Fishfinder reading help

[ivanputski]

I have a Garmin GPS/fish finder on my boat and after 8 years I still have NO CLUE how any of it works... I use it for depth and coming in in the fog... thats it. It always shows fish icons which I'm convinced is all mis-reads of seaweed clumps... I have never found fish with it. I 'm a tech moron. I read the directions but after a while it sounds like blah blah... (did I mention I'm a surfcaster that just happens to also own a boat? hahaha)

[Got Stripers]

The new fish finders with CHIRP are extremely good at showing structure and fish; even when you don't even fine tune them. But like anything you need to learn how to use them and as suggested the cone in shallow water is very small, so getting on a piece of relatively small structure isn't always as easy as turning the boat around. It's very helpful if you set up your charting program to lay down trails, that I find is the best tool to retrace and hopefully find a piece of structure or fish you might have just gone over.

I had a good tog spot that was nothing more than a large bolder in otherwise featureless water and even though it was as wide as my CC, at times it was frustrating to find it and in a wind anchor up so you were dropping crabs beside it. Sometimes I'd have to reset a few times to determine the drift, scope needed, but it was always worth the effort in yummy filets.

[Cool Beans]

Speaking of fish finders and how to read them. Take a guess at what this is. Found it lurking off the rock wall near Newport navy base.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Cool Beans

Speaking of fish finders and how to read them. Take a guess at what this is. Found it lurking off the rock wall near Newport navy base.

A giant glass bong?

[beamie]

This is why you see allot of 'southern; boats like from Conn and LI with the 'T' set up with twin anchors on the bow sprit.

You can really dial in on the spot precisely. take in on the part anchor slack the stbd and boom you on it. period.

I don't like the look of that setup. But it is effective on bottom fishing like bsb and tog......

[Zeal]

Originally Posted by beamie

This is why you see allot of 'southern; boats like from Conn and LI with the 'T' set up with twin anchors on the bow sprit.

You can really dial in on the spot precisely. take in on the part anchor slack the stbd and boom you on it. period.

I don't like the look of that setup. But it is effective on bottom fishing like bsb and tog......

Ironically I haven't seen any boats with that set up, always a bow anchor that's all chain and then someone anchors off the stern, though I'm sure there are personal charters that have that setup for tog, we only get to target them for a few months here tops.

BSB and Scup at least venture a bit so we can afford to swing.

@Billybob I can definitely see that (literally and metaphorically) as a reason with the speed. You just think the sonar from being on top of it would constantly ping at the same spot showing the changes regardless of speed.

Thanks guys for the education. It'll come in handy when I take my yak out in search for fluke once this FW%$@$%@ wind stops!

[piemma]

I may be crazy (many say I am) but when my fish finder lights up with fish icons I CATCH FISH. It has really been consistent. 2 weeks ago I was on pogies schools but not getting chases. I moved off, the FF lit up and BANG I was into high teen to low 20# fish.

Just for info. I use a color Garmin 300C and a separate Garmin 547 GPS.