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Originally Posted by jmonte45
I could use any advice that you guys could offer. On my fish finder, it has a setting for fish symbols, or for the fish to be displayed as arches. If I set it for fish symbols, I can't tell if I am marking bait or bigger fish. (I have it set for various sizes also) If I shut off the fish symbols, the fish alarm goes off and I see a gray blur. I am yet to see it display an arch like the manual says. The fish finder came with the boat and it is in grayscale. Am I just inexperienced, or should I just go buy a color fishfinder? Or is there something else I am doing wrong?  |
I have an older RayMarine...but have owned/operated Hummingbird and Eagle. I normally shut off the fish symbols and manually adjust sensitivity so I get lots of noise, then back off just until noise disappears. If a fish swims under the boat - you'll see an arch. For me, bait usually shows up as a large black glob or ball. I really am not an 'expert', but I do trust that if there is NOTHING on my finder that there is probably not going to be anything biting my bait/lure!
One thing....I assume you are underway? If you are anchored and chunking....you won't see arches in most cases. Mostly dragged out lines (again, depends on chart speed setting). My unit also has a "flasher" feature which is nice for those times when I am not underway.
Anyways...do a google search for "fish finder arch" and you'll find lots of info such as
http://omp.gso.uri.edu/work1/people/fishing/1.htm
The importance of seeing fish as perfect boomerang-shaped arches on the screen has been greatly exaggerated over the years. It all has to do with how fish arches are created.
Imagine sitting in an anchored boat with your fish finder turned on. Picture in your mind the transducer's cone-shaped scanning area under your boat. In order to print a perfect arch, a fish will have to enter the edge of the cone, swim directly across the middle, and pass out of the cone.
Let's say the fish holds a constant depth of 15 feet as he swims straight across the cone. The unit measures the distance to an object and starts to print out on the display; it's 15 feet below the surface of the water but probably 16 feet from the transducer. As the fish swims through the center of the cone, it passes 15 feet below the transducer. When it reaches the edge of the cone again, it's 16 feet away just before it stops printing on the screen. This causes an arch to start at 16 feet, curve up to 15 feet, then curve back down to 16 feet. The wider the cone angle, the more exaggerated the arch.
If the fish changes depth, passes through only one edge of the cone, or wonders around under the boat before swimming off, it won't print as a perfect arch.