Reading your sounder - a primer

[Ranger]

Great thread! I've got no idea how to read my sounder (Lowrance X50DS) - I've always been land-based till I got the Outback.

As far as I can see the Fish ID in this model is useless. First time i switched it on I went "Holy shit, there's fish everywhere!" Then i noticed i was passing over a swarm of the big brown jellyfish we get in the Swan. Anything suspended in the water - seaweed, plastic bags, whatever - gets the fish symbol. Some of them may even have been fish - but how can I tell?

I don't see arches when I turn Fish ID off. Matter of fact I don't see much at all, except the bottom. I'm assuming the install is OK since it was done for me by Sailpower, who sold me the yak. I've got the sensitivity set to maximum, but as you can tell, I don't know what I'm doing.

Right now all I'm using it for is as a depth indicator - useful, but not what I was hoping for. OK, I know it's a cheapie, but I'm assuming that if I knew a bit more I'd learn to see the fish.

I've had a look at a couple of books, but they seemed to be aimed at owners of expensive colour units. Does anyone know of a good book aimed at B&W sounders? Or web sites? Anything?

Please help me turn my fish finder into a finder of fish!

All fish ID are useless so get rid of the stupid things!

Your x50 is pretty much the same as my x52, except I have a slightly larger screen, and you have a dual frequency transducer.

Set the transducer to 200mhz.
Turn the scroll speed right up to full.
Turn the sensitivity to maximum until the screen goes black with interference, then slowly back the sensitivity off until the screen starts to clear, leaving any interference (blackness) up near the surface (you don't look for fish up there anyways).

You have just maximised the information your sounder can show you, and these units are quite good for the price, with decent resolution and enough power for the depths we fish in.

No bells and whistles, but a good clear reading, and a capable unit.

You will only see complete "classic" arches when a fish passes through the centre of the transducer cone. When fish just go through the side of the cone you will only see a part arch, or possibly only a few tiny pixels, so watch the screen and pay close attention to all those little black dots which pop up.

Another option with this unit is to simply set the sensitivity to "auto" until you get more used to operating the thing. It works OK in auto mode too.

Excuse the crap photography, but these units show very good arches when the fish are there!

Oh, and to keep this post on track, these are Bream actively feeding!

[scater]

This is a shot from Wellington Pt this morning, a coral bommie over a reef and sand bottom, i think the suspended marks are probably the pike that were harrassing my poor soft plastics, though there were a heap of small baitfish around:



Sam

[Digger]

I recently fitted a Garmin 300c F/F in my Outback. I have had a number of mono displays units before but never colour.

The information included is basic and I just wonder what a few of the more exotic markings are....I know that arches are a rarity but wonder if I am seeing some here or partial arches at least? I had the unit in AUTO and no WHITE LINE. Apologies for the photos which are a mixed bag and I did splash the screen getting in, leaving marks which show up in the pics.

From previous experience I know that vertical dashes are frequently smaller fish, perhaps Bream. The dark red blobs are sunken trees or branches I believe, but there are heavier readings looking similar to bigger fish as arches....what do you think?

If anyone has an opinion on some of these features, I'd find it interesting thanks........Rob

[keza]

one of the shapes in the second pic is a 10 pointers from space invaders.

can't help with the rest, it looks totally different to what i get on my eagle

[Nativeman]

Pic 1. Clutter in the water nothing of any significants, obviously a snag of some sort on the bottom
Pic 2. Hard to say, but maybe scattered bait, the water temp has gone up 3 degrees
Pic 3,4,5 Fish of some sort, well if red means fish.
Pic 6 Bait again...


Cheers

[RedPhoenix]

Here's an oldie but a goodie, Rob - hopefully it'll help out a little in general reading terms.

viewtopic.php?f=82&t=22122

Red.

[Digger]

Thanks for your input Kerry, Sel and Red. Space invaders, now that would be a good feature for the quieter times between bites!

One thing I'll say about Nowa Nowa is that there was a lot of "stuff" on the screen a lot of the time if I can only work out what it means, whereas other places are quite featureless by comparison.

Red, thanks mate, excellent article and I will save the link for future reference. Maybe you might like to add my post to it and resurrect the thread for members that mightn't have tripped over it yet?

If anyone sees something on these screen shots that they have a comment for, then I would be interested thanks.

Rob

[RedPhoenix]

Red, thanks mate, excellent article and I will save the link for future reference. Maybe you might like to add my post to it and resurrect the thread for members that mightn't have tripped over it yet?

