Thread: Trying to understand

Well the only true test is to catch what is under the sonar and see...but there are some indicators that tell you what you are looking at. Crappie and white bass will stack up on top of each other.....bass will not do that. White bass can be so thick that your sonar screen will look like strings of spaghetti.......noodles....but on occasion crappie will look like that also.....so you have to catch something to see what is down there. Bluegill and shell cracker will hang very close to the bottom and be a smaller dot on di than say a crappie or white bass. I have only had my Mega unit for a little over 2 months. I do not have a good di image of a bait ball with it. You get out on the water and you see something and you get excited about fishing and you forget to hit snapshot. I do have a great image from my old HB 899 unit that shows a group of white bass feeding on a shad ball. It would be the same on a Mega unit just much clearer image. Bait balls often times look like a cloud almost....tightly grouped together. In my image there happens to be fish feeding on the bait ball.....but there will be many times you find a bait ball and there will be nothing around it. The more you are on the water with the unit you will get the experience and just by looking you will be able to tell with 90 percent certainty what specie you’re looking at on the screen. I am fishing the next couple of days so may get some good bait ball shots with the Helix.

Regards


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You guys are great and it makes so much sense when I read your posts. I still have trouble with even simple things. One day I will zip to a marked location, find my structure, and catch fish. The next day I try to do the same but can't even find my structure. I use a center console Garmin 74sv with a transom mounted transducer that I use SI to locate structure. I then move to my trolling motor mounted Helix 10 Mega everything and use split screen with 2D on one side and DI on the other. The left has less MHz and the right screen has lots of MHz but I still can't see the structure. I assume I am just a couple of feet too far away. Wish I could hire someone to teach me on my boat. Here are a couple of nice fish we caught today WHEN I could find my brush.


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Explain the procedure you are using to mark the brushpile with your bow unit ...

Maybe we can help you find your brush more consistently ...

Rickie

When I see the brush-pile on both sides (standard Sonar/down imaging) I hit the mark button. Later I rename it so I can remember approx. where it is relative to the lake position. Then when I want to return I use the "goto" function on the lake map view. It seems to get me fairly close then I move back to the split screen to "see" the pile. I am at about 50% success in finding the pile again. Thanks for your kind offer to help. My doctorate in IT does not seem to translate to my learning curve on this fantastic piece of equipment (smile).


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There are 2 ways to mark a brushpile while viewing 2d or DI ...

1. Press the Mark button as soon as the brushpile enters the right side of the screen ... This is important because the brushpile is actually under the xducer when it enters the screen ... If you press the Mark button after the brushpile has moved to the left on the screen = that brushpile could be several feet behind the xducer (depending on boat speed) ...

2. Press the 4way arrow button to activate the screen cursor and freeze the screen scroll ... Then use the 4way to move the cursor to the center or the brushpile and press the Mark button ...

Here's more info on using the cursor to mark brushpiles ...:
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/side-...onar-quiz-8-a/

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/side-...onar-quiz-9-a/

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/side-...nar-quiz-10-a/
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It's important to understand the correlation of the xducer (which captures the brushpile under it) and the GPS antenna (which captures the boat position from the satellites above it) ...

The goal is to capture both at the same position on the water so that the waypoint is the most accurate ...

We know the GPS antenna position is where the GPS coordinates are assigned to the waypoint - so it's important to have the GPS antenna as close to the xducer as possible ... Sometimes this means using an external GPS antenna such as the AS GPS HS antenna ...

By design the HB boat icon on the Chart view changes to a circle below 0.6mph which can make it very difficult to know which way the brushpile actually is from the current boat position ...

The AS GPS HS antenna has a magnetic compass which allows the boat icon on the Chart view to always stay a "boat icon" on the Chart view ... which can help orient which direction the waypoint is from the boat's actual position on the water ...

Rickie

Excellent. I learned, at first glance, to use the 4way and cursor to mark the brush pile. Secondly, that the transducer and gps antenna is not co-located although I thought the Helix 10 had the gps antenna in the unit. If so, the unit is a mere 2-3 feet from the trolling motor transducer. We are not talking gps puck which works in conjunction with the control head of the trolling motor (and is responsible for the Spot Jump function). Right? Should I investigate the AS GPS HS antenna anyway? I am still rereading and trying to absorb the quizzes. Making some headway. Thanks a million!


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Excellent. I learned, at first glance, to use the 4way and cursor to mark the brush pile. Secondly, that the transducer and gps antenna is not co-located although I thought the Helix 10 had the gps antenna in the unit. If so, the unit is a mere 2-3 feet from the trolling motor transducer. We are not talking gps puck which works in conjunction with the control head of the trolling motor (and is responsible for the Spot Jump function). Right? Should I investigate the AS GPS HS antenna anyway? I am still rereading and trying to absorb the quizzes. Making some headway. Thanks a million!


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Sorry for the double post. Not sure how I did that.


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