Fishfinders

[Tugaloo]

My boat is a 14 foot johnboat. I bought it used. It came with an Eagle Fishfinder. I don't know the model number. There were no instructions for it when I bought the boat. It puts little fish symbols on the screen which I like. It maps the bottom with a series fo small black squares, & it tells the depth. But it seems pretty well outdated when I look at the pictures of the nearer fish finders. With mine, I really can't tell what the bottom is like. Or maybe I should say what the bottom structure is like.

I've been looking at a Hummingbird 535 on the Bass Pro Shop website.
http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...kEnabled=false

It still has the little fish symbols and an indication of the depth at each fish. I like that. And from the picture, it looks like you can identify stumps or rocks or whatever on the bottom. I like that, also.

It isn't in color, but that's no big deal to me. It doesn't make paper charts, but that's OK too.

The price is around $150. I like that.

But not nothing much at all about fish finders, I wonder if I'm missing something? Is that a good fish finder for a recreational crappie fisherman? I'm not a tournament fisherman & I won't be able to fish all the time. Just an occasional trip.

I guess one thing I want to know is, say, I'm in 30 feet of water, & the screen shows a stump on the bottom. The transducer is on the transom of the boat. I'm sitting at the back with the outboard. If I fish straight down, am I going to be somewhere near that stump? Close enough to catch fish? Or is the stump going to be 20 feet behind me?

Thanks

Tugaloo

[duane]

My boat is a 14 foot johnboat. I bought it used. It came with an Eagle Fishfinder. I don't know the model number. There were no instructions for it when I bought the boat. It puts little fish symbols on the screen which I like. It maps the bottom with a series fo small black squares, & it tells the depth. But it seems pretty well outdated when I look at the pictures of the nearer fish finders. With mine, I really can't tell what the bottom is like. Or maybe I should say what the bottom structure is like.

I've been looking at a Hummingbird 535 on the Bass Pro Shop website.
http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...kEnabled=false

It still has the little fish symbols and an indication of the depth at each fish. I like that. And from the picture, it looks like you can identify stumps or rocks or whatever on the bottom. I like that, also.

It isn't in color, but that's no big deal to me. It doesn't make paper charts, but that's OK too.

The price is around $150. I like that.

But not nothing much at all about fish finders, I wonder if I'm missing something? Is that a good fish finder for a recreational crappie fisherman? I'm not a tournament fisherman & I won't be able to fish all the time. Just an occasional trip.

I guess one thing I want to know is, say, I'm in 30 feet of water, & the screen shows a stump on the bottom. The transducer is on the transom of the boat. I'm sitting at the back with the outboard. If I fish straight down, am I going to be somewhere near that stump? Close enough to catch fish? Or is the stump going to be 20 feet behind me?

Thanks

Tugaloo

I like the 500 series Hummingbirds. I would like the 565 myself it has 640 vertical pixel x 320H ultra high contrast with 60° wide coverage, the 535 has 320v X 320h with 20° wide coverage.

[Tugaloo]

Thanks, Duane. But now, to someone who doesn't have a clue what does:

"it has 640 vertical pixel x 320H ultra high contrast with 60° wide coverage, the 535 has 320v X 320h with 20° wide coverage"

mean???

I've looked at that one at BPS also, & it isn't that much more expensive. But what do those numbers mean? I take it that the vertical pixel thing means that the picture will show more detail. Is that correct. What is the advantage of having 60 coverage rather than 20? Does that mean that it has a wider field of view? If so, then how can I then find on the bottom with my jig or minnow what is showing on the screen?

Tugaloo

[duane]

Thanks, Duane. But now, to someone who doesn't have a clue what does:

"it has 640 vertical pixel x 320H ultra high contrast with 60° wide coverage, the 535 has 320v X 320h with 20° wide coverage"

mean???

I've looked at that one at BPS also, & it isn't that much more expensive. But what do those numbers mean? I take it that the vertical pixel thing means that the picture will show more detail. Is that correct. What is the advantage of having 60 coverage rather than 20? Does that mean that it has a wider field of view? If so, then how can I then find on the bottom with my jig or minnow what is showing on the screen?

Tugaloo

The higher pixel count the more clear the picture will be.
draw a cone shape from fish finder to lake bottom and make it 20° at the bottom and that is what you will see. Then draw 60° cone the same way and you see that much more. For finding trees and ect I think 20° is fine but do like that 640 vertical pixel x 320H in the model 565.

[Moose1am]

Put your line in where the transducer is and you will be close to the fish if your frequency is about 200 KHz and the sound cone is the narrow type. Just don't fish in the front of the boat when the fish show up on the graph and the transducer is mounted at the back of the boat. Go slow and this works even better.


Now if you are going 60mph even with a fast signaling and recording depth sounder the display will be showing more of what you just passed over and less of what it under the boat. Each vertial line is a moment in time as the screen scrolls along from right to left. The old data will be off to the side and the new data is what is being drawn.

Fish signals vs archs. Most depth sounders let you choose to show either one of these. You get more information when it shows the fish arches. But you have to learn to interupt the fish archs.

My boat is a 14 foot johnboat. I bought it used. It came with an Eagle Fishfinder. I don't know the model number. There were no instructions for it when I bought the boat. It puts little fish symbols on the screen which I like. It maps the bottom with a series fo small black squares, & it tells the depth. But it seems pretty well outdated when I look at the pictures of the nearer fish finders. With mine, I really can't tell what the bottom is like. Or maybe I should say what the bottom structure is like.

I've been looking at a Hummingbird 535 on the Bass Pro Shop website.
http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catal...kEnabled=false

It still has the little fish symbols and an indication of the depth at each fish. I like that. And from the picture, it looks like you can identify stumps or rocks or whatever on the bottom. I like that, also.

