Does sonar spook fish?

[Yak Fish]

I was joking about this with the guys the other day. I kept saying, "turn off the sonar, we'll catch more fish" Of course I was joking...we couldn't keep them off the hook. (Here's the report: https://www.facebook.com/chesapeake....99542903646296 ) I don't really believe for a second the sonar pings turn fish off. Those small pings surely would blend in with the background sound. On the other hand, the boat motor definitely scares them. That was well evident on the fish finder. If we motored over them, it pushed them outward. Once the motor turned off, we could drift right over them and they filled the sonar screen once again.

I've been in just a few feet of water sitting directly atop fish with the sonar on and I still catch them so I'm apt to call this one a myth. If you want to be stealthy, the biggest move would be to switch from a boat to a kayak :-)

[mike o]

If I remember right Lenny Rudow says in one of his books that he did some work at the aquarium using a small boat. When he turned on his fish finder fish would swim away from the boat. He said a sea turtle even took a bite out of his transducer. It can't hurt to turn them off if there not needed.