Reading a fish finder

I'm on my second fish finder and haven't a clue what it's telling me. Then again I have no idea what the first was telling me either. I have this one because it was on the boat when I got the boat. Have tried watching a bunch of you tube video's on them but usually loose interest in them fairly quick. Seem's people making them really need to eliminate all the boring stuff explaining things I could care less about and more on what the fish finder is telling me. The one I have now shows me two depth number's, I think that what they are. One really deep and the other shallow? What's with that? All that stuff on the bottom of the deal is just confusing as can be! Assuming the shallow number is the depth of water under me, I go by it. What's that other number for? Amazing when I found the occasional video I could follow, the guy doing it knew what all that junk was, how did he know? Really bad part for me is I though a finder would be easy to work. I spent 8 yrs in the AF as a Radar Tech but never saw anything like these thing's. Girlfriend told me it beep's when it see's a fish, I can't hear it. Does it really do that? And I assume it is showing an area right under the transducer but isn't it a cone shape? So what I'm looking at is something like 3 dimensional? Very frustrating!

I am not going to pretend to be an authority on this. First off, what brand and model are you using? Secondly, start messing with settings and dialing it in. After seeing some of the different settings and screens, the videos will probably make more sense. You always have “reset to factory defaults “ if you reach the point of no return!

I think your best bet is to find someone local who can help you understand what's showing on the screen. By the way what unit do you have.
"gene"

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Originally Posted by PawPaw "gene"

I think your best bet is to find someone local who can help you understand what's showing on the screen. By the way what unit do you have.
"gene"

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Pretty small town I live in. Only two of us has a boat and he doesn't have a depth finder. Son lives about an hour and a half away but he's never used one either. Bethe could figure it out better than me, come to think of it!

What is the model name of the unit ...??

Rickie

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Originally Posted by rnvinc

What is the model name of the unit ...??

Rickie

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I'm not sure. Something like a Hummingbird 500? Boat is in the shop and won't be out for several days. Motor work.

When you get the boat back, be sure and post what make and model the fish finder is.

Will do!

I will do that. I know it's a Hummingbird.

John Easton does a good job of explaining 2d (cone shaped) Sonar vs DownScan (fan shaped) Sonar ...

https://youtu.be/R4T0Tuv6RvY

Rickie

Shouldn’t show two depths. Could that possibly be a depth number and a temperature? The main thing I figured about about my basic fish finders is they are really more for finding the right depth, bottom hardness (if it’s a color screen) and temp. For instance the very first one ever owned would show fish symbols. I always said they just had a recording on it until I got my better units. I think the main thing you need to focus on is when you catch a fish look at the finder and see what’s the depth, temp, bottom hardness, and did the finder show something on the screen at the time of the catch. I used to catch fish when mine didn’t show anything and when I’d stop catching them it would show fish. I guess it was because I fish in front of the boat and it only shows what’s directly beneath. Then I would float forward and it would show the fish I was just catching. As far as structure don’t try and guess what it is. Just know there is are variation of something different on the bottom and that attracts fish. The best thing to do is sink a tree somewhere you know and look at it when it is first sank and then check it every time out. You see something different on it and it’s probably fish. Only thing that’s going to make you better with it is to use it regularly


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Gonna have to watch that a couple more time's. Best one I've seen yet. Thank you!

As hot as it is outside, the big number MUST be the outside temperature. 97 degrees in south Alabama most recently. But seriously, good luck figuring out what you are seeing and what those numbers are for sure.

Fish finder really helps to enhanced ones probability to catch fishes, and focus of catching good fishes without much of struggle aside I agree with others The Brand of Fish Finder you're using your setting also pays a crucial part I think you might find how to set your setting to find the fishes you are looking for or you can ask other people who fish at your places they comes really useful :)

This is an old thread but it has a lot of info on reading depth finders. It dates back before some of the new technology but there are almost 300 posts on it so it runs through several generations of depth finders

.Hope it helps.

https://www.crappie.com/crappie/sout...terpretations/

Some of the best ones I have seen done were actually guys looking for catfish. Catfish are big[ger than crappie] and have big swim bladders so they show up well. Some of the guys that drift or troll (for walleye or lake trouts or whatever you troll for) can also see their bait on the screen and you can actually see the fish come up to it. I recommend you search youtube for some of those.

Get rid of the fish symbols, turn fish alarm off, run your graph speed at the speed you are moving the boat (set it to 3 if you are moving at 3 mph, 2 for 2, etc.), keep the sensitivity somewhere in the middle and the de-clutter feature turned to what you need to keep the screen mostly clean.

I am continually amazed at what you can see on these things when you get them dialed in and really understand what the screen is representing to you that is under the boat.

Got my boat home just a bit ago. The fish finder is a Hummingbird 560.

Manual for that is here: https://www.humminbird.com/sites/hum...hd_531716e.pdf

No "g" in Humminbird. (Alabama spelling - just kidding!)

Well it appears the second depth number was really the surface water temp! I should have been in the navy!

Go to Bass Pro or Cabela's and have someone there explain what it all means. I mostly use mine to show the depth and if fish are in the area. From there, I fish multiple depths straight off the boat and work it from there. Good luck and hope you get it figured out, because they are handy tools.

manual is online just search for"humminbird 560 manual"

Was going through some stuff in the boat when I got it and in the bottom of a box I found the manual.