Help me dechiper my fishfinder..

[fishfeatures]

My other half gave me a Garmin echo 500c a few weeks ago for my birthday but I can't get my head around a few things on even though i have read the manual that came with it:facepalm:.

What is better for trolling 70 or 200 hz? why??

Why does it scroll so quickly even when stopped and anchored surely the bottom would stay the same, but it constantly ?? If i reduce the scroll speed does this somehow reduce the results ?

fish arcs or id


any help guys would be really appreciated..


K.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Help me dechiper my fishfinder..

70 will give you wider area of coverage in shallower depths. 200 is for use in areas 100ft deep or more. When stoppped or at anchor A faster scroll speed will be better if the fish are not moving around a lot. If they are then a slower scroll speed will show them moving but may also distort the fish size. It's kind of something you need to play with until you find where you like it.

Arches are usually a better indication of what is a fish and what is clutter. I don't know any serious fisherman that use fish id because of all the false hits.

Oh yeah, happy birthday..

P.S. I use mine as a fathometer first and a fish locator second. If there's a big rock pile under you and the fish are there on the screen, the fish locator did it's job.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Help me dechiper my fishfinder..

The first thing you have to remember is that the picture you see on the display is the history of what WAS under the boat. The display is refreshed one line at a time starting on the right hand side of the unit. Only the first line of pixels on the right is the "real" time representation of what is below. The rest of the dispaly is a compulation of the history. That fish on the left side of your display could be 50 yards away by now.

The slower the scroll speed the more "history” that is displayed on the screen. Since I want to know where the fish are now, not where they were, I run the scroll speed at maximum to minimize the lag between detection and display. If I want to know exactly where a fish is, I’ll go with A-scope which lets me look at the real time sonar returns.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Help me dechiper my fishfinder..

70 kHZ - deep penetrating power(~1000'+) - wider coverage range, almost 3 times less resolution than 200kHZ

200kHZ - less penetrating power (~less than 600') - narrower coverage, high sensativity

 

[fishfeatures]

Re: Help me dechiper my fishfinder..

that's a great help guys, thanks.