Question About Depth/fish Finders

[cast_and_destroy]

This weekend my dad and I are renting a boat to do some bass fishing. I've fished on boats before but only with guides so I have zero experience with electronics although I can kinda read them.

The boat I'm renting comes with a small, looks like a $100 depth/fish finder on it (I don't know the brand, sorry). My question was, where is the image that appears on the screen in relation to the boat ? I know there are things like side imaging and down imaging but this is a cheap little depth/fish finder. Is what's showing up on the screen directly below the boat ? Behind it ? Or what ?

Any help would be appreciated.

[MXHalofan]

small section below the boat

[wnybassman]

Most of what's on the screen is history.  The most recent echos (real time) are to the far right-hand side of the screen and as it becomes history it scrolls to the left, sometimes units will have a thin separated bar for real time.    Real time is directly below the transducer.  Where the history is depends if you are moving or not.   If you are moving forward obviously the history will be behind you.   If sitting still, it's anyone's guess which way the fish are moving.

[martintheduck]

What you'll probably be using is a sonar. It will only give you relevant information if you drive directly over something. My sonar unit is only good for finding depth changes. WNYBASSMAN said it best already....scrolls from right to left. Right of screen is the newest information. Usually a transducer is mounted on the back of the boat somewhere near the outboard. So lets say the transducer is on the rear right side of the boat. NOW - the screen is scrolling (from right to left) and at the far right of the screen a fish is marked. That fish will be directly below the rear right side of your boat underneath the transducer.

[slonezp]

The transducer puts out a cone shaped beam. If you're in 3fow, the widest part of the beam directly under the transducer is 3ft wide at the bottom. If you're in 10fow, the widest part of the beam is 10ft at the bottom, same goes in 20fow. It will be a 20ft wide at the bottom. And so on. As others have said, all the information is directly related to the location of the transducer and it's "history" so to speak.

[Wayne P.]

This weekend my dad and I are renting a boat to do some bass fishing. I've fished on boats before but only with guides so I have zero experience with electronics although I can kinda read them.

The boat I'm renting comes with a small, looks like a $100 depth/fish finder on it (I don't know the brand, sorry). My question was, where is the image that appears on the screen in relation to the boat ? I know there are things like side imaging and down imaging but this is a cheap little depth/fish finder. Is what's showing up on the screen directly below the boat ? Behind it ? Or what ?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

View this tutorial, it will explain what the deal is:

 

http://support.lowrance.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&secureFlag=false&TIMEZONE_OFFSET=&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=2967

[mikeg]

View this tutorial, it will explain what the deal is:

 

http://support.lowrance.com/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&secureFlag=false&TIMEZONE_OFFSET=&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=2967

Couldn't view the article, it said the web session had expired.

[Wayne P.]

Couldn't view the article, it said the web session had expired.

 

 

Go to the Lowrance web site

Click on Support

Then Knowledge Base

The article is the second one listed in the FAQ