Just purchased and installed the humminbird 899 unit have a few screen shots to post and would like to ask that some of you folks with more experience on these things than I have would break down the pics and tell me if theres anything that i missed
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Just purchased and installed the humminbird 899 unit have a few screen shots to post and would like to ask that some of you folks with more experience on these things than I have would break down the pics and tell me if theres anything that i missed
Just not sure exactly what I'm looking at yet I know some of these images on these things can be tricky to decipher
Do you need interpretation of the structure showing in the images ...??
Or interpreting how the SI image showing on the display actually lies under the boat...??
Your cursor positions and zoom box indicate that you already can pick out structure and fish schools....
Here's info to start with....
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/showt...preting-Images
Then tell me how we can help you "see" what you are "seeing"...
Rickie
yes.....im not sure whats a fish and whats not. I'm assuming the specks and bars shown in the water column are fish but what about the stuff on the lake bottom? Theres also some grainy stuff as well
rnvinc....if you could break down a couple of those shots for me it would help a bunch because all I know for sure is the structure. The other stuff that Im zoomed on i wasn't quite sure what was happening there.
You are correct that the white specks and "Bars" are most likely fish...
Fish show up fairly well against a soft bottom like in your images...fish over a hard bottom are more difficult to pick out...
Generally if the all the fish echoes in the SI image are "elongated" about the same length ...this is an indication that the "Chart Speed" is a little fast for that specific boat speed...(the faster chart speed is basically taking the "white speck" fish echo and "stretching" the white echo down the screen)...the faster the "Chart Speed" - the longer the fish echo will be stretched...
Sometimes "stretching" the fish echoes is a good thing...it can help you see that the "white dots" you are suspecting as fish ...do indeed get stretched into longer fish echoes making them easier to see...
Generally "Chart Speed" should be matched to boat speed for image ratio correctness in height and width of targets...(unless you want to stretch the fish echoes for picking them out easier as I described above)..
Ask more questions....:)
I'll work on editing 1 of your shots and circle a bunch of fish echoes while we work on other questions also...
Rickie
for example that last photo where i zoomed in.....is that a ball of bait fish or.....?
whats a good way to gauge chart speed to boat speed? usually I'm cruising around 3-3.5 mph however I'm pretty much stopped in these shots cause I'm playing with the si unit lol. I know people are looking at me driving around in circles thinking what the hell is this guy up to
so that fourth photo from down from the top... where the cursor is on the tree left of the center line... all those specks in the column are fish?
For the "graininess" of the SI image...open the SI Enhance menu...:
*Try turning the "Contrast" down a click or two...
*And maybe turn the "Sharpness" down or Off...
*Then turn Sensitivity up until the image is to a brightness level that looks good to you..
(I very seldom change Contrast or Sharpness unless I'm looking specifically for fish...higher Contrast and Sharpness will help the fish echoes pop out better...but at the expense of making the image "grainy" lookin)...
(I change SI Sensitivity constantly depending on what bottom composition I'm over...a mud bottom will need a higher sensitivity setting - a hard bottom will need a lower sensitivity setting)...
Rickie
thanks rickie, i just needed some clarification i guess. also the settings suggestions will help a bunch, I'm actually gonna run out to the garage now and change the settings.
ok....thanks a lot for your help bud
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...pshj7xogsm.png
I probably missed a few...
Rickie
About SI image orientation...
Do you understand how the information in the image actually lies under your boat ...to discern where those echoes (fish and structure)...really are under the water...??
Rickie
I think so. data scrolls from top to bottom new to old I've done the fold the chart to show the water column thing so the width of the column on paper or the screen basically shows the depth. And after some research I now know that the 2d only shows a portion of bottom relative to the water depth and transducer setting.
Sometimes fish habits will help guess what certain echoes may be...
Crappie and bass tend to hold to structure...so as in the echoes around the brush...
Scattered solitary fish echoes can be catfish or carp....
Schooled fish echos not relating to structure can be white bass, yellow bass, striped bass..
Rickie
what about the down imaging shot i believe its the first one on our thread. how is that laid out in relation to the boat? the 2d is pretty much whats right below the TD so would the DI be the same? Just having a hard time understanding how its showing a photo from the side view when its scanning from above... if you understand what I'm saying
The down image view is the same orientation as the 2d view...new data is painted onto the right edge and old data scrolls to the left...(imagine your body was actually standing on the lake bottom and looking sideways under your xducer...bottom of the lake at the bottom of the display...surface of the water at the top of the display...)
The xducer is (in fact) looking down...so the processor takes that info under the xducer and re-arranges the data into an image format (2d or DI)..like you were underwater and looking sideways thru the water column...
Rickie
thanks a lot rickie you're a life saver.... i was really getting frustrated with this thing
Here the fishies in the down image view...
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...pshgpeejjb.png
Rickie
Your images are showing plenty of fish...but you still have to catch them...
Expensive electronics won't make you a better fisherman...but they will help you eliminate unproductive water efficiently...so that your fishing methods can have a better chance of being where the fish are...
Rickie
yes....definitely the word here is that the crappie are on the bank...we fished the bank and caught a few the other day but i just realized the depths on all those pics. most of them range from 11-16 feet.....my tactic for tomorrow is to go back to these spots since they are now marked and see if those specks are still there and try to catch them in that deeper water vs trying to hit every 4-6 foot bank and if no luck with crappie ill throw a deep crank for bass over those trees
Sometimes fish shadows are hard to see...especially if the Contrast or Sharpness is higher causing the image to be a little "grainy"...
Generally a fish right on the bottom will show a shadow very close to the white speck...
And a fish higher off bottom will show a shadow farther away from the white speck...
Here's a depiction showing how fish at various depths create their respective shadow...
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...B/ece0f5bf.jpg
Rickie