Sensitivity on fish finders

[BassinBoy]

Hey guys, just wanted to know what sensitivity you set your depthfinders at?  Thanks

[Jig Man]

That all depends on your unit, water clarity and wind. I always run my units with upper and lower limits set to get rid of surface clutter. I run the sens as far as I can and still see good images. If the water has a lot of gunk in it from rains, etc I back it down a bit. It is uaually 80-100 %.  I also get rid of a bunch of stuff like amplitude scope and zoom bar.  I don't need them and have a wider screen.

[RoLo]

The best gain setting will vary depending on "water depth", "bottom hardness" and"power setting" (1x, 2x 3x).

Over a mud bottom you can open her up, but over a rocky bottom,

if the gain is set too high you'll get a double or even triple-echo, particularly in shallow water.

In truth, adjusting the sensitivity on a depth sounder is more of art than a science,

because there are too many variables, and the variables vary.

Once you've spent 50 to 100 hours tweaking the gain, you will be an expert on that machine 8-)

Roger

[NBR]

I run mine pretty high 75% or higher and often over 90%. I don't worry over surface clutter if it's in the top 5 or so feet I don't care. The lakes I fish are very clear and I can't remember not being able to see bottom in 15' or more.

When I run my flasher I turn the gain up enough so I get a double echo. With my liquid crystal graph the double signal is canceled by the unit. Before liquid crystals I ran a paper graph that was far superior to the LCD'd but the paper was expensive and if it was raining or the humidity was high the paper would jam.