Help reading fish finder

[bigbucksk]

I bought a Humminbird Matrix 17 fish finder this spring and have tryed it out a couple of times so far. When the boat is at a slower speed(5mph) the fish finder shows decent fish arches and nice bumps on the bottom. But when we are anchored, the fish finder displays horizontal lines that last about 3-5 seconds and angled lines that start near the bottom and angle up at about 45 degrees for about 10 feet. There are also occasional blobs that I think are bait fish. Fish ID will occasionally show fish in these horizontal or angled lines. We are catching plenty of fish and have lots of fish jumping around the boat. My question is, are these horizontal and angles lines fish or do I have to set something up differently.

[risor39]

Here is a site to help you out with how a locator works.This should clear up a few of your questions www.vexilar.com All locators work pretty much the same as yours.Look under articles and tips.

[Starfish]

If a fish stays in one location under your boat for a while it will show as a horizontal line rather than an arch. Fish don't always show perfect "arches".

Lines that rise at a constant angle are usually air bubbles rising. Another good reason to keep the "fish ID" feature turned off... one of my friends spent all day steelhead trolling through fish that were "stacked like cordwood" without a strike. I went through that spot once and they were all bubbles.

[Pitts]

The horizontal lines are fish that are stationary under the transducer.
I use my X85 in the winter ice fishing and that is all you see are stationary lines. A big fish moving in right on the bottom will just make the bottom rise and grow very wide band without showing seperation from the bottom.
Now that you know what stationary fish look like and 5 mph fish look like get to know what 20 mph fish look like and it shortens all your searching time by leaps and bounds if you can recognize fish on your finder at higher speeds. On my 350 they appear more like a very short arch that start and end at the same place or like a tall rectangle looking blob 2 or 3 pixels wide and 6 or 8 pixels tall

Good luck.

Pitts

[bigbucksk]

Thanks for the replys. I guess that I will just have to get out more and try different things and learn as I go. I'm finding it pretty easy to spot fish while the boat is moving but I am having some difficulties while anchored(we spend most of our time vertical jigging while anchored). We are catching lots of fish but I am not seeing much on the fish finder that I would enterpret as a fish. I guess I just need more practice.

[risor39]

Here is a better discription.http://www.lowrance.com/Tutorials/Sonar/sonar_tutorial_10.asp You can not practice this if you don't understand the basic workings of sonar.Read up on some of this and you will get more out of your sonar.Hope this helps you out some.