Technology has begun to permeate every aspect of modern life and understanding how to make the best use of the tech available to you can be a huge performance booster. I remember the first fish finder we put on the old red family boat – I think there were about 20 pixels on the entire screen. Today’s fish finders often can be paired with GPS and many units are combined. Units may have onboard memory, color screens, and dozens of cool new features.
Let’s take a look at how to use a fish finder effectively.
Using a Traditional Fish Finder
If you go and pick up a budget minded fish finder, you’ll most likely end up with a classic transducer based fish finder. These fish finders operate at a low frequency (remember fish finders us sonar) and display a brief picture of the sub-surface world under the water.
When using these fish finders, the unit sends out a blast of sonar every so often and then records the data which comes back. As this data is collected the screen populates from right to left and gives you a “picture” of the bottom.
Anything which causes sound waves to bounce back between the boat and the bottom is, ideally, a fish!
These fish finders can be difficult to use when moving slowly or stationary. They’re best used when moving steadily and to get an understanding of depth, features, and bottom type. The thicker the bottom line appears on this fish finder, the softer the bottom. A thin bright line representing the bottom most likely indicates a hard surface such as rock.
One trick to using these fish finders effectively is to remember that the chart always moves right to left. This isn’t based on your movement, it’s based on a time scale and when you’re anchored or not moving, the chart will continue to scan the same area and still move across the screen left to right. Just remember, this means the sonar is scanning over the same location time and time again. This can cause confusion or difficulty in understanding what is being displayed on screen.
Using a Side Imaging Fish Finder
Side image fish finders are a little less intuitive at first but once you learn to read them you’ll see that they often represent an eerily accurate “snapshot” of the underwater world below you.