Where's the archs?

[Jonny J.]

I purchased a Garmin 240 last summer and have had it out several times. For some reason I don't get the nice arches like demo displays. What could be the porblem? I've tried adjusting the transducer some with no change.

[Eye Crosser]

This is a ? I seem to hear alot,what most guys don't seem to know is that you have to derectly over a fish to draw an arch! Case in point, if your in 20' of water with a 20 degree trans. your only looking at 6' in most cases this is smaller than the rear of a boat. 95% of the time you will see a 45 degree angle this is a fish on the outside edge of your cone angle. In order to get the arch, that fish would have to pass through the center of the cone angle, an then through the otherside! Hope this helps. Eye Crosser

[TEAM_ALTO]

I had Bottom Line units (310, Master HR and Leader 3200) and never seen a arch until I got the new Vexilar LC-507, it shows arches.

[JimmyG]

I have read that the reason that you do not get those perfect archs is because they are produced when a fish passes all the way thru the sonar cone. If a fish does not pass all the way thru then it just leaves the marks that everyone normally sees on their screen.

[Hans]

A fish need not pass all the way through the cone to make an arch on the screen. It need only come closer to the transducer and then recede.

Hans

--
"There is nothing ; absolutely nothing; half so much worth doing,
as simply messing about in boats." :-)

[crash]

Bassmaster had some really good articles on using sonar this last year. If you know anybody that has them its really good reading.

[Jim/UT]

I used to get them all the time on my Lowrance 9000, 20' transducer, I think it is the high freq. On my Raytheon L750 I don't get them on the high freq transducer (20' cone) but I kinda sorta get them on the low freq transducer (65' cone). My Lowrance was somewhat sensitive to transducer angle (tilting it forward/backward). My Raytheon doesn't seem to care. Kicking up the sensitivity definitely helps.

Not much help, but maybe will trigger a thought somewhere.

[Scott_in_kc]

Jonny, are you running it on the console or the bow. One problem with the Garmin is the painfully slow chart speed. The only way I could get anything resembling an arch on mine was to be just crawling over the fish, anything faster and they were mere smudges on the screen. At idle speed it would condense a 30' wide submerged road bed into about 1" of screen, you aren't going to a see an 18" fish period. Personally I think Garmin is on the right track, but they need to address the chart speed issue. I have written them, emailed them and talked to the techs on the phone and no one seems to give a crap. As long as the bass guys keep them in business they probably won't change it. Too bad, the price, power, detail of the bottom and the ease of use are great. I sent mine back and got an x65 and am very please. Although, I should have popped for the x85!