Help Reading A Fish Finder

[jbo225]

never used a fish finder before so what exactly am i looking at here..is each arch a fish?

[jbo225]

this

[gulfcaptain]

Arches are basiclly the swimbladder of the fish.  Each fish will mark a bit differently depending on the species.  Once you learn over time what each fish marks as you can quickly identify what you are looking at..  Bait will mark as a big ball or shape. Your's being black and white, I can't go deeper into color.  But each "meter" (fishfinder) will mark a bit differently.  The more time you spend on it the more you will learn it.  Try and stay away from the little fish mark option that they have on some.....junk.  Learn to read a baisic meter and the marks and then if you move to a down imaging unit, use a split screen....the down imaging will help you see the structure a bit more clear, the color meter option will let you pick fish up a lot easier.  Learn to use the two together then it will give you a better idea of what's going on.  

[Wayne P.]

Arches are basiclly the swimbladder of the fish.  Each fish will mark a bit differently depending on the species.  Once you learn over time what each fish marks as you can quickly identify what you are looking at..  Bait will mark as a big ball or shape. Your's being black and white, I can't go deeper into color.  But each "meter" (fishfinder) will mark a bit differently.  The more time you spend on it the more you will learn it.  Try and stay away from the little fish mark option that they have on some.....junk.  Learn to read a baisic meter and the marks and then if you move to a down imaging unit, use a split screen....the down imaging will help you see the structure a bit more clear, the color meter option will let you pick fish up a lot easier.  Learn to use the two together then it will give you a better idea of what's going on.  

Arches are a result of time and distance within the sonar pulse.

Look at the sonar tutorial on the Lowrance web site to see how it is done.

 

You are somewhat misinformed about the use of FishID. Humminbird units filter the returns and only assign the fish symbols if they meet the criteria for those symbols. I use it to determine distance from the transducer, size, and to pick out fish within cover. It is fishing tool. Other brands--not so much.

 

 

 

[gulfcaptain]

Arches are a result of time and distance within the sonar pulse.

Look at the sonar tutorial on the Lowrance web site to see how it is done.

 

You are somewhat misinformed about the use of FishID. Humminbird units filter the returns and only assign the fish symbols if they meet the criteria for those symbols. I use it to determine distance from the transducer, size, and to pick out fish within cover. It is fishing tool. Other brands--not so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming from years of reading Furuno units (both sounders and sonars) running charter boats, we used a bit different style of fathometers. Learned to change the HZ bandwith (on the newer Furuno's instead of just fishing a 50/200 split picture).  From my understanding and learning on those units from guys that have been doing it for 20+ years I took their word for how it marked fish.  But you may be correct on pulse length for the smaller units.  I do like your pictures and display set up on your unit though, you have the two overlapped.  Was talking about the units that just show fish shapes in the lower priced units.  Your's shows a bit more information  with the color arches as well in an overlapped picture alongside the side and down imaging.  You have it set up to give you the most information and how you like it presented.  But bottom line, he will have to spend time on the water and learn how his meter marks and reads to be efficient using it.   

[Wayne P.]

Coming from years of reading Furuno units (both sounders and sonars) running charter boats, we used a bit different style of fathometers. Learned to change the HZ bandwith (on the newer Furuno's instead of just fishing a 50/200 split picture).  From my understanding and learning on those units from guys that have been doing it for 20+ years I took their word for how it marked fish.  But you may be correct on pulse length for the smaller units.  I do like your pictures and display set up on your unit though, you have the two overlapped.  Was talking about the units that just show fish shapes in the lower priced units.  Your's shows a bit more information  with the color arches as well in an overlapped picture alongside the side and down imaging.  You have it set up to give you the most information and how you like it presented.  But bottom line, he will have to spend time on the water and learn how his meter marks and reads to be efficient using it.   

All Dual Frequency Humminibird units do the FishID the same way whether grey scale or color.

 

The tree picture shows the fish in the tree, I check that tree everytime I am at that lake. If I don't see any fish symbols, I don't stop to fish it: Like this.

 

 

I caught all three FishID bass in the tree, plus some smaller ones that were too small to be assigned the symbols. 

[Wayne P.]

Additionally the Humminbird units have a saltwater setting that has a different set of FishID symbols based on the larger size fish found in that water.