows warm (16C/60F) down quite deep (25m/80')
3. Majority, but not all, fish are in the water that is slightly cooler (i.e. below 25m)
4. Density of fish increases at night. This may be due to fish rising up in the water column (from below the transducer) or just greater movement to the depth that we've placed the transducer. We're doing a mobile survey next week which is better suited to answer that question.
I've included two echograms for fun too. The scientific sounder we use operates the same as angler's fish finders but I've got more control over extracting raw data and precise settings. In this case, we've also deployed it on the bottom facing the surface. The echograms have been rotated though to match a fish finder view (water surface at the top, lake bed at the bottom but not visible since it's below the transducer).
A few things to note:
1. (both images) There is a lot of noise at the surface due to decent wave action. The solid red line near the bottom of the echogram is the transducer face at 45m (approx. 150').
2. (1604_OCT12) Really large target (indicated as being red) near the surface. The shape looks like a school of fish but the strength of the echo (red not blue or grey) suggests a larger fish or possibly a couple larger fish in close proximity. I need to look at the 3D image still to disentangle.
3. (1822_OCT12) Interesting mix of fish here. Several small fish (blue and grey) hanging out below the thermocline and moving quite slowly (almost stationary) as they were detected for approx. 3 minutes in the beam and show no vertical movement. Also, 3 larger fish in the echogram (red targets). One near the surface (presumably a walleye), one in deep water (possibly a cisco or a lake trout) and one right at the thermocline on the far right of the image (mostly blue but a small amount of red indicates a larger fish diving and/or at the edge of the beam pattern). During the mobile survey next week we will be doing some trawling to help with the species id.
Thanks again for your support. Further questions can be direct to my email.
Jeremy
jeremy.holden@ontario.ca "
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Dan Elliot - A bad day on Quinte is better than a good day at work !!!
http://www.quintefishing.com