What the heck do you need this for?

[Cane Pole]

A friend of mine just purchased a dual frequency depth finder. He can find fish down to 1500 feet. WOW! What the sheet do you need this for in Tennessee? I know the manufacturers are pushing this stuff, but is it practical? What do I know? I just a dumb ass teacher. Enlighten me if you please!

[unknown 5]

I have been shopping around for fishfinders and I see alot of them with more stuff than I would ever need. I think I will go with one I can hook into my computer for upgrades, hook a GPS unit to it, and will have a fairly decent cone angle. I want a nice unit but I sure don't need one that will go 1500 feet. 50 would be enough for me.

[Larry-Southern Indiana]

go both ways. 192 or 50 something or another. Moose will be around for long to explain it.

Mine stay on 192. What that means I excatly don't know I just like the picture it shows of the bottom on this setting. :D


Larry

[Moose1am]

I found some good information on how depth sounders work. I will have to scan them into this computer and post them later. Right now the football game is about to start LOL. I have a headace and ate too much mexican food tonight. Heartburn is going crazy.


I will leave you with this key phase. BLIND SPOTS. See if you can figure out why a wide area cone is bad in deep water?

Clue: Fish can disappear in the blind spot

go both ways. 192 or 50 something or another. Moose will be around for long to explain it.

Mine stay on 192. What that means I excatly don't know I just like the picture it shows of the bottom on this setting. :D


Larry

[ncnat]

have mercy, Moose is going to have to come back and post, that should be good for about 3,000,000 words. LOL

[Moose1am]

Ncat

I drew a cute picture just for you!

have mercy, Moose is going to have to come back and post, that should be good for about 3,000,000 words. LOL

[crap-king]

I found some good information on how depth sounders work. I will have to scan them into this computer and post them later. Right now the football game is about to start LOL. I have a headace and ate too much mexican food tonight. Heartburn is going crazy.


I will leave you with this key phase. BLIND SPOTS. See if you can figure out why a wide area cone is bad in deep water?

Clue: Fish can disappear in the blind spot

You should have made your picture in color - ncnat will be coloring his computor screen with crayons now

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

Hey Cane Pole, the deeper the rating you have on a depth finder, the better info you generally get from it. 1000' or better is what you should hope for. That depth will signify a top notch product. This is also a direct indicator of the unit's RMS power. The higher the RMS, the deeper and more accurate the unit's penetration and interpetation. You may never see water that is 1,000' deep, but that added power is a huge advantage over other units in locating fish. Full baskets to ya!

<,"}/>{ Rippa

[Team9nine]

A friend of mine just purchased a dual frequency depth finder. He can find fish down to 1500 feet. WOW! What the sheet do you need this for in Tennessee? I know the manufacturers are pushing this stuff, but is it practical? What do I know? I just a dumb ass teacher. Enlighten me if you please!

Canepole, I'll try and make this simple since Moose is under the weather

Simplest answer...not needed!

Slightly more detailed answer...Two factors come into play:
One is cone angle. Generally the lower the frequency the wider the cone angle.

The other is signal penetration. The higher the frequency the less the depth penetration.

Knowing this, we can now summarize that the standard 200khz transducer of most units will work great for most freshwater applications down to 200' and where better target discrimination is required (higher frequency, shorter pulse width, better target separation).

When would you use the "other" frequency (50 Khz - low frequency) transducer? When running downriggers at moderate to deep depths so you can track the balls easier or when greater depth penetration is needed to show fish and objects in the 200-1000' range.

Conclusion = for most normal fishing, especially crappies, dual frequency probably don't mean squat.

-Team9

[Big Zig]

Good thread - information I never really did understand totally (still don't). But now I have a question: Are transducers the same as gauges? what I mean by that is; gauges all have their best accuracy in the middle of their range. If you want to measure 50lbs. of presuure - get a 0-100 guage. (just for example)
Is the echo from a transducer the same? Say if you fish waters with a max depth of 65 feet - do you want a unit that has a max depth of say 200 feet to have the most accurate readings?
This would mean a unit giving 1000' capability wouldn't be as accurate at that same 65' depth.(?)
Or is it the Hertz rating that gives you an idea of accuracy - a 200Hz transducer being "more accurate" then a 65Hz?