It isn't in color, but that's no big deal to me. It doesn't make paper charts, but that's OK too.

The price is around $150. I like that.

But not nothing much at all about fish finders, I wonder if I'm missing something? Is that a good fish finder for a recreational crappie fisherman? I'm not a tournament fisherman & I won't be able to fish all the time. Just an occasional trip.

I guess one thing I want to know is, say, I'm in 30 feet of water, & the screen shows a stump on the bottom. The transducer is on the transom of the boat. I'm sitting at the back with the outboard. If I fish straight down, am I going to be somewhere near that stump? Close enough to catch fish? Or is the stump going to be 20 feet behind me?

Thanks

Tugaloo

[Tugaloo]

OK. So, say I'm sitting still. Got the anchor out. Fish symbol shows up on the screen. I assume that the fish is right under the transducer? Same for bottom structure?

You said you get more info with fish arches. What kind of additional info?

Tugaloo

[Moose1am]

What you will see if parked or anchored will be any fish that swim though the sound waves of the transducer. Your depth sounder will show the bottom that is the closest to the transducer. If you are sitting right on top of a drop off you may only see the top shelf and not the deeper parts of the dropoff. The sounders viewer will not show all the bottom inside the cone of sound. It has to make a decision somehow which returning signals it's going to display. If your boat does not move an inch then the only changes on the display should be fish swimming though the sound waves. Think of the tranducer as a flashlight beam that is pointing straight down to picture the cone of sound that works to find the bottom and the fish or anything that is inbetween the transduer and the bottom of the lake.


A fish that swims though the cone of sound will first enter the sound cone. Drop a lead weight right down from the transducer. This is the center of the cone of sound. It should be the part of the bottom that is closest to the transducer if you are over a flat bottom type. Now the cone of sound will extend out from this plumb bob line a certain amount. If in 30ft of water the beam of light or sound will cover about a 10ft Diameter of area on the bottom 5ft on either side of the plumb bob. 5 ft radius and 10ft diameter. When a fish starts into this cone of sound it will at first be further away from the transducer. but at it swims closer to the plumb bob line it gets closer and closer to the transducer. Then as the fish swims though the cone of sound and out again to the other side it will be further away until it passes out of the cone or sound or flash light beam.

This will show the fish as an Arch on the screen. The two tails of the arch represent the postion of the fish on each edge of the cone of sound or flash light beam of light. The middle of the arch will repesent the time the fish was directly under or closer to the transducer.

OK. So, say I'm sitting still. Got the anchor out. Fish symbol shows up on the screen. I assume that the fish is right under the transducer? Same for bottom structure?

You said you get more info with fish arches. What kind of additional info?

Tugaloo

[FalconSmitty]

http://www.lowrance.com/Tutorials/So...utorial_01.asp

I think this is a great easy to understand article. I learned many things from it. hope it helps.

[CrappiePappy]

here's a link that may well answer your questions - http://www.lowrance.com/tutorials/so...utorial_01.asp

Read all the different parts - listed under SONAR (left side of page) - starting with "Introduction", which is the page that comes up when you click on the link I posted .... and work your way thru to "Fish Arches". That should give you most of the info you need to understand depth finders and how they work & how to interpret what you see on the screen.


The "short and sweet" of it is -
a higher pixel count means "more" little black squares (pixels) & smaller ones, and that = more defined picture.
a whole fish arch means the fish is "inside" the signal cone ... a portion of a fish arch means it's coming into or going out of the signal cone.
a 20deg cone angle transducer will make a circle on the bottom, that is 1/3 as wide as the depth of the water you're in ... example: if in 30ft of water, your cone spreads out onto a circle of 10ft of bottom (5ft to either side and in any direction from a point on the bottom, directly under your transducer).
a cone shaped signal gets wider as it gets deeper (^) and therefore is picking up more info, the deeper it goes. The unit "interprets" these signals, based on the strength of the "returned" signal, and draws the picture by imprinting the pixels on the screen. Strong signals are black pixels - weaker signals are grey (if unit has greyline feature).
fish "symbols" can be fish ... or they can be lots of other things (air bubbles, small branches, suspended trash, etc).

Taking a look at the H'bird picture in the BPS link you posted - here's what I "see" :
You have just passed over a hump or dropoff ...at 6.3mph ... surface temp is 69deg ... your transducer is now over 54ft of water, having passed over the "lip" or "edge", which was about 25 or so ft deep ... there are trees or brushpiles on the top and deep side of that drop ... the top "tree/pile" is about 7ft tall ... the one on the deep side is about 5-6ft tall ... the bottom composition is probably "soft", meaning clay or muck or mud ... the "fish" are suspended and on the outside of the "trees/piles" and range in depth from 22 to 40ft deep (in water depths of from 27 to 54ft deep).

What I would do - pitch a marker bouy about 20ft out each side of the boat ... turn around and pass back between the markers and over that same spot ... once well past the top of that "hump/drop", I'd drop another marker ... turn around and fish within the "triangle" of markers ... I'd probably drop minnows down to different depths between 20-25ft and "sit" above the drop, between the two "trees/piles" -- or I may drift/troll with jigs, and circle in and out and between those 3 markers.

Now - logically, experience tells us that - if the surface temp is 69deg, then those fish may not be Crappie ... as Crappie would/should be much shallower in that water temp range. Then again, it would depend on the lake, weather, season, and prevailing conditions (like- a cold front or big storm came thru and dropped the surface temp, & sending the fish to deeper depths). Hope some of this helps ........... luck2ya ............cp

[FalconSmitty]

well pappy we think alike this time of night(morning) I just don't think as long lol