Quote Originally Posted by stripernut1 View Post
watch instructional dvd's, watch youtube videos, take a class....do whatever it takes to get your started with good information.
and then (ive said this many times before) take the boat to the lake....AND LEAVE ALL YOUR FISHING RODS AT HOME...
this will allow you to pay undivided attention and focus on the graph.
i spend an enormous amount of time graphing the afternoon before i plan on striper fishing the next morning, during this time i am not only scouting for fish/bait, i am constantly fine tuning and watching how each little change either improves or degrades what im lookig at.
i guess the short answer is the same as duaynes, there is no substitute for time on the water.

p.s. lat summer i had to fish for 25 days without a graph while mine was beinng replaced, i felt so uncomfortable and naked without my underwater eyes. but with a lot of help from duayne and years of notes i was able to limit everyday except one.

that leads me to my next obsession....good notes, they have proven to be the most effective tool on my boat
I don't have the luxury of spending hours on the water before a trip. I usually get in the evening before and must spend time getting the boat set and prepare to catch bait. So I've had to come up with ways to be as efficient as possible in eliminating water. I do not know many on Cumberland that have adopted a combined side scan, sonar, GPS approach like I have (Maybe they have and I just haven't met them). Sometimes 40 yards in or 20 yards out can make all the difference in the world with stripers. They are creatures of structure and sometimes a bottom depth change of 10 feet can make all the difference in the world. I use side imaging to help me home in on what's going on, GPS to see the structure changes and sonar to get a real time read for line adjustments. My screen always has all three.

And we were lucky the fish were a little scattered and staying in a the same general area\depth range when you didn't have your finder. LOL