Eagle Fish Mark 480

[Buzz Wing]

Well, we finally got to test out the boat, new depth finder, and new trolling motor this weekend on the 'Big D' Detroit River.

Although we did not catch any 'eyes , boats within conversation distance did. . We, (all 40 or so boats), were sitting on an area of about two football fields in length, same width, on a flat of about 4-10' with muddy chunk rock bottom. Make no mistake, these rocks were about the size of a UPS truck, so jigs were lost almost every drift. With about 10 'eyes caught on Wednesday morning, and about five caught this morning, we couldn't figure out what we were doing wrong. We didn't even mark fish in all our 10 hours of fishing! That is my worry.... Did I not set-up our depth finding unit correctly? Here is a picture of one of our drifts. Please tell me if it looks correctly set-up.



Although we did not mark any fish, fish were being caught mere yards away. ----.

Lord help us,

-Buzz....

[WTL]

Its ok, yall probly just arent any good.

The depth finder looks set up right, assuming there are no baitfish or suspended fish under you. If not, you can always fiddle with the sensitivity.

Wonder what that has on the FishMark 300? The unit looks exactly the same.

[Buzz Wing]

The only main difference is that is has more pixels. About 180 more to be exact...

Questions:

1. What should the sensitivity be set at, about?
2. Should I turn 'fish symbols' on or off?
3. What should the grayline be set at, about?

-Buzz

[WTL]

Answers:


1. Its a matter of preference, the type of fishing and location or both.

2. Its a matter of preference, the type of fishing and location or both.

3. Its a matter of preference, the type of fishing and location or both.




Thats a serious answer, by the way. Obviously if there were "correct" settings for each, the thing would come programed from the factory that way and it would not be adjustable.

I will say that most pros I believe turn the fish ID feature off. That doesnt mean you should do it. There are some people who can read depth finders like I can read a newspaper, and for them all the extra pixelated info that turning fish id off brings is worth it.

[Buzz Wing]

What could I set it at as a 'beginners' level, per se? Can I have some insight... That was very uninformative...

-Buzz

[WTL]

Beginners level? That screen you showed looked fine. You are gonna have to fiddle with it yourself. That is the serious truth. Its the same thing in principal as the backing question, or the depth finder mount question, and I am trying to free you up here to trust in your own judgement because only you are gonna be out there and maybe your Dad, we wont, we wont be able to phone in information that really helps you. I could tell you a setting to put each on, but that would be lying to you. I don't want to do that. I don't want you to then get locked into a box.

You gotta develope intuition to fish. If you don't, you will never become a good fisherman. That is the one factual thing I have said all day that I don't think anyone can argue with.

[fishin' fool]

I have the same unit, but I'd have to mess with to remember the settings. But off the top of my head, make sure your fish i.d is turned on, if not arches will appear inplace of fish symbols. I like arches better because it tends to be more accurate. But if you run arches I think you have to turn the sensitivity down abit. Grey line could be turned up abit. Since you were marking rock, the rock should be darker than the rest because the return echo off of the rock is stronger.
If you go to eagles website, there is a sonar demo you can quickly download and try different settings before even getting on the water.
I'm not sonar expert by far, but I hope this leads you in the right direction!
Good luck

I think this calls for a post on the message board about sonar know how, since there are a few things about them that I can't figure out!!!

[fishin' fool]

Im going to correct myself. I just skimmed through the manual, your gray line is fine. I had it backwards. It paints "gray" on targest that are stronger, so the rocks are a gray color.

[Buzz Wing]

Originally Posted by fishin' fool

But off the top of my head, make sure your fish i.d is turned on, if not arches will appear inplace of fish symbols. I like arches better because it tends to be more accurate.

Wait... You say turn 'Fish I.D.' on, correct? Then you say you like arches better. I thought Fish I.D. showed fish symbols, not arches?

-Buzz

[WTL]

Buzz, do you know what fish ID is?

It is a filter. It senses objects that are seperated from the bottom. These objects normally project an archlike shape just cause thats how sonar works when it sees a fish, so the computer basically takes like shapes and puts a little fish symbol on them.

That means that the Fish ID is altering the most accurate reading the depth finder can give. It processes things to try and make it easier to point out fish.

