View Full Version : How much do you trust your fishfinder?
Amanda Too
08-23-2005, 07:12 PM
I trust my graph to a certain extent but Ive been on excellent bites and didn't see much on my graph, especially for big fish. What are your experiences? PAUL
my main depthfinder is a raymarine ds600. except for a genetron there is no beter brand for showing fish and sorting out the rest of the junk. i trust 100% what it's showing me. i'm looking at a used one to put on the bow so i can dump the x102 i have there now.
when we lose the 2nd. amendment the others will be history too!
RANGER
08-23-2005, 09:13 PM
I have a Raymarine LS-750 and I totally trust it! What it has/does show me is Right-On! I have had Hummingbird, Lowrance, Bottomline and Others and this is the BEST of ANY that I have owned or fished with with friends. Two of my buddies fished my boat, with the LS, and replaced theirs', in short order, with a Raymarine!!
What more can I say?
brads
08-23-2005, 09:54 PM
I trust my electronics enough that in deeper water if fish are not showing on the unit I move on. In water say 10' or less if past experience gives me reason to believe fish are there but none show I will still give it a try.
If you are catching fish in deeper water that are not showing up on the graph then possibly the transducer angle might not be quite right and require adjusting.
Birddog
08-23-2005, 10:25 PM
I agree, in shallower water (10' or less) the cone angle is so small graphing fish is tough. I always make my shallow stops and fish them for a while regardless of what the graph says. Deeper water I trust it 100%! The "old", "outdated" X-15 is still a great graph! Trusting my electronics is something I've had to learn, at first I didn't have ANY trust in it, but, after graphing and catching, I now follow it religiously. Trust your electronics, if it shows fish, there's fish.
BIRDDOG
Lady Bridge II
08-24-2005, 07:01 AM
Glad to hear you guys are happy with your raymarines. Yesterday I just ordered a raymarine ds500. My lowrance X85 still works good but I'm hoping to mark fish while moving at a higher speed. The color will also be nice.
Does anyone know if I'll be able to run the two units at the same time for comparison? I'll have two seperate thru hull transducers.
walter
08-24-2005, 07:39 AM
Question for Raymarine DS600 owners.
Can you guys read fish at higher speeds, say 20 mph. Are you running the unit in auto or manual mode? What settings are you using if in manual.
I will usually run in auto fishing mode and can read fish up to about 5 mph. I have heard that you can mark fish at higher speeds. What's the secrete?
Unlogged T-Mac
08-24-2005, 10:32 AM
I trust what I see, and after 40 years of using depth finders, I understand they are just a tool.
There are perfectly good fishermen I know who have gotten to be worse fishermen as they have gotten to be super expert geeks on these new locaters and programs.
I was a young guide and not too bad a one, when paper graphs first came out. I had to have one. I got one and figured I'd really slay the fish after that. But..... I found myself trusting them too much and wasted too much time sitting on "fish", or enjoying all this information the machine was giving me.........instead of moving on and finding some biters. It took me a while to realize what I was doing.
These machines are a helpful tool...but don't let them rule your plan of attack.
FreeByrd
08-24-2005, 11:27 AM
>Question for Raymarine DS600 owners.
>
>Can you guys read fish at higher speeds, say 20 mph. Are you
>running the unit in auto or manual mode? What settings are you
>using if in manual.
>
>I will usually run in auto fishing mode and can read fish up
>to about 5 mph. I have heard that you can mark fish at higher
>speeds. What's the secrete?
The "secret" is a properly installed transducer to get the optimum performance of ANY sonar. With a properly installed transducer I confidently mark fish at speeds approaching 50 mph with my Raymarine Digital Sounder (I'm running the DSM300 with E Series units but the technology is the same as in the DS600X). At 20 mph I mark fish as confidently as I do at 2MPH - they just look a bit different on the screen. Here are some tips for high speed marking on the Raymarine digital sounders assuming a properly installed transducer.
Run in 200khz rather than 50khz at speeds above approximately 12 mph.
Run with the "A Scope" mode turned on - you will see bigger red spots on the A scope realtime view - as they move into the history area they will be smaller almost vertical marks but bigger fish still in red/darker colors. The faster you go the smaller the marks will be in the history side of the screen.
Auto Fishing mode is the most sensitive auto mode - you will get some clutter in this mode when at high speeds. If you go to Auto "Cruising" mode the clutter will be gone and you will pick up the fish. I can't remember if the A Series units (DS400X, DS500X, DS600X also have an Auto "trolling" mode but this is kind of medium sensitivity if you have it. Play around with it and see what you prefer. I've used the manual mode long enough to know there is basically no reason to use the manual mode on the Digital Raymarine Sounders and I always ran previous sounders in manual mode.
I will likely be offering on water demos of the Raymarine units at the Walleye Central Get Together in Vermilion, Ohio in October.
Steve Carlson
steve199132@yahoo.com
Raymarine Prostaff
go ranger
08-24-2005, 12:23 PM
I got an x-15 last year that I thought I could trust 100%...until I had a buddy's Aqua-Vu with about a month ago. I was in 26-35 ft and not marking a thing on the sonar. He starts counting off all the fish he's seeing 1-2 feet off the bottom using the Aqua-Vu. I had to take a look for myself because I could not believe it. We sat on top of that school of fish for 45 minutes and I only marked a couple fish on the sonar. I could see my jig on the sonar a few times but no fish. I was adjusting the sensitivity trying to get it to mark a fish but it was to no avail.
