Dumb Question?? What side of boat (where in cone) are fish that are on the screen?

[crappie239]

By the way, received my member pack (hat, shirt, road runners and stickers), love them! Thanks for fast shipping to those responsible!

On to my question: I have an Elite 5X DSI on the dash and a Pirhana 170 (new, haven't installed it on trolling motor yet) and I'm wondering after reading all the great info here about cone angles and seeing all the user photos...what side of the boat (or where under the boat) are the fish that are on the screen? If in 20' of water with a cone angle of approx. 75 degrees (Elite 5 at 455khz) it's "seeing" a 28' wide piece of bottom, where exactly are the fish or structure that are on the screen?

The HB 170 dual beam (60° cone @ 83khz) indicates hollow fish symbols for fish outside the narrow 200khz beam (28° cone), but where outside? Left side, Right side??

Thanks in advance!
Steve

[Humminbird_Greg]

Steve,
I can’t speak for the Elite 5X DSI unit but the sonar beams on the PiranhaMax 170 are conical in shape and do not provide any directional information other than being in the narrow sonar beam or within the wider sonar beam (outside of the narrow beam coverage area). Usually you need something like the QuadraBeam transducer or Side Imaging sonar to determine which side of the boat a fish is on.

[crappie239]

see post below

[crappie239]

Steve,
I can’t speak for the Elite 5X DSI unit but the sonar beams on the PiranhaMax 170 are conical in shape and do not provide any directional information other than being in the narrow sonar beam or within the wider sonar beam (outside of the narrow beam coverage area). Usually you need something like the QuadraBeam transducer or Side Imaging sonar to determine which side of the boat a fish is on.

Thanks, Greg. You confirmed what I just discovered at these two links.

How to Understand a Fishfinder Screen - wikiHow

Newbie Fish Finder Question

As you said, there is no real way to tell exactly where structure is or where the fish are in relation to the boat. Once it shows on the right side of the screen (which could be anywhere in the coverage of the particular cone angle/frequency/fish finder model/transducer type used...in front of, in back of, to either side of or directly under the actual transducer location on the boat) the boat has most likely passed over them. If anchored and structure and/or fish are showing on the display, it's somewhere under or near the boat within the cone angle/coverage. That's when "fishing" for their exact location begins and hopefully "catching" soon follows!

It was helpful to me to read in the links that by comparing side by side screens using different frequencies or two units displaying results of different frequency transducers, it's possible to narrow the target zone.

I can't afford a quadrabeam or a side imaging sonar right now, but I think I might try what I've seen posted on another forum. That is; mount my DSI tranducer on an angle to view one side of the boat (or maybe mount it so I can swivel it to one side, straight down or to the opposite side) and use my Humminbird 170 to look down with both 28 degree and 60 degree cones. In theory, this should allow me to see the shoreline structure/fish from the side with the DSI without having to troll over it and scare all the fish away and see what's under/around the boat with the HB 170.

[Humminbird_Greg]

Fishermen have been mounting transducers at an angle to see ahead of their boats since the old mechanical flasher days (that I know of). Was once on a boat with a guy who had a transducer mounted on an old broom handle so that he could scan between the boat and the bank for crappie with his Super Sixty flasher. Not the most professional looking rig in the world bu it worked!

[crappie239]

Fishermen have been mounting transducers at an angle to see ahead of their boats since the old mechanical flasher days (that I know of). Was once on a boat with a guy who had a transducer mounted on an old broom handle so that he could scan between the boat and the bank for crappie with his Super Sixty flasher. Not the most professional looking rig in the world bu it worked!

A broom stick? lol Pretty clever! If he got results, that's all that matters.

[short grub]

Greg is correct man has been mounting transducers ideways since they (ff) have hit the market

I had a friend that had three locators mounted in the nose of his boat, he had 3 ducers on his TM one on each side and one pointed down it looked real bad but worked real good so if you cant afford a new SI unit you might give this a try ............ me I saved my lunch money for a couple years to buy my 1198 SI

these are some ideas for you to kick around

[HARLEYBOY]

member pack ,member pack ???? What? I didn't Get one ???

[crappie239]

member pack ,member pack ???? What? I didn't Get one ???

want me to put a good word in for you so you can get yours?

actually, it was a new member special deal on a crappie.com shirt (shut up and fish on mine), crappie .com hat and 2 road runner jigs. crappie,com decals were free. i love mine!