Handy hey?Take a look at the image on the structure downscan image on the right, and then the traditional sonar image on the left.You can see the tall weed beds and the spindly tree labelled on the picture in structure downscan, but in traditional sonar this just appears as an ambiguous blob. Look for the arches.Fish will show up on your screen as an arch (the reason why they are shown as an arch is explained in detail Now you have spotted some fish arches, it’s time to make sense of what each arch tells us about how big the fish is. A ‘hard’ return is a hard surface such as rock or compacted sand and shows up as bright yellow. You should scan with a narrow sonar beam to get the clearest reading, and to ensure you see any shelfs or humps which wider beam scanning might not pick up (our page on The intensity of the sonar return from a hard bottom will be different to one from a hard bottom. Your fish finder uses colour to show this difference. A narrow cone will scan between 10° - 20°. The numbers of the bottom axis are metres from the centre line of the boat. Almost all sounders have built in GPS now giving you the ability to view charts and also to drop pins so you can easily navigate back to your favourite spots.Higher-end models also have touch screen technology, which is less hassle to use when you are on the water.A fish finder is a sonar tool which helps locating the fish. This return is from a school of bait fish. Think vertical, not horizontal – the width of the fish arch is the biggest clue to the size of the fish.2. How To Read A Lowrance Fish Finder 2020 (Explained and Tips) The Best Fish Finder GPS Combos Under $300 (2020 UPDATED) Best Fish Finders For The Money of 2020 Reviewed (UPDATED) Simrad: Best or Worst Fish Finder Brands in 2020; The Best Marine Depth Sounders For Fishing of 2020 Reviews; The Best Fish Finder GPS Combos under $1000 of 2020 (UPDATED) Again, the left-hand side of both images shows what’s in front of the boat and the right-hand side what’s behind.As for the image that occupies the bottom half, that’s where we need some further explanation.This shows the view to the left (port) side and right (starboard) side of the boat with the sonar beam shooting horizontally out from the transducer. Arches can be half or full – a half or incomplete arch doesn’t mean it is a smaller fish. You can use it for vertical jigging, and of course for Bait fish will show on your display as dashes, lines or even just dots, so they can sometimes appear similar to vegetation. It is an integral part of a fish finder.. That doesn’t mean there’s a blue whale stranded in the pond you’re fishing. So practice adjusting the sensitivity and get used to judging how much the bottom thickness varies based on this.Hard bottoms will just show as one thick line, so you can’t easily tell different types of hard bottom apart. “You have got a fish on the left-hand side sitting above it and smaller fish sitting in the weed bed.”The orange/purple return on the crest of the outcrop is the weed bed. Weeds and vegetation will also feature vertical lines, and perhaps give a spottier return on your display than logs.Here is an example of a drop off with lots of vegetation coverage.Especially for carp fishing, small depressions will be an ideal feature to target.
Navigate and position your boat quickly & accurately with Radar, Autopilot and AIS. It’s much better to look at the width of the fish arch shown.The answer is the fish on the bottom right.
The screen is constantly scrolling – this doesn’t mean your sonar is moving.Fish icons are a useful tool when you are getting started with a sonar device: your fish finder interprets the sonar data it receives and tries to work out if it is a fish or not. “I rely on it 99% of the time I am fishing. The frequencies used vary, ranging from very low (infrasonic) to very high (ultrasonic).The sonar beam from your transducer descends as a cone beneath your boat or kayak so the area being depicted gets wider the deeper you go down. Because they will send a different frequency of sonar return, your fish finder will show them in a different color to the bottom (otherwise, it will just look like a hump). No BS, no jargon - just a simple guide to understanding how to read a fish finder and identify fish, rocks, weed and other structure
Spotting them with your fish finder is easy – just look out for small, v-shaped dips in the bottom contour as you reel or troll.Who knows what is hiding under the water? Sonar is a device based on the principles of sound propagation.