I’m curious about how important a good depth/fishfinder is to ya’ll inshore fishing? I’ve always had relatively cheap @$200 units. I never felt like I could trust the fish marking features, and only really use mine to check depth and find holes/ledges. My fishing is typically much less than 30 feet in the ICW and in creeks for Flounder, Reds, Trout, etc.
So, how much benefit do you guys find in the more expensive models. Am I missing something that might improve my catch rate?
JLee;
Best move I’ve ever made was to step up a notch to mid range
hummingbird with side scan. In areas you describe it’ll let you see
features that you most likely don’t know are there ; ie, structure
off to side , bait balls and school fish to side , below water points
and troughs ect, ect. Also the ability to mark the above mentioned
targets to return or goto them. They’re not worth much in reeel
skinnee water in side image mode but then neither are high dollar
or economy models . There is a learning curve but a little time
on the water playing while fishing you’ll catch on fast…
Hope this helps!!!
Since getting a Humminbird I have used it more and more for scouting. The side imaging is amazing also. You have to learn from experience what you’re looking for first. For example, I have stumbled across fish then looked on the finder and figured out that what i was seeing was fish and not debris for example. Then, you can use it as a tool to recognize what youre seeing. Of course the opposite can be true. What you used to think was fish could be a fallen tree. Down imaging answers that question. Just an example. Trout laying on the bottom don’t look like a boomerang. They look like a spot that rises off an otherwise smooth bottom. I’ve used it to locate (and catch) individual fish in deeper water 15-30ft. These will look like boomerangs or squiggly stripes that traverse the water column. My only experience is with Humminbird so your mileage may vary. With side imaging I have found individual pieces of structure away from the bank or even large fields of structure that i never used to know existed. You certainly can do just fine without it, but it’s a nice tool also.
To be honest, the thing I find most helpful on my FF/chart plotter is my clock so I know where I am in the tide cycle followed by my temp reading. The FF reading helps but a lot of times it doesn’t change whether I’ll fish an area or not.
I have a Lowrance elite 4x HDI w/downscan ( under $400) and have had good luck with it in 15-30 ft dpths for finding structure and bait holding striper on lake moultrie. I also like the Navionics charts for finding ledges to fish…
Thanks for the ■■■■■■■■ guys. Appears learning to use the features may help me to get outside of my standard “beat the bank” practice especially when they go deeper. Not sure I’m ready to jump in at over $800 for a side scan but might upgrade to a bottom imagining unit.
Mudslinger, Thanks for the image. That shows me just how helpful a better unit might be. Just to confirm what I’m seeing, is that cloud of returns at the 2-10ft. range bait, with the colored arches just under returns from feeding Striper? What’s the grey and the red on the bottom? I see it’s being used at 200khz. Would a higher rate show more detail?
When I installed my iPilot I decided not to replace my bow mounted unit as I wanted a clean install on this smaller boat. Now, I’m forever asking the back deck angler to tell me the depth to make sure I haven’t moved to far off a hole or ledge. What I really wish I had was a small screen at the bow tied to the console unit that just showed depth.
You are right on the money with what you are seeing. The day I captured that screenshot the bait was all around me, and you"ll see clouds of small returns when you’re over smaller bait fish. The boomerangs are the striper under the bait. The orange-yellow at 21ft is the hard sand bottom of the lake. 200khz gives good detail for the depths of the lake. 83khz gives a wider cone and less detail. The downscan is 800/455 Khz, and gives picture like detail, but you only see a small area of the bottom. The downscan doesn’t show fish like the 200Khz sonar does, but its great for seeing structure and brushpiles.
