Help with FishFinder settings

[icemonkey]

Hey guys,

The season is back up and running for me and i need some help with my fish finder. I got and old 597ci HD (my brother got a ONIX so i got his old one) and mounted it on the back of the boat using a Sully mount however i encounter 2 big issue - fist time user of finder as you can tell.

(sorry no PICS but i will take pics on next trip if needed)

 1. When moving and going at speed Everything works fine when using Down imaging view, everything looks perfect and i can see the bottom and weeds and any rocks, but when i look at the 2D sonar i don't see anything. To give you a better idea - all the red and strong signals turn yellow but when i strop it goes back to normal. I am suspecting its has something to do with the transducer but i played around with the height all day and same thing every time. So 2D sonar cannot pick up anything at speed. any advice? 

2. The lake i go to has a ton of weeds, so is it normal for the transducer to kinda show a bunch of red and at times not be able to detect the bottom due to how thick the weeds are?

I payed around withe the setting but does anyone have advise on a good setting for lakes with lots of weeds like ....

 - max mode vs clear mode

- transducer beam settings (odd thing that happened on the 2D i had a 8XXhz setting but when i when i did a factory reset it disappeared )

- Sensitivity setting

- Fish if on or off

- Fish Id sensitivity

 

Thanks in Advance,

 

 

[Wayne P.]

Use Switchfire Clear unless you cannot see your vertical presentation in 20'+ depths. Then you can use Switchfire Max and adjust the Sensitivity setting to see the presentation with minimum clutter.

Even if you select 83 kHz to be displayed, the unit is still broadcasting 200 kHz for the depth readout. Default factory setting is 200 kHz.

Sensitivity setting is pretty good at the factory default. I don't adjust from that using Clear.

I use FishID to determine if any fish present are ones I want to try to catch. With a Humminbird unit, it is a fishing tool. I don't need to adjust its Sensitivity setting.

[icemonkey]

One kicker I forget to mention.

average depth is like 10ft and max depth is about 25ft. weeds are as high as 10-15 feet from the bottom !!!!!!! lol

but I used clear mode and played around with he setting but I did not get any positive hits for fish. so I spent most of the day on max mode with sensitivity around 3-4 and I was able to see the weed lines but could not identify any fish arches due to the abundance of weeds.

Note: my buddy caught 3 bass in the weeds and 1 wallie and I got 1 big wallie but non if it showed up on the finder .... we ended up mainly using it to identify depth and how high the weeds were.

[Wayne P.]

Sonar pulses are not X-Rays so they don't "see" through weeds. Of course you will have a cluttered up display from the weed return echoes. Sonar pulses are like light and can be blocked by stuff.

If you would ever see fish arches in weeds, that would be a miracle.

 

[Bass Turd]

Definitely take Wayne P.'s advice but with his blessing I would suggest resetting to factory defaults if you haven't already being that is a used unit and your brother probably changed some settings to his liking. 

[Wayne P.]

Good idea. Some units have a Switchfire Max default and some have a Switchfire Clear default setting.

[icemonkey]

question ... do you guys update your finders? if i factory reset it would get rid of any updates correct?

 

i am likely going to factory reset but wanted to know

[riverbasser]

Always update fish finders I there are updates. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but a reset should not undue any updates.

[Wayne P.]

10 hours ago, icemonkey said:

question ... do you guys update your finders? if i factory reset it would get rid of any updates correct?

 

i am likely going to factory reset but wanted to know

When you do the Restore Defaults, it just puts all the unit settings back to the original ones.

It does not affect the operating software or the unit's memory with GPS data.

I always keep my unit's software at the current level unless there is a glitch created with the new software, then I go back to the previous version. I keep a copy of all unit software versions and their descriptions as they are released in a folder on my computer. I file them by the unit model.

10 hours ago, icemonkey said:

question ... do you guys update your finders? if i factory reset it would get rid of any updates correct?

 

i am likely going to factory reset but wanted to know

Just noticed this in your first post " 8XXhz". A three digit 8XX would be 800 kHz for a Down Imaging unit ---597ci HD DI Combo. Those units have 200 kHz and 455 kHz for 2D sonar and 455 kHz and 800 kHz for Down Imaging. Restoring Defaults with that unit puts it back to 455 kHz Down Imaging and 455 kHz for 2D sonar.

A 597ci HD Combo is 2D sonar and has 83 kHz and 200 kHz.

Which unit do you have????

[icemonkey]

i am sure its the DI combo .... because i do not recall a 83khz option the weird part is i swear i saw a 800khz option for 2d sonar (3 options) unless i am completely dreaming.

Question though - there is a 455khz sensitivity setting ... does playing with this do anything?

 

 

[Wayne P.]

8 hours ago, icemonkey said:

i am sure its the DI combo .... because i do not recall a 83khz option the weird part is i swear i saw a 800khz option for 2d sonar (3 options) unless i am completely dreaming.

Question though - there is a 455khz sensitivity setting ... does playing with this do anything?

 

 

I do not have a DI unit to check the settings, but for 2D sonar there is a Sensitivity setting that affects both 2D frequencies the same amount. Then there is another Sensitivity setting that offsets the general setting. For a 83/200 kHz unit, there is a 83 kHz offset Sensitivity setting.

The separate 455 kHz Sensitivity setting may be like the 83 kHz setting since a DI unit uses 200 kHz and 455 kHz for 2D sonar.

The DI Sensitivity setting is different and separate from the 2D sonar setting. It only affects the DI whether you have 455 or 800 kHz selected or the unit changes the frequency automatically according to the depth.

The Sensitivity setting adds or subtracts details that the unit displays. Don't be afraid to use it to see what it does.

[icemonkey]

thanks for all the help.... i just factory reset everything and played around whit the unit in sim mode so will have to test again out on the lake ... to update on the humming bird site can i register my brothers unit if he registered for it already?

[Wayne P.]

32 minutes ago, icemonkey said:

thanks for all the help.... i just factory reset everything and played around whit the unit in sim mode so will have to test again out on the lake ... to update on the humming bird site can i register my brothers unit if he registered for it already?

Yes, registering is just to give you access to unit software and HumminbirdPC. Has nothing to do with warranty.

[icemonkey]

Thanks you are awesome!

[icemonkey]

I just wanted to say TY to all that helped. I took my finder on the lake this past weekend and i was able to make it all work out perfectly.

could not really see the arches due to the abundance of weeds but the Fish id helped a bit in that category

So thanks again to this great forum whit great people