But sometimes the Fish ID is wrong. Anomolies do happen quite often, turtles, otters, debri being washed in the current can all come back as fish symbols and have you chasing nothing. A trained eye can probably spot this for being debris. Some pros claim the ability to spot their lure or differentiate the type of fish they are seeing based on a reading. Are you willing to learn how to spot the difference and become this profficient? Or are you willing to give up a little of the techincal accuracy of the fish finder for ease of use? Ask yourself these questions and you should be able to come up with an answer as to what is best for you.

[fishin' fool]

Sorry... Fish ID shows the 3 different size fish symbols. Turn it on if you want to see the fish symbols. Turning it off shows fish as arches. I do like the arches alot better.

Here is alink to the sonar emulators :

http://www.eaglenav.com/en/Downloads/Product-Emulators/

[fishin' fool]

Another reason you may not have seen fish is because even at 10 feet, your cone angle isn't really that large. Yes they do make differnt angles for different fishing situations. For ocean charters and other deep water fishing they make cones more narrow for more percise reading in deep water. For shallow water like most bass/walleye fishermen do, our cone angle is wider, but in shallow water is only reading a small portion of the bottom and anything in between. For us to see fish in shallower water, a fish or portion of a fish or fish(s) must be read by that narrow cone. In 10 feet of water the sound wave (ping) produced by the transducer may only be reading 3-5 feet of bottom, depending on the angle of your cone. If you want to be percise, find out what your angle is on your transducer, and you can do some algebra formula to figure out how big of an area your reading at 10 feet. I don't know the formula, I hate math!!! But I'm saying, the fish could have been there, its just they weren't being picked up by the sound wave because they were outside of it, may be by inches or a foot!

[Buzz Wing]

Well.... Now this is all beginning to make sense!

The only thing I am slightly concerned about is the Fish I.D. I know is marks fish as 'fish', but is also makrs debris as William stated. I read/saw somewhere that this is bad if fish are holding on the bottom, such as during the Winter months.

I'll test it out tomorrow...

Thanks,

-Buzz

[fishin' fool]

If you turn fish I.D. off and use arches instead, the arches can be distinguished from the bottom. So if there are fish on the bottom or buried in structure, you can see them.

[Buzz Wing]

I downloaded the emulator and played around with it....

I've found that when you adjust the sensitivity up, the more bottom it shows. For example, if it is 25' deep, the bottom signal shows up at 25', but then extends down all the way to the bottom of the screen. If you lower the sensitivity to about 10 or 15%, about 1/4" of bottom is shown. For example, if the dpeth is 32', the bottom signal shows at 32', but it extends all the way down to about 36'.

Which setting, (up/down), is more preffered?

Also, grayline. When it is turned-up, everything darkens and the bottom varies from dark gray in some areas to black in others. Is this showing different bottom compositions? Is darker a harder bottom?

Again, what is more, (up/down), is more preffered?

-Buzz

[fishin' fool]

Adjustjing sensitivity depends on a few factors. Surface clutter, noise from motor, bilge pump ect, depth of water, wave action ect. There is a fine line when to turn sensitivity up and when not to. The higher you turn it up, the more noise and unwanted reading you will get. In shallower water you can turn the sensitivity down because you don't need as much power to read the bottom and structure in shallow water.
The gray line determins the content of the substarte (bottom) and structure. If the screen shows a black or dark bottom with no gray line, it is probably silt or mud. If it is a narrow gray line on the bottom, it is probably sand or gravel. If it is a wide gray line on the bottom or alot of gray on structure, it is a hard substrate or structure like rock. Structure with no gray on it is probably weeds. Again, you'll have to play around with gray line. See what is different in different situations. Sonars take a lot to get use to!

[Buzz Wing]

If you look at my picture, you'll see a '2X' and a '4X' at the far right of the screen. What is this?

-Buzz

[Buzz Wing]

• Here's another picture....

• I'm thinking this is a hard bottom? Are those fish I'm marking? Why are they not 'arches'? (Above)

• Sticks? Standing timber on a rock/sandy bottom? (Below)

• Ahhh.... The lovely water at the oh-so-famous Lake Hudson (Below)

-Buzz

[Buzz Wing]

Anybody?

Also, what should I set the 'chart speed' at, about?

-Buzz