Garmin Echo Fish Finders And Color?

[MrTexasRigs]

So what am I looking for, what do the different colors mean, i know yellow is the strongest return, but how do I know if it is rock/hard or soft, what do the reds and blues mean? I don't know if it is different for certain fishfinders, but I'm mostly talking about the Garmin Echos. How can I tell what is weeds or wood, etc?

 

Thanks

[Wayne P.]

Drag a heavy jig with superline on the bottom to figure out what the unit is showing you.

[slonezp]

It will be easier to figure out once you've had a little time on the water. There are some really good instructional videos on youtube on lowrance and humminbird units. Adjusting settings may be different with those than the Garmin, but deciphering the sonar and what you see on the screen is the same. 

[WIGuide]

If you are looking for rock, set the dept range to at a little better than twice the depth of water you're searching. When you run across a rocky bottom, you will get a very solid double return. You may get a subtle second reading on a harder bottom, but rock will always produce a solid second return. I'm not familiar with the Garmin color pallets, but I'd look at the book and it should tell you in there. If there is a lake with clear water close, I suggest you pay it a visit with your locator. It allows you to actually see what you're looking at so you can see what it looks like on the graph. You can go over it from multiple angles too so it gives you a better idea. If you don't have a place like that close, hit up youtube and also look in the screen shots pinned thread on here

[Wayne P.]

So what am I looking for, what do the different colors mean, i know yellow is the strongest return, but how do I know if it is rock/hard or soft, what do the reds and blues mean? I don't know if it is different for certain fishfinders, but I'm mostly talking about the Garmin Echos. How can I tell what is weeds or wood, etc?

 

Thanks

 

 

This is a typical color range that you have. The color bar on the right side shows the intensity of the recorded echos by their color. The Yellow is strongest returns and Dark Blue/Black is the weakest. Red is like medium and there are different shades of each color.

 

When the Yellow is the thickess, that is the hardest bottom since it produces the strongest echos. All the other colors are just weaker echos either due to distance or compositon.

Remember what is being displayed is in a somewhat circle of coverge on the bottom that has a diameter of about 1/3 the depth when using 200 kHz.

 

[roadwarrior]

Thanks for the response!