898c SI - Not sure I am getting the resolution I should.

Hi Guys....


I have a 898c SI that i bought a couple of years ago. I have used it very little since my kids were too young to get out in the boat. Now I have more time so I purchased the Ipilot link system a couple of weeks ago and we have been out almost every other day.


I never really had a lot of time to study the 898 and question what benefit it has given me... I want to make sure I am getting all I can out of the system.


Do you guys really find schools of crappies with the Side Imaging? I have not been able to do that at all over the last few weeks. I can see structure....but then I have to pass over it and see if it is holding fish. Do you guys do this? The question is how often do you really spot schools of crappie with the SI out of the water column?


I do not feel I get the image quality that others are getting. I compare the SI images and DI to what I see in simulation mode and they are miles apart. I have also seen images posted on line that are pretty cool. I wonder if something is wrong with my system or if it is me? The images online are clean...mine are blurry. Are those guys using 800kHZ when they take those really nice images...like seeing crappies off to the side out of the water column?

I use 455 to get the full slice of water...I match my boat speed to the chart speed....I adjust the sensitivity, contrast and sharpness like everyone says to do. I do not get even close to the image like the one below...

https://images.search.yahoo.com/imag...yoBo8&fr=crmas

My DI is even worse than my SI....It is just all blurry.


Does water quality matter? I am on Lake Wissota in Wisconsin. This time of year there is a lot of green string alge in the water. I have went to other clear lakes and have not had better success imaging.


My transducer is level with the boat transom as it sets on the trailer....on the water it may set heavier on the console side where I sit... Is that a big deal?


I appreciate any help...I am really frustrated. My wife and kids love to fish and I want to get them on fish but this is not helping me.

Need a few pic,how far of a range are u going,when u say u are matching speed,what is your speed? And don't expect your pic to always match others best pic,go with someone that has a si,also it takes time to learn a unit and are you understanding crappies by the season as to where they should be,as to unit it will show u a school of crappies if range is not too far,i like about 60 feet or so on each side and run speed about 3 if looking for good pic,also if u see something hit cusor and adjust sent and contrast while unit is stop to get best pic,others will come on here to help u

Genec has given some great advice! I use 455 95% if the time. Yes I see schools of crappie on side imaging. 75' range 3 mph, chart speed on 3 or 4. I have seen schools of crappie up to 45' deep in the wintertime on SI. There is a learning curve as stated above. If you can find someone local to do a ride along with you could shave 50% off the curve, IMHO!
My home lake has 3' to 15' visibility depending on the part of the lake.
Hope this helps, others will be along shortly to chime in with good advice!

The image in the link is a HB advertisement image...and ya know HB is not going to post any images except for the very best in a lineup of images...

You seem to already know the basics ...(your words show you've been studying)...

Always be aware that some Enviromental conditions are just not conducive to getting good images...hard bottoms and hard targets are the easiest...

Also be aware that the 455kHz frequency is always going to be fuzzier than the 800kHz frequency....but the 800kHz is going to be darker at the edges of the screen...

I use 455kHz for finding new structure all the way to the edges of the screen...
I use 800kHz for discerning the detail closer to the boat...

The differences are obvious ...
http://i477.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps8630f91a.jpg

Post some pix of your 455kHz images and your 800kHz images...so we can see if there may be some technical issue that needs attention...

Rickie

Thanks for chiming in and helping me out. I got a lot better last night...I went back through the installation manual and saw that my transducer was tipped way down. The manual said it should be 4-5° lower at the tip (away from the boat). Mine was close to 40°. After I brought this up I went out and saw some improvement.
See images.... sorry about the clay matthews pic

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Couple more questions...
Have you guys seen this issue with the DI?
Is this baitfish I am seeing on the structure?
How level do you guys have your transducer? Do you level it to how your boat sets in the water or just level to how it sets on the trailer?
How important is getting the transducer level? Am I splitting hairs here?

I wish I had someone with a SI to compare to or learn from...but all my friends are too cheap.

Thanks for the help...

Hartwa

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Im not sure about anything I am doing with side imaging yet. But Sunday I took these pictures with my iphone of my graph. These images have not been altered in any way (because i dont know how to yet lol). I cant recognize these fish on here as crappie or not, but I posted up on top of this school and sure caught alot of crappie!

Right now thats the only way I can identify what I am looking at. See it, catch it, then identify it.

I can't get the attachments to open...

It is important for the xducer to be level with the water's surface...

Sometimes this can be done by following the scum line on the boat...

It is only necessary to tip the rear of the xducer "tail down" if there are problems getting clean bubble free water flowing over the xducer face at higher speeds...

Rickie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LowePro

Right now thats the only way I can identify what I am looking at. See it, catch it, then identify it.

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This is also the way most of us positively identify fish species...

One can make a educated guess by knowing the patterns of certain species at certain times of the year...

Catchin 'em is the best identification....

Rickie

LowePro, I am in the beginning stages of learning to read these screens too. How deep did you catch the fish in the water column? From what I understand, those should be half way up in the water column??

I am not sure why my images did not upload...will try again. Let me know what you think...I think that the images are OK now but I am going to tweak the transducer to get as much as I can out of it. Also...is that baitfish I am seeing in my images?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by hartwa

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Great shot of the bridge piling...

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I'm thinkin the image below may be a school of fish...by being able to pick out individual echoes in that wad...

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The image below looks like brush with mixed in baitfish...

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The image below...too much red for baitfish in the 2d ...this one needs rescanning from several directions...

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The image below...circled in red is probably a school of fish or baitfish...(did you notice the defined thermocline in this pic..??)

