Fish Finders

Abalone · 02-19-2004, 06:14 AM

Do you use your Fish finder to find fish or do you use it only to see the bottom ?

I bought an Eagle fishfinder for my boat this year. It isn't a spendy unit it is one in the $125.00 range. I have owned other fish finders but I don't trust it when it shows me a blip on the screen. Someone recently told me that I need to tune the
fishfinder and not use it in the Auto mode. I think more important than seeing the bottom is seeing the fish and what depth they are swimming. So I am asking

" How the heck do you tune a fish finder ? "

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

According to Eagle that unit should detect fish just fine.

Yes or no ?

Thanks

Pickles · 02-19-2004, 06:56 AM

Tuning a fish finder means going into the menu screen, turning off the fish - ID mode, adjusting sensitivity, adjusting contrast, grey line, etc. All these functions are within either the setup mode or menu mode. A fish-finder is only as good as the transducer power! The more power (Watts) your depth finder puts out to the transducer the better picture of whats actually under the boat you will have. LCD resolution used to be a factor, but any more it is difficult to purchase a depth finder with less then 240 X 240 resolution. 240 x 240 gives you enough detail on the screen to get good target seperation.

Abalone · 02-19-2004, 07:19 AM

Ok so how do I tune it so that when I am looking at a blip on the screen I am sure it's a fish and
not some noise or other spurious EMF.

Pickles · 02-19-2004, 07:36 AM

If you are getting a lot of clutter you might want to reduce your sensitivity setting. This will help seperate fish from clutter. I had an Eagle Accura 240 for a couple years before I recently upgraded. Whenever it said there were fish below at bouy 10, we were usually getting fish in the boat. Though up by Troutdale it would show fish under the boat and we weren't always catching! You just need to play with your depth finder, and eventually you will get the hang of it. Your Depth finder is a tool that requires a bit of time and patience to learn how to read what it is telling you.

MacEFL · 02-19-2004, 07:42 AM

I used to use the auto mode on my Garmin. I found a tutorial on tuning at Lowrance' web site. I printed it out and followed it and I found sturgeon on the bottom! For the first time I got perfect arches. PM me if you want.I have the actual web adress saved but don't want to post as not a sponsor.
And as I said I have a Garmin so have no affiliation with Lowrance!

5-Cents · 02-19-2004, 09:17 AM

This site may help shed some light...

I do use my FF all the time to locate fish and I have a 100% trust in the unit. It is a deadly effective tool if you know how to use them!

Abalone · 02-19-2004, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 5-Cents:
This site may help shed some light...

I do use my FF all the time to locate fish and I have a 100% trust in the unit. It is a deadly effective tool if you know how to use them!

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">This is what I am looking for. I still think a lot of people don't use their FF to the full potential.
I know I haven't but this will get me there. I am pretty good with Technical stuff, I just haven't bothered to take the trouble yet. Based On what I observe on the river fisherman that are skilled at using their fish finder catch more fish. I see people fishing places on the Willie I have never seen fished before and when it seems like the bite is off they are catching fish. I have to assume
they are using their FF and can see what depth the fish are at. So I reckon I will have to study up.

Thanks

Sublime · 02-19-2004, 12:20 PM

Hey Abalone~

Did I see you fishing yesterday by yourself? I think it's you. I was just up from the guide shop on the bank...getting soaked. Anyway, just saying hi.

West Linn Wader · 02-19-2004, 01:08 PM

We are considering upgrading from the basic FF that came with our North River to something that simply works better and I assume would require less tuning.

The one we currently have is the Lowrance X47 (800 Watts). Am willing to spend up to maybe $500 to get to the next level and am considering the Eagle FishElite 480 which combines GPS and FF and sports 1,500 watts. Anyone currently using this model? Does anyone have any feelings one ay or the other about minimum wattage needed to get an adequate job done? All comments are appreciated.

GS/WLW

Abalone · 02-19-2004, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sublime:
Hey Abalone~

Did I see you fishing yesterday by yourself? I think it's you. I was just up from the guide shop on the bank...getting soaked. Anyway, just saying hi.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">I wasn't on the river yesterday. Sorry.

I was hoping that I the Cheaper units would be good enough to locate fish and spending more money wouldn't be necessary. Is that what you have to do is pay out more money to get the results ? Many of the fishfinders I see are spendy because they are dual purpose. The info I got when I bought this unit was that it would be able to locate fish adequatly.

[ 02-19-2004, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Abalone ]

YaHoeeFishOn · 02-19-2004, 03:01 PM

Turn fish id off. Turn automaic off .play with power and sesitivity settings. Learn to tell a bait ball from kelp from solid hook shaped fish . You can then learn to read what bottom is made of from type of bottom line. It takes time to get it dial'd in. Auomatic mode with fish id is fine for me most time unless I'm really tring to read structure. The most trouble I have is when there's a heavy thermocline and sender has trouble reading water temps as a return, but then again thats where the Kokes are at . Jelly fish , weeds and foam also freaks it out . Also cone angles aply for what normal depth your looking at. My first fish finder was a FIsh-id in red. It only went 150 ft 25' cone ?, first Time I went to Detroit it only worked 30 ft from shore , most lake is way over 150ft. My next one had a narrow cone and read's to 600ft . Good luck .

Abalone · 02-20-2004, 08:17 AM

I do calibrations on various electronic equipment. Usually when you calibrate something you use a Standard. You compare a known quanity to what ever it is you are calibrating. When It comes to tuning a FF you don't really know what is underneath your boat and to me that is the main problem.

I want to be able to know when I see an Arc or a blip on the screen that what I am looking at is
Truly a fish. Someone told me to wait until shad season then go out and play with it.

I don't really want to wait that long.

Thanks for the input.

Sharted · 02-20-2004, 12:34 PM

First you have to quit looking at the pictures in the owners manual and read the information that is printed.

Abalone · 02-20-2004, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sharted:
First you have to quit looking at the pictures in the owners manual and read the information that is printed.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">What Horse ?

fishitis · 02-20-2004, 11:58 PM

I have had better luck when I have tuned the fishfinder for the conditions. A few things I do:
1) Increase sensitivity if you are fishing for smaller fish like kokanee. There will be more noise, though.
2) Decrease sensitivity if you are fishing for larger fish (salmon), so that it ignores leaves, kelp, bait, etc.
3) Lock the upper/lower depths you are looking at to increase the resolution. In 60' of water, I only look at the bottom 20' if that is where the fish are. For kokanee, I will look at 20'-60'.
4) Realize that you will not always know whether it is a fish or not. The perfect fish arch usually doesn't occur. It depends on how fast the fish is passing through the cone of the transducer.
Good luck.