MyFishFinder Forum
My Fish Finder Main => General Fishing Discussion => Topic started by: Mace on Mar 09, 2016, 02:53 AM
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Hi, hope you are all well...
I was wondering if some one could help me. I have a question on the actual reading of the screen information.
I have attached example photos and wondered what you would think the bottom is like?
I'm not sure if I'm over thinking this and it is what it is but what are sections marked in the colours? I'm trying to see a difference between silt and gravel in a lake I fish.
The blue has a dark return then the section below which is a weaker, and then a stronger larger section.
What would you read from this? Should I be looking a specific section?
Really sorry if this is a dumb question.
Mace
(https://www.myfishfinder.com/fishing_forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F&hash=95b82c89ba4d3bc33c562212006dc28d)
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Hi, hope you are all well...
I was wondering if some one could help me. I have a question on the actual reading of the screen information.
I have attached example photos and wondered what you would think the bottom is like?
I'm not sure if I'm over thinking this and it is what it is but what are sections marked in the colours? I'm trying to see a difference between silt and gravel in a lake I fish.
The blue has a dark return then the section below which is a weaker, and then a stronger larger section.
What would you read from this? Should I be looking a specific section?
Really sorry if this is a dumb question.
Mace
How do you attach a picture?
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(https://www.myfishfinder.com/fishing_forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs20.postimg.org%2Fhgu65jryl%2Fimage.jpg&hash=a762bfb2a7504ee513b004421a817fc9)
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The softer the bottom, the more the sonar penetrates before returning signal.
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When I started using a sonar, I found some videos on YouTube that really helped interpreting the screen and how to play with settings. I can't remember most of the specific videos, but flukemaster has one that was simple and useful.
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Sorry, so how would you read that picture, the first part (blue) is that what you mean? Or is it red?
Im trying to understand why there is a bar between red and blue. And trying to understand what it all means.
Really appreciate your help.
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What kind of a sonar is this?
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What kind of a sonar is this?
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It's WaveRunner WFF1 or rebadged A yachting Fc500/520
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No one?
Which bit should be thicker or thinner depending on the hardness of softness of the bottom?
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Hard bottom should have a wider return or gray line because it returns more of your sonar pulse. Soft bottom absorbs more of the signal and gives a thinner bottom reading
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Thanks Ice Dawg, but which part? could you highlight to me which colour bit represents the true bottom?
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Hard bottom should have a wider return or gray line because it returns more of your sonar pulse. Soft bottom absorbs more of the signal and gives a thinner bottom reading
This is correct - I was reverse of this and I was wrong.
(brain fart)
I deleted my earlier post to avoid any future confusion.
Here's a link to an article with some basics in it.
Tons of stuff out there on line.
Especially Youtube.
http://www.bassmaster.com/tips/fishing-electronics-part-1-basic-sonar (http://www.bassmaster.com/tips/fishing-electronics-part-1-basic-sonar)
Good luck.
Mac
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Thanks Ice Dawg, but which part? could you highlight to me which colour bit represents the true bottom?
The dark gray line is the actual bottom. The light gray line below below it is the gray line which you should be able to adjust to make it wider or thinner. On my color sonar I would probably have it show up as red. Anything above the dark grsy line or separate from it isn't the actual bottom. Bait fish, weeds, fish, rocks etc. will be above the bottom. Experience is your best teacher.
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Thanks again.
The dark grey is the bottom,
So the wider it is the more of an echo (harder bottom) , the slimer means less?
The part below can be ignored?
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The part below can be ignored. A hard bottom returns more of the signal and is wider. A soft bottom absorbes some of the sonar pulse and will be thinner.
