Fish Symbols

[Central Bassman]

How many of you guys really believe the fish symbols on you locator?? or do you just us it to find weed lines and different structure??

[fivebucks]

I turn off the fish symbol thing and look for the hooks. I believe the hooks are almost always fish. The fish symbols I think are rarely fish.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Dude.. turn the cartoon fish off... its a crutch. Look for tell tale archs. Depthfinders will take anything that is between the surface and the bottom and call it a fish.. .could be anything weeds floating, minnow, anything.

[Daze Off]

One of the pros at a Bassmaster U seminar told us to get rid of them and the reason being that they eat up processor space - same with large numbers superimposed over the graph. Turn both off and you will see a quicker response to the things that matter from your unit.

That's what he said and that is my experience.

Daze Off

[BobT]

I agree with the rest. I don't use the fish ID mode because anything can trigger it including floating vegetation, fish, or even other noise.

I prefer to learn what the marks on the graph mean and mentally filter the junk.

Bob

[TUMBLEWEED]

Ditto, off with the fish I.D. My buddy use to drive me

crazy showing me all the "fish" that were down there,

but not biting!!! He has since been educated...

[Sandmannd]

OK, I'm new to the electronics. Boat came with a Lowrance X15. What should I set it to and what should I be looking for. Not trying to steal the thread, but I would like to know the "right" way to use it.

[eyebjim]

Almost all sonar units have a setting to show fish symbols when there is something between bottom and the boat. The problem is that when the fish symbols are on you can not see what was really there to distinguish for yourself and the fish symbols show up for almost everything from a knat in the water to whale. Find the setting for fish symbols and turn it off. This will allow you to see the actual sonar signal. The marks shown are based on what is between the boat and the bottom. It will show a darker and thicker mark for somthing more substantial and a weaker thinner mark for somthing smaller. You can usually tell if it is a fish by a arc. As the boat moves over the fish or the fish swims under the boat it will change the distance from the boat to the fish based on where in the sonar cone the fish is. When the fish is first detected it is in the outer part of the cone. This is a few inches (or more) deeper(in appearance on the graph) than when the fish is at the center of the cone (think geometry). So as the fish swims under the boat it first hits the cone and a signal is detected. As the fish reaches the center of the cone it is seen as though it is moving slightly upward even though it is swiming level. As the fish continues to swim it raeches the outer side of the cone on the other side so the mark on the graph goes back down like when it was first detected. This creates a classic sonar arc. Down on either end and high in the center. This will almost always be a fish(could be a suspended stick). Bigger fish will be thicker up and down not side to side. Side to side only shows how fast the fish swam by. It is important to have the gain set properly. Set the range to 2 times the depth that you are at and increase the gain until you see the bottom at the actual depth and another replection about 2 times as deep and then back off the gain just slightly.

I'm no pro but this should get you going better than the fish symbols.

Good luck!

[BobT]

Excellent description. It takes practice to learn to read the sonar echos. After a while you'll be able to tell soft mucky bottom from hard sandy or rock bottom.

I use the X51 and X67C. Another feature I am slowly learning not to use is automatic sensitivity. For the most part this feature works okay to indicate bottom but I find that the level is usually too low to show bottom composition very well and sometimes even to detect fish. Once I learned how to set up my sensitivity, contrast, and greyline/colorline intensity, I discovered there were a lot of things I missed in the past.

Bob

[eurolarva]

This would be a good view on your fish finder

Turn off fish id then you will have to mess with the sensitivity to get rid of a lot of the background garbage.

[Central Bassman]

LOL sorry Deitz!!! so the sensitivity shouldn't be all the way up then?? and Auto sensitivity is off always? right

[eurolarva]

Quote:

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LOL sorry Deitz!!!

so the sensitivity shouldn't be all the way up then?? and Auto sensitivity is off always? right

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My eagle will automatically shut off auto sensitivity when you turn fish ID off. Also sensitivity goes to max and really clutters up the screen. This is something you have to play with. Turn sensitivity down till you get a clean bottom then increase it till it starts getting clutter and work from there.