repost from main board

[arca54]

I am posting this here too any thoughts from you guys

I have an eagle 320 on trolling motor and a480 on the console
My question is do any of you get the images of fish arches like they show in the ads?I go out and adjust mine every way i can and have never read anything like that,I can find brush and other cover but can never really say i see anything as fish for sure.Am i adjusting something wrong if i turn sensitivity up i get dots and lines but no arches.Thanks for any ideas
(pic is from ad)

[Downwind]

Arca- I have the same unit and don't think I have ever seen the first arch. Fish symbols maybe. I too have made several adjustments but nothing seems to work. You doing much fishing or waiting for cooler temps. I have been to T-ville a few times but nothing but bass and bluegills seem to want to bite. Even tried night fishing a couple of time. Even worse bite.

[CatFan]

Yes I do. Some keys: The transducer needs to be pointed straight down, the boat needs to be moving, and there need to be fish down there.

Virtually anything you see while the boat is moving should have a fading tail going down on the first side to appear on the graph, and then another as you go away. This is a result of the round cone and the physical characteristics of the transducer.

[arca54]

Hey Downwind
went to t-ville last week for the first time all summer should have stayed home only caught one totally by accident
thinking about going to ky lake in oct for the 23-25 get together
next week temps look good
luk to ya

[CrappiePappy]

I am posting this here too any thoughts from you guys

I have an eagle 320 on trolling motor and a480 on the console
My question is do any of you get the images of fish arches like they show in the ads?I go out and adjust mine every way i can and have never read anything like that,I can find brush and other cover but can never really say i see anything as fish for sure.Am i adjusting something wrong if i turn sensitivity up i get dots and lines but no arches.Thanks for any ideas
(pic is from ad)

If you have the fish symbols turned off, and the sensitivity set up a little ... those dots & lines are now the "fish" symbols. Arches only come when a fish enters, then leaves the cone. Something has to be moving :p ... either the boat or the fish. You're also going to see "trash" markings, that aren't anything you need be concerned about, especially if the sensitivity is set very high. Chart/scroll speed can change the markings, too. Even if the fish symbols are on, not every one of them is really a fish.

I usually just turn the unit on, set for automatic, and just use it to stay in a certain depth range ... or find a brushpile/cover that's submerged. About the only time I pay all that much attention to fish symbols, is when the large fish symbols are stacked 3 or more deep :D ... which is usually an indication of a school of fish, of decent size. Then again, I'm only fishing straight down under the boat on rare occasions. Mostly I'm casting away from the boat, so I'm more interested in what depth of water I'm sitting over ... so I can gauge how deep the cover I'm casting to should be (if I don't already know).

Have you read/watched the tutorials/emulators on depth finders ?? Here's what most of them have to say about "arches" -

"To display "arches", the fishfinder relies on the characteristics of sonar. When a fish passes directly through the transducer's beam, it can form an arch on the display screen. The size of the fish arch is affected by the sensitivity setting of the unit, your boat speed, the depth of the water and the location of the fish within the sonar beam. Often only partial arches will be displayed because the fish does not travel directly through the center of the beam."

... cp

[gabowman]

I've had a 480 on my concole for years now and have alot of faith in what it tells me. I do alot of night fishing and also leave the unit on to watch as bait and fish move underneath the cone. Lots to learn there, but fish shows as lines as long as they stay under the cone rather than arches. I know I dont have the 'ducer PERFECT but I can still get arches while easing along with the big motor. Theyre not perfect arches but good enough to tell me it's fish. When using the trolling motor I barely bump along (slow trolling) so when a fish enters the cone it's more of a line, and usually it's moving either up or down in the water column if it stays in the cone very long. When pushing baits I sometimes see the weight on the screen and see a fish come into the cone moving up towards the weight and actually see a pole going down right afterwards. There again, no cone...just a line.

Nothing beats time on the water using your graph. Dont be afraid of moving the settings and seeing what happens. Go to manual settings and start getting used to what youre seeing. It wont be long before you start building confidence in what youre seeing.