Fish Finder Training – Screenshots & Interpretations

[J-Doc]

I'm honestly impressed! With the images and your expanding knowledge of sonar equipment that is.....But dammit, where are the accompanying pics of slimey green things with holes in their lips ?

Lmao!!! That's a compliment and poke at the same time! Lol!

I have several photos. Lots of walleye and a few big bass too.

[J-Doc]

I will say, learning more about sonar has helped me catch fish better this year.

[fishinwrench]

I will say, learning more about sonar has helped me catch fish better this year.

Well that's cool. I love learning stuff that actually pays off.

I gotta salute this thread, it has made me SOUND like I know what I'm talking about when discussing these units when asked to install them. So far I've just been following the instructions in the box.....No complaints yet, thankfully. Transducer placement and alignment on these newer units seems to have a wide margin for error (which is a good thing in some applications) unlike the older dinosaurs I grew up with.

[J-Doc]

Well if an old fart like you can learn something and admit it.....

There is hope for this country yet. Lol!

Glad it's helped you. It's helped me for sure! I wish I had found something like this year's ago.

[Bass Ivy]

I wanted to add some Screen shots on here for the folks that are learning about what the pictures on a sonar are actually showing. Ive been using them for years and it has taken years to really figure out what you are seeing. When I got this Lowrance HDS -8 Gen 2 With Structure Scan It took most of the guessing out of what you are seeing on the screen. First off the biggest problem I had in over the years was being able to tell brush piles or trees from fish. Or pick out fish inside of a tree top or brush pile. In the sonar pic you can see at the bottom there is just a blob there that is either fish or a tree or both. But look at the right hand picture from the Down Image. It clears it right up as to what you are seeing. Its a tree with a school of fish to the right and a school of fish to the left. and that is at 70 feet. Up at 40 feet you have some target fish Id say they are stripers. If you can see a fish in your Down Imgage screen shot its pretty good size. The pics are not that clear and my sensitivity was a little too high on my sonar pic but when I saved these screen shots I had only had the unit on the water a couple times. This is in Beaver Lake

Here again in this picture the Down image clears up what structure you are looking at. It really shows the bait balls well. There are some nice target fish around that tree. And again my sensitivity is a little high I could turn it down and clear the image up.

[Bass Ivy]

I had alot of text typed in on the pics above and lost it somehow. I figured I better just leave that post alone the more I tried to edit it the more I messed things up. LOL . I like the shot of this ledge at about 30 feet down.

[Bass Ivy]

Ive noticed my Down Image shots are alot better on 800kHz. And I probably need to run the sensitivity on my sonar on Automatic. This is just a nice shot. Looks likes a school of whites or crappie just off the the right side of that shad ball. attachment=24100:DSC02978.JPG]

[Bass Ivy]

On some of my DI shots you will notice there is lines at the top. When im running in SI those lines will only be on the left side. Im thinking that my Structure Scan tranducer is mounted just a little bit too high and its shooting into the Jack plate to the transducers left. I think that is what is causing those lines right at the top. If anyone else has seen or heard of this problem let me know. I think my SS ducer needs moved down just a tad.

[J-Doc]

Thanks for sharing and some really great shots.

This shows the quality difference between Gen 1 (Elite Series) and generation 2 (HDS) units when you compare your screen shots against my screenshot I've shared in previous post.

Also, the reason your images look better on 800 is because it's a higher frequency and you're going to get crisper or higher definition images than you would with 455. The higher frequency (800) sends a signal down to the bottom and back up faster than 455 which is why you're getting the crisper images. Think about boat speed and the time it takes to send one ping from the boat to the bottom and back up and that logically explains why you get higher definition images with a higher frequency like 800.

And I agree with you, I think the horizontal lines are probably feedback from your jack plate.

[Bass Ivy]

Yeh Im sure its the jack plate causing it but really its not bad enough that it bothers me much I will probably just leave it alone. I never have tried to use the overlay feature on that Gen -2. Yeh 800 is way better I think I was reading somewhere where 455 was better in shallow water and was checking that out. But I think I will just leave it at 800.