Side view fish finders

I'm still pondering about buying a side view fish finder. After watching countless videos about reading about sonar, down scan and side scan I've decided that the more I study, the more confused I get.

Am I correct that on regular old sonar you can see the arches which display fish. On down scan you don't see arches but do see structure better (so you should run both at the same time if possible to get the most info). And both old sonar and down scan only show a coned shaped area whose diameter at the bottom is about equal to 1/3 the depth your in. So if I'm in 15 ft of water I'm only seeing an area that is 5 ft in diameter? Sure doesn't seem like much!

And side scan will see almost straight down from the boat and say 75 ft to each side? If fish are suspended can you see them and tell how far away from the side of the boat they are? Or for that matter how far away a structure is from the boat?


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On side scan you can large schools of bait and fish to either side pretty good. On 2d and di you would only what is underneath you. It’s really good if you are looking for your brush pile or trying to find creek channels. Can look under docks too

The three videos in this thread do an excellent jobs of explaining the differences.

Sonar videos
Sonar videos


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Will love side Image. Mark from a distance ,come back and switch to down Image to confirm find , throw out buoy and it's own . Ps Bream have no chance !

Side imaging is old tech. The new Garmin panoptix is light years ahead. Wish I could afford the upgrade. I have SI/DI on my old birds, rarely ever use it.

YouTube


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Originally Posted by feelay

Side imaging is old tech. The new Garmin panoptix is light years ahead. Wish I could afford the upgrade. I have SI/DI on my old birds, rarely ever use it.

YouTube


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I rarely use si/di on the big 4, but on the TenTom it's a different story. It's very helpful over there.


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Something tells me I need to start a " go fund me page" just to buy one


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if you buy ine with si get one with a screen big enough to see what its showing you, i started with the 8” and upgraded to the 12” and there is a world of difference, id love to have a 15”