Fish Finder

[Buster]

Im confused.

I have a eagle fishmark 320. i usually fish for pike, bass or walleye.
I tried to set it up so that i can see boomerangs as fish. I have never seen one on the screen since i did that. I decided to put it on fish id and a million fish show on the screen all the time, but there are no fish.

I read the manual but to no help.

Anyone have any suggestions

[Markus]

I asked the very same question to samon the other day. He uses the hooks and I use the fish symbols.

Apparently the each has it's own level of accuracy. The fish indicator mode picks up everything, fish, minnows, debrie. The hooks is much morre accurate and tends to mark true fish and fish size.

I need more experience using the fish finder myself. I think an evening of reading is in the future for me.

[Buster]

Hey Markus,

I think i need a class on it.
trying to use all these gadgets gets confusing since im still trying to learn how to fish properly. To think i was going to get a gps

[the walleye hunter]

Just check out the other post on Fish Finder or?? You'll get the answers.

[Buster]

grayscale.

What is this used for?

[nighttroller]

Gray scale is used to determine the hardness/softness of the bottom and to distinguish fish from the bottom. The thicker and darker the bottom image on your fish finder the harder the bottom. A soft mud bottom in deep water sometimes barely shows up. As for trying to get fish to show up as hooks you might have to play with the angle of your transducer to get it to show up right. If you are marking too many fish in fish id mode, try lowering the sensitivity.

[Buster]

Thanks for the response nighttroller.

what should you set the grayscale at on average when fishing clear water on small lakes

[boogie]

Hey Buster, if you fish too slow all you'll see is a straight line instead of a reversed v. It indicates that the fish is staying with you or moving at your speed. The reason you see a reverse v is because the fish moves in and out of your cone angle.

Boogie

[Buster]

Thanks guys for your help
ill play around with it this weekened

[Eagle]

Buster,

Not an expert by a long shot here and my post may prove that, but.....

Make sure your transducer is pointing straight down, sensitivity may be too low, water conditions my be playing a role here, as Boogie says, you need to be moving to see the arches or inverted V's (^). Staying still + the fish remain in the cone = straight line. Try to zoom in, can see the arches better with a 30 to 60 foot range that a 0 to 60 foot range.

Well, that is my 2 cents worth that I get from the manual anyway. Let us know what you did to get the arches on the screen.

Cheers,

Eagle

[Xenos]

Here is a good tutorial you may want to check out.

http://www.lowrance.com/tutorials/sonar ... ial_01.asp

[nighttroller]

I generally let my fish finder adjust everything automatically. The one thing I play with is the sensitivity and I usually lower it when in fish id mode because it thinks too much floating algae, leafs etc are fish. The other tips on the post pretty much sum up what you need to do to get arches when you are not in fish id mode! Another good tip is if you are fishing in deep water use split screen mode (if you have it) and zoom one side on the zone of water were the fish are being marked. Good luck!!

[Tomcat]

Something I copied that helped me better understand fish arches:

The importance of seeing fish as perfect boomerang-shaped arches on the screen has been greatly exaggerated over the years. It all has to do with how fish arches are created. Imagine sitting in an anchored boat with your fish finder turned on. Picture in your mind the transducer's cone-shaped scanning area under your boat. In order to print a perfect arch, a fish will have to enter the edge of the cone, swim directly across the middle, and pass out of the cone.

Let's say the fish holds a constant depth of 15 feet as he swims straight across the cone. The unit measures the distance to an object and starts to print out on the display; it's 15 feet below the surface of the water but probably 16 feet from the transducer. As the fish swims through the center of the cone, it passes 15 feet below the transducer. When it reaches the edge of the cone again, it's 16 feet away just before it stops printing on the screen. This causes an arch to start at 16 feet, curve up to 15 feet, then curve back down to 16 feet. The wider the cone angle, the more exaggerated the arch. If the fish changes depth, passes through only one edge of the cone, or wonders around under the boat before swimming off, it won't print as a perfect arch.

[Buster]

Hey guys

Thanks for some of the explanations on this.


I have one more question. When fish are holding on the bottom the arches wont show but there will be a mark right?

So let me get this straight

i turn off the fish id and have manual mode on. Then in clear water i turn the sensitivity high. Then depending on the depth of the fish and structure i set the the range to a lower number so it works that specific depth better.
Then i split the screen and have one side zoom in the fish.


Now i have a jet boat that i have converted to a fishing boat and i have a transducer on the back which i use now but this weekend i will attach the fish finder to my minn kota. dont know how to do it but i will try. I DONT know if the tranducer on the back is set up right i have it parralel to the bottom.

This is all pretty new to me

[Steve G]

Your transducer should not be parralel with the boat, but rather level, as in above diagram.

The suppliers have excellent web sites with how too's...well worth the read.