Done mate.

Red.

[Digger]

Thanks a lot Red....great service!

R

[kayakbream]

Bought a Lowrance HDS-5 combo on Friday, took it out for the first time this morning- Awesome!! The XDS-50 I had in the old kayak was such a piece of crap in comparison!! I didn't believe there could be such a difference but suddenly I could see actual contours, fish etc.. Can't wait to try it out in deeper water
I had got used to interpreting the XDS-50, but I can tell you I even tried it out objects I had dropped in a pool, and it told me everything was a fish!! The best advice I can give is to keep it on manual mode, and if something funny turns up on the screen, switch between 83khz and 200khz a couple of times, you'll get a better idea of what it is! (This is for the XDS-50 only)

[Marineside]

Set the transducer to 200mhz.
Turn the scroll speed right up to full.
Turn the sensitivity to maximum until the screen goes black with interference, then slowly back the sensitivity off until the screen starts to clear, leaving any interference (blackness) up near the surface (you don't look for fish up there anyways).

Would this be standard sort of settings for any sounder i have an Eagle Cuda 300 ???

[ELM]

Set the transducer to 200mhz.
Turn the scroll speed right up to full.
Turn the sensitivity to maximum until the screen goes black with interference, then slowly back the sensitivity off until the screen starts to clear, leaving any interference (blackness) up near the surface (you don't look for fish up there anyways).

Would this be standard sort of settings for any sounder i have an Eagle Cuda 300 ???

Marineside, it's a good way to start for max sensitivity, if you do it each time when you go out you are retuning to that environment on the day and you will learn more as you go along. If you take a snorkel out jump in have a look at your sounder then stick ya head in the water, will help understand (special if there are fish, weed and can see the bottom) practicing deep water re-entry while you are at it

[LoboLoco]

Just a few quick notes that some people may not know:

Sounders do NOT pick up fish because of their swim bladders (Sharks don't have swim bladders but they sure turn up on a sounder!).

Red in your first sounder image I think it is that shape because of the angle of the transducer (either due to swell of a non perpendicular mount), rather than first picking up the tail end of the turtle then the neck. When the transducer beam is on an angle that is what an object looks like when you pass over it (or when is swims through the beam).
Here is another example of this from my cuda300

fish detction with transducer beam on an angle

P1232737.JPG (64.98 KiB) Viewed 362 times

The depth reading of an object usually isn't the actual depth of the object (unless you are directly over it). This is because if you are detecting something on the edge of the beam, the distance from the transducer to the object will be the same as the distance to an object at a deeper depth that is directly under the transducer beam. However both will be displayed at the same depth even tho the object on the edge of the beam sits higher in the water column. (this is where a picture speaks a 1000 words, I may draw some and scan them in if anyone is interested?).

Here are a few more images from my cuda 300:

In this image there are two fish sitting on the edge of a drop-off. Thet are sitting close together.

2 fish sitting on a drop-off

P3273160.JPG (67.76 KiB) Viewed 362 times

Here is a school of bait fish:

bait fish

P3273162.JPG (69.52 KiB) Viewed 362 times

Cheers
loboloco

[Digger]

Interesting stuff this!

Back on the water at Nowa Nowa yesterday and had more time to play with my Garmin. Firstly I have to say that being able to locate the fish is great as without this jigger I wouldn't have had a clue! There were heaps of fish there but only in certain spots.

Unfortunately my camera battery died early in the piece (how many trips will it do without a charge? About 3 1/2) and I only got a few screenshots this time. I did have much more opportunity to fiddle with settings however this trip. Tried the first (low) level of "white line" but found that other detail suffered too.

I tried alternating between wide and narrow beam and in this depth much prefer wide beam.

Best results were full screen 2 X Zoom. Later on I managed to turn off all unwanted digital information and just left depth and battery voltage as other readings nonsensical with in hull mounting. I also knocked it out of Auto Gain and found a little more definition with schools of smaller fish, rather than blobs so to speak.

Some of the screens shots full of fish would have been terrific to show here but like a silly bugger I forgot to charge the camera....sorry!

Top Shot is manual gain Narrow Beam, Bottom is Narrow Beam First level of Whiteline.


Rob

[Digger]

Here's a few more from the waters of Quarantine Bay Eden. Loads of baitfish, mainly slimies, some small tailor and pinkies. Some shots of bigger fish (I think) and contrast between wide and narrow beam.

Rob