Using fishfinder to spot big fish

That comes from years and years of day in and day out experience on the water, but overtime you can tell what kind of fish and how big just by the way they stack up on the screen. Just keep fishing and take mental notes when you catch what type of fish

Remeber that the ecco the sounder reads is reflected off the fishs air bladder, so usually the bigger the plip the bigger the fish. If you are having trouble singling out object adjust your gain some..

lobsterman (10/8/2007)That comes from years and years of day in and day out experience on the water, but overtime you can tell what kind of fish and how big just by the way they stack up on the screen. Just keep fishing and take mental notes when you catch what type of fish

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Exactly!

Be sure to read your manual!Change allautomatic settings to manual.Get in some calm water with assorted jigs and drop them down and see what you can see if you tweak the knobs or buttons.Even better if you dive go look at some stuff and then drift or drive over it from different directions to get a feel for what your machine shows.Fishfinders are a lot like VCRs ( I know I'm dating myself but making a point here)in that most owners never bother to read the manuals and can't utilize many of their best features.

Be sure to read your manual! Change all automatic settings to manual.

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Correct! And that's one of the reasons Furuno blow's away Raymarine. Knobs are your friend. Menus SUCK!



Just a FYI: When a machine is in automatic it incorporates filters. Filter's, filter info out. IE You don't see it.

How long have ya had the unit? Like lobster said,takes a long time using a sounder to figure out what your seeing on the screen. Also depending on what water depth your usually fishing,a 600 watt transducer may not have the power for good feedback from the bottom. A 1k may be in your future for better clarity.

My color Furuno 582L shows larger fish as red dots or red blobs, depending on how many are in the same area. Larger red dots up in the water are usually jacks or very large snapper. Blues, yellows, and greens are smaller fish. However, I have dropped on blue/green returns and gotten my bell rung. Sometimes the fish are inside the coral bottom. Sea-r-cy

on our c-80 we use a split screen with a zoom of mid depth down and you can tell between big and little. do have a 1000 watt airmar transducer through hull. read the book and it has all types of features if you still have probs talk to tony blanton(voodo lounge) he can help you out

I have had the unit for over a year and I generally like it.

Thanks for the feedback. I will try some of your tips.