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The image below...this is a known software issue with the DI Enhance Sharpness setting...turn Sharpness Off...

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Rickie

Seems the shots are really getting dragged out when your down near the 0.? area. Try and maintain a steady speed and straight run. I normally see the grainy effect come into play when I start adjusting sharpness, this can be even more evident if the Sen. and Con. are not set right for the conditions you are in.

In your last shot above I can see where the screen was stopped then started again in deeper water, some detail can be seen but then when the screen was stopped again the shot was different. May be from coming off the motor to get the first shot and then a drift for the one you posted. At a slow drift I get the strung out shot as well in DI and the other issues may just fall on the settings.

In the third shot up you can see this strung out return in 2D/DI/SI and the one at just .4 higher shows good. This sometimes happens when the fish are in your 200 beam (2D) and are follow the same path. As Rickie stated for 2D the returns have a lot of red for bait...maybe larger fish in your 200 beam but more passes will tell the story.

Thanks a lot for all the responses..... I feel I am at least set up now to have confidence that the locator can find schools of slabs if they are present... The search continues.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arkcrappie

LowePro, I am in the beginning stages of learning to read these screens too. How deep did you catch the fish in the water column? From what I understand, those should be half way up in the water column??

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Fish were staged from 12-16 fow, and I spider rigged with hooks at 9-10 feet down. Once I located the fish I post up on them with my 2D sonar so I could see the schools "true depth" in the water column.

I have read an article about judging the depth of fish from the side imaging point of view. And it is quite complicated. It makes sense to me, but there is absolutely no way I could explain this due to my perceptions of what I read (meaning i think I understand/ but also may be a chance Im wrong, and also a lack of appropriate terminology) I can tell you the article was posted on this website as a thread, and then reposted again as a sticky. So for me, for now.... I see em on side imaging, mark em, then turn to either down imaging or 2d and look at em from right above. I rely on 2d mostly when looking at just suspended fish. I can have huge blobs of fish on 2d and switch over to down imaging and it may not show a thing. But in contrast, the 2d will show a big blob that goes all the way to the bottom, I will switch over to my down imaging and it shows a tree top, or brush pile or whatever is there, and still, and dense. If fish were in that brushpile and being still in it, they will show up on the down imaging, and it is clear as day. But wen looking at or for suspended fish from above I use 2d way more, and only switch to down imaging when I think I may b looking at structure. The reason being... from what I have read, is that the hi def down imaging sonar waves are so much thinner and they may omit a moving object in the water, where when the much thicker 2d sonar waves would have picked up the moving object in the water. So I compare the 2 different images to diagnose what Im looking at. I have only been using these things since march, and this is what has worked for me the best so far. Im just amateur tho, would definitely take others advice over mine if its conflicting with what they say.

Low you probably know this already but with the heat of summer on us try out in the deep stuff as well. Here in TN I am finding larger fish suspended over 50 fow at the 10-20 foot area. Not rigged to run any spider rigs so have been running deeper cranks through these areas to pull them in. Best locations have been the wind swept side of the lake, I will run and find as the morning goes on more bait fish will be found as well as the schools of crappie. hope it helps.

I am new to this fishng deep water thing. I did not know that they would stack up in that deep of water. I will definitely go check that out! Thans for the tip and keep em coming! I need all the help I can get. How long does the wiind have to blow in a certain direction to get the baitfish on the windy side?

Wish I knew, I started shortly after sun up. Wind was not bad, by 8 it was steady, not good for still fishing and trying to stay on a spot but for trolling not a problem. With each pass I noticed that more and more bait and larger fish were grouping in that area. A big misconception I think is that the wind blows the bait to that spot...It's more of what the bait is feeding on that get pushed over there and leads the bait there and brings the others with them.

From his first picture...I would say the top ones are half way down and then rest are there to the bottom. I don't know....still learning too.

I went out with my father in law yesterday. i spent a good hour looking over the lake with SI trying to find the crappies...no luck. He was hassling me the whole time to stop looking around and just start fishing. Brings me to a good question...

I would think given the investment...you guys also do not start fishing until you find fish on the locator...correct? What do you look for...let me clarify....I see all kinds of things on my SI, DI and 2D. What makes you stop and say..."here they are" or " this is interesting enough to try"?

Just wondering...there was a couple of time yesterday when I say enough on my SI to think there might be a school of fish down there but was not confident enough to give it a try.

Thanks for the help again.

Hartwa

Had a guy tell me that 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. I have found this to be true more times than not myself. It seems like ya can be going along not catching a thing and then just start wearing em out. (this being before me using graphs.) I try to drive around until I have found fish before I start fishing. This is if my nerves can stand it, Im very trigger happy and hard for me to wait without wetting a hook. Each trip out I see more and more the benefits of trusting what I see on my graphs and not fishing until I have found fish. And when I practice what Im preaching it usually pays off. But there are times when I cant find fish, just give up on looking and getting poles in the water. Needless to say, this almost never works out good for me. If they are there. Your graphs will show them. Trust em.

Hart think about the time of year and what the crappie are doing. Diff. times they like diff. Locations in the lake but keep weather ect in mind. May help eliminate a lot of running and concentrate on more productive water.

If it interest you, fish it. If you don't catch any or a diff. type so what that's how we learn lol. Just have fun

Hart,also if fishing with someone who just want to get poles wet,then i would not look at unit long but just hit a few spots that had been productive,then when you are alone or with someone who likes learning from these units, do most of your searching,with friends its more fellowship and pleaseing them,imo. Nothing like fishing with family,enjoy them as long as u can