Side Imaging

Can you actually see fish or only structure with the side imaging?

Fish do appear but not as a actual pic rather a white spot around the structre they are easy to pick out when suspended around something

I would love to try the Humminbird side imaging out, but a couple of months back I bought a new unit for my console. So maybe one day I can get the small unit for my troll motor.

I have Minn Kota Terrova with universal sonar 2 and would like to know if it will work with the side imagining unit?

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#2 Yesterday, 02:48 PM
Humminbird_Greg
Slabmaster Join Date: May 2007
Location: Eufaula, AL.
Posts: 93

Yes, but 2D sonar only

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Yes it will but you will only get the conventional 2D sonar and not the Side Imaging. there is a "Universal Sonar 2" menu selection for the Transducer Select menu that you should use when the 997 is connected to it.
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Greg Walters at Humminbird
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I help because I can

Fishing fish with the side scans isn't as easy as with a just vertical sonar. The larger fish tend to be white cigar shaped areas that if your lucky are near the bottom and cast a shadow in the image. As for just seeing them your now dealing with more than a screen scrolling across the page, you've thrown in an extra dimension and its like trying to find a fish in a picture on a page, but the picture is way more area than just whats directly under neath.
Smaller fish like crappies will show up more like a shot gun pattern, a scatter of bright spots. Here's a sample image I have some where else.

http://www.walleyecentral.com/photop...&ppuser=109896

You can see the scatter pattern starting in the water column and then going towards the fish house. After putting a camera down I can say with certainty that there were that many fish down there.

Its not easy but it can be done and I think too many people are forgetting these units will still do vertical as good as any other machine out there. In this image

http://www.walleyecentral.com/photop...&ppuser=109896

The large red area off the bottom was the end of what we think is an 8X12 fish house on end and all those marks on each side between the end and the bottom are fish.
With the side scan if you have a question, freeze the scroll, run the cursor out to the point in question, way point it and then start the screen up again and put it into vertical and chart mode and steer the boat to run over that point.
Lets put it this way, its way easier to do than try to describe like I just did.
WarrenMN

for googling Humminbird 997 797 side scan see fish

After "snapping" a few hundred pictures with my 997 and studying them on my computer screen, I feel I can interpret the pictures fairly well. Especially those taken on my home lake. Once you get the hang of these machines it starts to get easier to operate them, and to better understand what you are looking at on the screen. I'm sure I'm not even scratching the surface of the 997's capabilities, but I am gaining confidence and learning more each time I go out. I hope this will remain a continuous process!

Until now I have been able to identify details in structure, loose schools of bait versus tight schools of bait, and I think I can usually tell a school of crappie from a school of white bass. Even though the fish may show up as white blotches for the most part, you can still distinguish sizes, numbers, and how they relate to structure or bait fish etc.

This past Friday at my home lake I took some screen shots of interesting looking bait, structure, and fish while on the water. When I popped the card in my PC and took a closer look today I couldn't believe my eyes! I have a handful of pictures that show several huge catfish, some of the individual fish I can zoom in on and clearly see eyes, fins, and mouths. (I'll post a picture here, keep in mind it is under 150k in size while the originals are 1.1 meg on my PC)

I would be interested to see what other people think, especially cat fishermen or other side scan owners. What kind of fish are these, and how big are they? The water is 16.3' deep, and it look like the tree in the picture is around 12' tall. My home lake has a good population of blue cats, I'm guessing that is what these big fish are in the picture. Let me know what you think!

Mike