Humminbird 688 ci hd di

[no luck]

Guys this is my first fish finder how do to know what is fish and can you tell what kind they are?

[beshears]

Forget the word fish finder, It is sonar that shows you anything between the transducer and the bottom. Fish will show up as a vee shape or just a dot depending on size. If it is attached to the bottom it is some kind of cover. Suspended marks will be fish. Schools of bait will show as clouds suspended in the water. Species can be guessed at by size of echo and position. Lots of good instructions on youtube. Practice and experiment with it. I is not a miracle machine but a very valuable tool. A hard bottom will show as thin sharp line and a soft bottom will show as a wide line.

[rnvinc]

Open a 2d/DI Combo view ...

Turn on Fish ID under the Sonar tab ...compare the fish echoes in the 2d image to the corresponding white dots in the DI image ...

The algorithms for the 2d Fish ID can be fooled but it is still a valuable tool ...

The best species identifier is catching one ...

Rickie

[vic n]

Go to the "SIDE/DOWN IMAGING" sub-forum and read some of those posts. Make sure to go through the Sonar Quiz thread....there are about 25 of them. Look for threads by Kosmo...he spends lots of time on the water and shares what he sees. He has some amazing shots of fish in cover with DI, SI, and 360

[no luck]

so I guess this unit will not help me find fish is that right?

[SeaRay]

so I guess this unit will not help me find fish is that right?

It absolutely will help you find fish and I don't know why the hang up on calling it a fish finder when that is why 99% of the people bought one. Sure it is a sonar unit, most commonly called a Depth Finder, but why do you care what the bottom looks like if not to find the most likely area to hold fish. You can clearly identity brush piles and other underwater structure.
You can also identify fish that are suspended or hugging the bottom with some practice. You won't always know which type fish you are seeing but the more you use it the better you become.
Here is a thread on our SC forum that starts back before DI and SI units were around and covers all the way up to today's units. You can compare what you see on your unit to samples on here and perhaps help you interpret what you are seeing.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/south...terpretations/

Good luck and good fishing. Hope this helps a little.

[vic n]

so I guess this unit will not help me find fish is that right?

Why would you say that?

[CrappiePappy]

My Lowrance Elite 5DSI is a "fish finder" (see the fish ? )




Now ... depending on depth, unit settings, and other variables ... "fish" may look like dots on a DI unit. But, for my money, a DI unit will give you a better image of what you're seeing than a 2d broadband sonar. You just have to realize the shape and angle of the DI sonar beam to know what section of the water those images are coming from.

Sometimes the size &/or shape of the "fish image" will tell you what they are ... even the shape of the school or the location of the fish around the cover can tell you the species. But, for the most part (and especially to the inexperienced) it's a guessing game, and catching one is the best answer.

Best tip I can give you is to use your unit to find "cover" (like that tree in my screenshot) and mark a waypoint on it. Fish it if you see fish (images or dots) ... and come back to it at a later time, if you don't. Fish move, so they may be on a piece of cover one day and gone the next, or they may be on it for a couple of hours & then move.
Think of your unit as a depth/cover/fish finder ... and use those things to tell you whether to spend time fishing that spot, or not, and how deep to present your bait.

... cp