Boatist
Rear Admiral
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2002
- Messages
- 4,552
Re: Fish finder recommendations
I think you may want to start with a tutorial from Lowrance.
First you need to understand that you will not find many crappie with a fish finder.
Small fish are usually in or very near structure.
Very hard to see small fish in a bush or on a rocky drop off.
To start with in 30 feet of water you will see a 10 foot circle directly below the transducer.
This starts at the transducer as a cone about 2 inches and at 15 feet deep will show a 5 foot circle at 30 about a 10 foot circle and at 45 feet a 15 foot circle.
In shallow water power and resolution is not very important at all. So 240 or 320 vertical resolution is fine.
In deep water (over 200 feet) power and resolution is very important.
A GPS will likely help you catch more fish than a depth finder as when you find a bush holding fish you can mark it?s location and find it day after day.
As time goes by you will develop a list of location holding fish. Add to that location water depth and water temperature when you found fish there and soon you will catch lots of fish year after year.
Anyway take your time in picking a fish finder as if you take care of it, it will last a very long time.
My 1985 Lowrance X50 still works perfect. No it is no longer state of the art but works perfect.
Check out the tutorial it may help you a lot.
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/Sonar-Tutorial/
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/GPS-Tutorial/
I think you may want to start with a tutorial from Lowrance.
First you need to understand that you will not find many crappie with a fish finder.
Small fish are usually in or very near structure.
Very hard to see small fish in a bush or on a rocky drop off.
To start with in 30 feet of water you will see a 10 foot circle directly below the transducer.
This starts at the transducer as a cone about 2 inches and at 15 feet deep will show a 5 foot circle at 30 about a 10 foot circle and at 45 feet a 15 foot circle.
In shallow water power and resolution is not very important at all. So 240 or 320 vertical resolution is fine.
In deep water (over 200 feet) power and resolution is very important.
A GPS will likely help you catch more fish than a depth finder as when you find a bush holding fish you can mark it?s location and find it day after day.
As time goes by you will develop a list of location holding fish. Add to that location water depth and water temperature when you found fish there and soon you will catch lots of fish year after year.
Anyway take your time in picking a fish finder as if you take care of it, it will last a very long time.
My 1985 Lowrance X50 still works perfect. No it is no longer state of the art but works perfect.
Check out the tutorial it may help you a lot.
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/Sonar-Tutorial/
http://www.lowrance.com/en/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/GPS-Tutorial/
