Thread: well..I now know how accurate my Garmin echo 100 is...

It seems possible that the slow speed of the boat stretched the fish out to look like giants. If you can slow your chart speed to match your boat speed (I would think chart speed at lowest, since you are paddling), you will get a truer picture. If you do want to go with a new unit, do you want DI, or SI? GPS? For a cost around $250, you might look at the Helix5 DI. It will give you a 2D color sonar plus the DI. Everything you add kicks up the cost, of course.

Or just work with what you have....a low cost unit that can show you cover, break lines, etc. Don't look for fish returns. Look for brushpiles in the correct depth range, or submerged timber, or grass/weed beds. Then fish those spots to see if they are holding fish.

The new Helix units are a good value ...

http://www.humminbird.com/Freshwater.../HELIX-Series/

Rickie

I checked out the Helix 5 DI...sounds pretty good actually!!..hmm..maybe can talk wife into one for birthday in September!! The echo will show me huge piles of grass on the bottom..but most of the time everything seems to be flat..I'm not sure if it's the lake or the finder....I'm pretty sure the depths are right on with it..so until I get a new one I'll just have to take clues from the shoreline s as to cover and fish the drops that do seem to be clear on the echo.

Originally Posted by fastfish

I checked out the Helix 5 DI...sounds pretty good actually!!..hmm..maybe can talk wife into one for birthday in September!! The echo will show me huge piles of grass on the bottom..but most of the time everything seems to be flat..I'm not sure if it's the lake or the finder....I'm pretty sure the depths are right on with it..so until I get a new one I'll just have to take clues from the shoreline s as to cover and fish the drops that do seem to be clear on the echo.

You just have to understand how much water column your 2d cone is showing, and how much bottom real estate is being shown. A 20deg cone will show a circle of bottom approx. 1/3 the width in feet as the depth in feet .... or a 7ft wide circle in 21ft of water. A wide beam 60deg cone is a 1:1 factor ... or a 10ft wide circle in 10ft of water. BUT .... in either case the sonar ping beam is still in a cone shape, so the water column shown is narrow at the top and gets wider with depth.

A DI unit uses a fan shaped sonar ping, approx. 45deg or 75deg angle, but only a few degrees thick. It fans out to the sides of the transducer at right angles, so if it's mounted on your trolling motor ... you must be aware of "where" your trolling motor is pointing, to know what swath of water you're seeing on your screen.

Having had 2d sonar units since the early 1970's, up until just a few years ago, when I got a Lowrance Elite 5 DSI, I pretty much just used them to see depth, drops, and the occasional "blob" that was likely indicating cover of some type. Since having the Down Image unit (no 2d capabilities) I can now pretty much tell exactly what I'm seeing below me, since the unit will show me a near picture quality image of what I'm going over. No fish "symbols" or "blobs" of pixels to interpret (or misinterpret), just a on screen image that leaves little to the imagination or necessity of interpretation. Like this :



You might want to compare the Lowrance Elite 4x Chirp or 4x HDI to any other unit you have your eye on. And if you don't really want color screen images, look at the Mark series Lowrance units.

... cp

color is not especially important to me. I like the image in the sample you showed. Much easier to see the depth the fish are holding at than with the echo...never sure where they actually are with the echo..Do the elite 4 units have the same display? I think Walmart has some of those for right at $200.

Originally Posted by fastfish

color is not especially important to me. I like the image in the sample you showed. Much easier to see the depth the fish are holding at than with the echo...never sure where they actually are with the echo..Do the elite 4 units have the same display? I think Walmart has some of those for right at $200.

The Elite 4 series units are much the same, just a smaller screen. You can get different E4 units, some with GPS, some with 2d/DI/GPS, some with just 2d, etc.

Now I will say, that image was the best I've taken ... as far as showing "fish". Most of the time you won't see clear fish images like that, the fish will show up as tiny white dots. I don't look for "fish" specifically, mostly for cover ... I'll let my baits tell me if there's fish around it. I'm looking for images like these :







These will tell me how deep the top of the cover is, so I'll know how deep I can fish before getting my baits IN the cover.

Now ... what it won't do, is tell me on which side of the transducer the fish/cover is (same as with a 2d unit). The only type of unit that will do that is a SI or 360. But I can set my spider rig setup to cover the width of the beam, and if I want to cast to the cover or vertical jig it, then I'll drop a marker or two.

IF color isn't all that important, take a look at what the Mark series units have to offer for the same price range.

You might also want to take a look at Amazon.com for prices of the units you're looking at, then contact Brian@BBGMarine (site member) and see if he can help you narrow down your choices, and maybe even give you a better price deal on the units you're interested in.

Whatever unit you end up choosing ... luck2ya !!

... cp

I think the key to what you said might actually be "the big fish Icon". I'm pretty sure the use of those icons doesn't correlate much to what the actual size of the fish is in the water (even though you have small medium and large icons). I've always used the arcs. I'm not sure if your unit can be set this way however, with an arc you will see weather it is big or small. A lot of times, if the fish is swimming with the boat, the fish icon will show big whereas the arc will show running across the screen. You can also tell when a fish is rising in the water or dropping in the water.

Just a thought on this, but I have not found those to be very accurate at all.