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if it were a colored sonar it would help a lot here to explain what it is seeing.
being it's a gray scale sonar, the darker the line, the harder/stronger the return ping is.
the gain is how you adjust it.
we don't know what the gain is set at so we can only guess what it reads, but the other gray scale images are an exact copy of the dark line. that means maybe the softness of the bottom, but i think not. the silt or mud on top of the bottom should show above the dark line and it doesn't show any thing on top of that line. so i see it as a hard bottom, but then with all the zig zags it's drawing, it maybe you have the gain so high, it's drawing every thing including weeds as bottom. so try turning the gain down until you get one line if it can of the bottom or experiment with the gain to get a better image, if the sonar can.
using one ice fishing, we set it to show our jig and a locked bottom and only turn the gain up until we have both of those parameters set. we don't use them maxed out and only use a minimal gain.
6 color sonar we set the gain to be red bottom, as that's the strongest signal return it draws. so on yours, the darkest line would be red.
try running your sonar thru youtube search to see if any one posted using it there might help you some more.
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Thanks so much for the reply... Really detailed.
I understand the thinner and thicker replies and how they show on the screen. In all honesty when I look at other peoples fish finders on google I can understand theirs a lot more. Being monochrome doesn't help but I feel it should be able to do what I require, I hope! I just need to know the hardness, softness or weed.
When you say the gain, I don't seem to have a setting for that. The instructions are basic. I have noise filter, grayline (on or inversed), and sensitive that I can see relate.
I have the manual if you have a spare minute? http://waverunnerbaitboats.co.uk/media/pdf/wireless-fish-finder-manual.pdf
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the gain is called sensitivity on some models, but it's the same difference.
what i see is the same line(s) being drawn all the time regardless of if it's going down a slope like it shows you doing and getting into those zigzags that i think are weeds or logs or other structure, but it can only draw it all as zigzags. the line(s) stay the same at all times. this means to me that it's turned up to high or that's just how that one works.
there are major differences in the sonar engines being used in sonars. some are very basic and some are very elaborate.
if it could show a soft bottom it would show a lighter shade of gray on top of the darkest line, but it never does it in the image you shared with us. it also looks to be drawing weeds as zigzags, but always using the same lines to represent them and every thing else full time. from what i see in the manual and youtube, that's all you can get out of it.
heres some youtube info on it
if you want more detail than the image you shared and i don't blame you, you have to tune (adjust what ever settings it offers such as gain/sensitivity) that one to see if it can or not.
if not, then time to upgrade. it looks to me as it's a bottom end unit that will show the basics only. it has a 4 level gray scale. they don't want to talk about target separation in the specs in the manual either. it will be very hard to draw any detail with a limited drawing capability of 4 level gray scale.
page 6 of the manual shows more of how it can do compared to your image you shared with us. it has broken dots trying to show soft substances. it draws zigzags for weed structure. so that's the best it can draw is on page 6. tune yours to draw like that and that's what you get with it. it has inverse which just makes strong returns show as lighter shades of gray or the opposite of the normal gray scale.
the sonar you are trying will show what you need to know. that is the bottom and the fish. like any sonar does. it's a fish finder. it draws images of fish to try to tell you how big they are. i am not sure why you need to know what the bottom is, but if it's real important, you can use a camera. i can tell with my anchor too.
for what it's worth, i don't fish with fish finders in a boat any more because i cast towards the shore and the fish finder doesn't look there, so theres no point in it. only in trolling would it be of use and i haven't fished that way in years. it's too slow of a way to catch fish for me and i'd rather cast and fly fish.
the latest in open water sonar is color and chirp and 3d imaging and using two beams at one time in one transducer. the thing for me was out growing (wanting more from a sonar) the sonar i was using. i own 5 of them.
if you have to spend more on one, try to spend more than you think you should and do lots of research first. if you ice fish, you may want an ice sonar that works in open water too. some do, some don't.
this is an very entry level fish finder.
i'm not trying to be a downer, just as truthful as i can be with the information i have. try the simulator to see what it can do also.
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Here's the 2 URL's in links -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzTK3c6cjtc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzTK3c6cjtc)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfVICUTb84g (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfVICUTb84g)
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The grayline is the area between the double lines of the bottom. You can get as technical as you want or enjoy a day of fishing. A fish is about the same density as the water surrounding it so what you are seeing is something of a different density which is the fish's swim bladder which is full of air. Nuff said