first trip 797si

Just got back, got out at daylight this morn - it a good toy :D

Funny thing is, all I was thinking about when I got it was brushpiles -
it shows them ok, but what floored me was the creek channels!

Make one pass and see every twist, turn, and drop -
stuff that'd take all day to figure out with regular sonar.

Having a little frustration with standing timber, can't get it to do quite
what I think it ought to on it, but who knows? I go by them, and only
get a little "dot", not the shadow behind thing I was expecting.
Spent close to an hour driving by standing timber playing with settings,
no shadows :confused: I know its there, I see it rotted off even with
the water, I know I'm close enough, almost hit a few of 'em ;)

It does show downed
trees on the bottom well. Found some roadbeds, and a building
foundation I didn't know was there.

Don't know if I'm ready to start full-time sonar watching though - since I was poking
along 2 mph or so, I put out a couple crankbait rods - couldn't stand NOT
fishing :) Caught 8 crappie, untold stripes, and a few green carp.

Oh, and I knew this going in, no problems - but if you have NVB,
and you're on a lake that's not fully mapped, it is hilarious.
It showed a sorta etch-a-sketch outline of the lake, BUT
I was catching fish 2-300 yards out in middle of the woods
(dry ground) according to Mr. NVB :p

'08 Nav card in other unit though, right on target.

My new Garmin GPSMap76Cx shows a couple of my best spots up in the woods too. About what I was expecting on our little 3500 acre lake.

These units really does shine on the creek channels doesn't it. It is amazing. I still dont have standing timber, boat house posts down 100% yet. The unit has made me a better fisherman already though. It is worth the cost. The mapping program really makes a difference. Enjoy

i have a 1197 and played with it thursday having problem finding know stake beds

J White "I know its there, I see it rotted off even with
the water, I know I'm close enough, almost hit a few of 'em" How deep of water were U in? You were too close to the trees-- remember the side image signal goes out from the ducer at a angle to the bottom so if U in 20 feet of water U will not see the first 12-15' (approx-Varies with depth)to the side of boat. Put a marker bouy next to the tree top & make another run about 25 from marker & U will see the tree on screen. Make note of where on screen it is & then make another run 5 feet closer to marker & note whee it is on screen, and now if U made another run 5 feet closer it may be right on edge of screen or gone? Once U see it on your screen look & see what range you have sidefinder screen set for? 60,80,00, etc then by seeing where it is on screen U can pin point within 2-3 feet of how far U are from object -this works great up to about 50 feet deep

When your looking for objects, keep in mind the relative size of the object compared to how wide a swath you have the unit set to. I think the 997 screen is 800 pixels, subtract 160 pixels the menu takes up along the side, that leaves you 640 pixels of viewing for the bottom. If you have the unit set to 160 feet out to both sides, works nice, that means your covering 320 feet of width with 640 pixels or each pixels covers a half foot, strictly going out to the sides. Figure out the dimensions of what your looking for and you can get an idea of how many pixels should represent it. So if the object was 6 foot wide, 12 pixels would cover it.
If you had the unit set to cover 80 feet each side, would mean 4 pixels per foot or that object would now be 24 pixels and using only one side at 80 feet would double that.
Cause of boat speed and scroll speed, resolution in the forward direction is a guess at best and not covered here. What I wanted to point out, if your looking for some thing, remember the more area you try to cover at once, the smaller the foot print it'll present on your screen.

WarrenMN

Jaxsprat, what I was doing was running by the mouth
of some coves that are just FULL of standing trees -
I tried down to 50' range, looking out just one side.
One thing I've been thinking about, it maybe the bank
is too close behind what I'm "shooting" - maybe my
shadows are mixed up in the bank return?
I'll try to find some on a flat to look at soon.

Anyway, it was first time out, I'll keep tinkering with it.
I appreciate the tips guys, keep 'em coming.
And not complaining, I really, really like it :)

Only thing is, I JUST got back here from Scruggs in
Tupelo, it's sort of a Bass Pro outlet,
and got my first in person look at a 1197 :eek:
I think I'm in love :D

i was love at first site for me