Lady Bridge II
08-24-2005, 12:35 PM
Steve,
A DS500 arrived at my door today. I have a call in for Gary of South Shore to do the installation. Thanks for the recommendation. Installing the thru hull transducer does look like a job for a professional.
Looking forward to put it to use at the Hawgfest.
I trust it to read the bottom depth. If fish appear on mine, I don't expect to catch them, I know what depth I get fish at on any given day and use the finder to keep in that depth.
T-mac you trust it more than you think. I've noticed you stop walking on water when it gets over 6" deep! LOL
WALLEYE DREW
08-24-2005, 08:17 PM
THE FIRST TIME I CAN REMEMBER. I WAS A WE TIKE. MY DAD AND HIS BIG CITY FREIND & I WENT OUT ON THE LAKE WE LIVED ON. MY DAD'S FREIND BILL HAD A STRANGE THINK WITH HIM. A GREEN BOX WITH THE NAME LOWRANCE ON IT. THE LAKE WAS A CRYSTLE CLEAR. WE COULD LOOK OVER THE SIDE OF THE BOAT & SEE THE COONTAIL WEEDS GROING IN 18 FOOT OF WATER. AFTER A LITTLE PLAYING AROUND WITH THE GREEN BOX.I KNEW IT WAS A GOOD PIECE OF EQUEMENT TO HAVE. THEY COME A LONG WAY SINCE THEN . IF YOU CAN FIGGER THEM OUT . THERE THE BEST THING YOU CAN HAVE IN THE BOAT WITH YOU..
mudflat
08-24-2005, 09:09 PM
i fish witha neighbor that has a x-15 that is about the same. most lowrance finders work a lot better than the x-15 from what i have seen. just my opinion.
RANGER
08-24-2005, 09:26 PM
WALLEYE DREW
Please turn your "All Caps" off. It's hard to read and it is "yelling" on the Internet! No need. ;-)
Kolby
08-24-2005, 10:03 PM
I can remember only a handful of times when I caught fish deeper than about 12 feet and didn't mark them. MOST of the time it happens when you get some blind spots, like washboard bottoms, tight vertical edges, or larger logs/rocks. Other times I think the fish are scattered and the few you get may move in from out of the cone in the clear water. This happens maybe five days a year out of approx. 500 hours of walleye fishing. 99% of the time, if I I'm fishing and not marking fish, I'm wasting time.
rspahr
08-24-2005, 10:48 PM
I trust my fishfinder quite a bit. I occasionally get bites when I do not see much on the graph. However, the cone is under the boat and not out to the side where most of my lures are. The fishfinder can tell you where the fish are. It can't tell you if they are hungry or if they are carp.
RANGER
08-24-2005, 11:42 PM
You're absolutely right! It takes a lot of time to be able to "read" your finder!
Stormsearch
08-25-2005, 06:43 AM
Freebyrd made a good comment about setup. I can only trust a unit if it is setup properly. If you can't mark fish and seeing them on a aquaview, then something is wrong (bad transducer, unit settings, transducer placement, interference, etc.).
I have a X-15 and the first 2 years I was using it, I was losing bottom whenever I went on plane. Moving the transducer around didn't help. I managed to borrow my cousin's unit and transducer and found that my transducer was shot. Now I can cruise at about 15 - 18 mph and mark fish.
It's not so much the unit as the setup. I now trust my setup, 100%.
Stormsearch
08-25-2005, 06:43 AM
Freebyrd made a good comment about setup. I can only trust a unit if it is setup properly. If you can't mark fish and seeing them on a aquaview, then something is wrong (bad transducer, unit settings, transducer placement, interference, etc.).
I have a X-15 and the first 2 years I was using it, I was losing bottom whenever I went on plane. Moving the transducer around didn't help. I managed to borrow my cousin's unit and transducer and found that my transducer was shot. Now I can cruise at about 15 - 18 mph and mark fish.
It's not so much the unit as the setup. I now trust my setup, 100%.
Best choice...use good graph and a flasher at the same time, if both are marking fish...STOP!
mudflat
08-25-2005, 11:11 AM
jake- compare the 102c to the ds600. what you like better about each one and is the ds600 and the ds600x the same. also can the ds600x run split screen on the 50 and the 200 transducer. thanks
Lordy Lordy
08-25-2005, 11:12 AM
LOL. Yaah ... in January.
But, I walk on it only when I can't drive on it. :)
the 600 and 600x are the same unit. what i like most about the raymarine unit it the high definition display and the digital electronics. the digital design allows the various aspects of the display to be updated hundreds of times per second. the benifit of that is you can run the unit on a true automatic mode and be sure that only the clutter and false returns are being filtered and not the fish, as would happen with analog units. i'm confidant that what i see on the screen is a true rendition of what's under my boat. i find that the only routine adjustments i make are going from one auto mode to another and adjusting the brightness of the screen as the sun sets. yes, both 50 and 200 kh displays can be shown as a split screen.
when we lose the 2nd. amendment the others will be history too!