Quote Originally Posted by Moveon View Post
I can remember a time down at KY lake in the back of this small quiet cove where bass were busting shad all around my boat. I threw about everything at them that I could think of and didn't get a hit. Some times they are so focused on one type of food that they ignore all other. I would think that bass busting a shad ball would fall prey to a shad looking bait that was falling down though the water column at a slow rate. But you have to watch your line carefully and have a tight line to feel a hit. Some times they can inhale the bait and spit it out so fast that you never knew that you had a bite. This must happen to me a lot unless I fish down wind and have the line tighter by using a heavy weight. But then I can't get the bait to go down slowly like a dying or injured shad might.

I see a lot of shad ball on my side scanning sonar but my screen is hard to see in the sunlight and my eyes are not so good anymore. I can't always see the bass below the shad balls in the SI screen shots. Only later when I bring the SDHC card into the house and put it into my computer and play back some of the images on my computer can I see the fish better. I should have a tent over the top of my boats cockpit to put it in the dark so that I can see the SI screen easier in the dark. I already have a sun shade over the screen and a small umbrella over the cockpit but that's only helps a little bit in bright sunlight.
Do you have the non-LED backlit Humminbird? The new ones are supposed to not have this problem..also, even though I am sure you already do, you can try tilting it at a better angle out of the sunlight.