Thread: Anyone in Memphis area give HUmminbird Mega lessons?

Attend the Crappie.com Shindig at KY Lake (Nov 10th) and Rickie (rnvinc) will likely be giving a seminar on depthfinders. And you can always bend his ear for your particular setup.

Or hang tight and let the gurus come to your rescue, right here on this forum !!

Nope. Sorry.

I know full well they are overwhelming when brand new. (Look back and see all the whining that I posted) I was surely overmatched and still am to a certain extent but I've started using it to gain info, instead of trying to figure out every single setting. It just takes time on the water. I was at a total loss the first time I hit the water and didn't really feel like I learned much until the 5th or 6th time. That's when I stopped jacking with the settings and just started studying the screen and looking at what it was showing me. Factory default settings are pretty dang good.

One thing I'd surely suggest is to figure out how to dim the panel if you fish or come back to the boat ramp after dark. Night blindness when navigating a river is not a good thing. (Hit the power button once, then move down to the correct line to adjust the brightness)

Sorry, I feel your pain. I had one, and exchanged mine for a Garmin. The hummingbird interface reminded me of an old "smartphone". If you could figure it out, it could be great. The Garmin is much more intuitive, like an iPhone. Good luck.

Check with your closest bass pro shop or cabelas as they offer courses but I don’t know when they are. And u have to sign up as space is limited and on a first come first serve basis.

The 2 most important settings for satisfactory imaging in HB units is Chart Speed and Sensitivity ...

Match Chart Speed to boat speed for the best ratio of data collected (from the Sonar pings) to data plotted (into the displayed SI image) ...

Then adjust SI Sensitivity up/down to brighten/darken the SI image ...

Contrast and Sharpness only increase when looking specifically for fish echoes ... because the image becomes grainy the higher the Contrast and Sharpness ...

Choose a palette color that contrasts light and dark well (in the image) for the specific ambient light at the time (brighter palletes for sunny days - darker palettes for cloudy days ...

Set SI Range at very close (30-50ft) until things seen in the image make sense... then longer ranges as experience grows in recognizing what stuff looks like in SI ...

Rickie

You da man Rickie! I will try and make those few changes and get speed right,m, shouldn't be so hard seeing I don't travel more then .05 when spider rigging,,,

Originally Posted by Takeum

You da man Rickie! I will try and make those few changes and get speed right,m, shouldn't be so hard seeing I don't travel more then .05 when spider rigging,,,

Spider riggin speeds (<1mph) need a Chart speed of 1 for best imaging of structure ...

Bump up Chart speed to 2 in the specific scenario to elongate (stretch) fish echoes to make them easier to see (but the structure will also elongate-stretch) ...

Rickie

Originally Posted by rnvinc

The 2 most important settings for satisfactory imaging in HB units is Chart Speed and Sensitivity ...

Match Chart Speed to boat speed for the best ratio of data collected (from the Sonar pings) to data plotted (into the displayed SI image) ...

Then adjust SI Sensitivity up/down to brighten/darken the SI image ...

Contrast and Sharpness only increase when looking specifically for fish echoes ... because the image becomes grainy the higher the Contrast and Sharpness ...

Choose a palette color that contrasts light and dark well (in the image) for the specific ambient light at the time (brighter palletes for sunny days - darker palettes for cloudy days ...

Set SI Range at very close (30-50ft) until things seen in the image make sense... then longer ranges as experience grows in recognizing what stuff looks like in SI ...

Rickie

Thanks for the wise words and instructions. I just printed and laminated this to keep in the boat.