Sidescan--Shallow to Deep, or Deep to Shallow

[fished-out]

Curious what the rest of you think. Because I fish steep shorelines for the most part, I usually scan deep to shallow. But if you had a choice, which do you think gives you the best view of various types of cover--shallow to deep, or deep to shallow?

[rnvinc]

Sonar echo reflection is greatly affected by sloping contour...
-A bottom contour sloping up (and out to the side) will make the image brighter because the echos can reflect better against the "upslope"...
-A bottom contour sloping down (and out to the side) will make the image darker because the echos cannot reflect as well from the "downslope"...

Harder bottoms will also reflect echos better than softer bottoms..Also making the image brighter....

There may be some advantage to scanning deep to shallow because the "upslope" (out to the side) is already reflecting better echos...needing a lower "SI Sensitivity" setting...

But there also may be some advantage scanning shallow to deep ... Needing a higher "SI Sensitivity" setting that could possibly make structure (such as brush) stand out better...

I find that different water conditions/bottom compositions require completely different SI Sensitivity settings...

Basically...
If my SI image starts getting dark- I increase SI Sensitivity..
If my SI image starts getting light- I decrease SI Sensitivity...

The "SI Sensitivity" setting is the most used setting on my 1197...

Rickie

[jaxsprat]

Scan deep to shallow gives you a better picture of bottom..............

[Crappie Reaper]

Scanning shallow to deep shows the height of something off the bottom better.