Humminbird Help. Please

I have a Humminbird Helix 5 DI GPS.  I've had it for a year and I still can't get it dialed in.  I have yet to recognize a fish.  It has never recognized a fish when I turn on Fish ID (I understand the imitations but I was getting a bit desperate).

It seems to be in perfect working order, so I assume I haven't figured out the right settings.

I use a thru-hull transducer mount, using a fancy little Humminbird mount.  Ninety-nine percent of my fishing is in water less than 50 feet deep, and half of that is in water around 30 feet deep, the rest in water averaging around 10 feet deep.

I've seen a few videos recommending setting that don't seem to work for me.  I set it, the guy I fish with is a paddle-length away and starts shouting about all the cute little fishes he sees on his finder, while I can see the bottom and nothing in between.  I reset the system and start over.

I'd like to know how folks who use one of these units have it set up.  I suppose the Helix 7 and Helix 9 would use the same settings as a Helix 5.

The settings I start with are:

Frequency: 455kHz
Noise Filter: Off
Sensitivity: 12
Contrast: 10
Chart Speed: 2
2D Display: 83/200
Surface Clutter: 2
2D Switchfire: Clear Mode
Imaging Switchfire: Max

Please help.  It give my fishing partner no end of glee watching me mess with this finder all day and threatening to toss it overboard.

I have a "Humminbird 597ci HD Down Imaging" fish finder which I bought in 2014.  It's mounted in the transducer pocket in the bottom of my Revolution, so the transducer is in the water but protected by the plastic cover over the pocket.  The sonar has always worked very well, but the down imaging feature has been completely worthless to me.  This may be because I do most of my fishing in deep water (50-250 feet), or it may be because my fishfinder skills are rudimentary, and I've never gotten the down imaging feature set up right.  Periodically while flipping through views I'll glance at the down imaging view and confirm "Yup, this view doesn't show me doodly-squat."

But a question: are you using sonar views, or just down imaging views? If you're just using down imaging views, perhaps you should switch to using sonar views and see if you get better results with them. And crank the sensitivity up all the way to 20 and see what happens.  In some bodies of water, high sensitivity will produce the best returns from the bottom and fish.  In other bodies of water, something in the water creates a lot of sonar scatter which obscures the returns from fish unless you turn down the sensitivity.

The problem may be your through-the-hull mount.  Try taking transducer out of the through-the-hull mount, improvise a boom which holds the transducer in the water next to your kayak, and see if you get better results.

Shown below are pictures of typical results I get while using sonar to jig for lake trout.

First picture: This is a split screen image taken while jigging in 87 feet of water.  On the left side of each half of the screen, you can see returns from my lead jig, fly, and snap hook with several lake trout investigating them.  In the right half of each screen, I lifted my lure up about 8 feet, and the group of lake trout responded by exploding up off the bottom.

Second picture: This is a split screen image taken in 178 feet of water.  I had just gutted a lake trout, and the straight angled line is the guts descending to the bottom.  On the left side of the left half of the screen, you see several lake trout around my jigging setup.  I lift my lure up about 8 feet, and the lake trout respond.  Then the guts reach the bottom, and a bunch of lake trout come in and swarm all over them.

Third picture: The left half of each screen shows my lure jigging up and down in 180 feet of water with no lake trout around it.  Then I lift my lure up about 8 feet, which attracts a bunch of lake trout in to the lure. A couple of seconds after I took that picture, a 33 inch lake trout chomped my lure.

Fourth picture:  At the top of the picture is my fish finder screen, showing piles of fish on the bottom in 175 feet of water.  At the bottom of the picture is confirmation that those fish are lake trout.

Fifth picture:  The lake trout from the fourth picture.

Great instructive fishfinder shots and interpretations of the images pmmpete. The lake trout on your lap is added proof that your interpretations were correct!. What are the dials below the fish finder mounting bracket (numbered 1 to 10)?
I think your point about the use of the 455 kHz and DI may be hitting the nail on the head, it's a matter of frequencies used, angle of the cones for sonar or thin slices for DI. Have you tried just using the standard sonar frequencies instead of the 455 kHz? See below for a post related to this (in case you have not seen it already), towards the bottom they talk specifically about the HELIX-5-DI-GPS you have: 
https://www.ohiogamefishing.com/threads/fish-finder-frequency-cone-angles-questions.302333/

pmmpete: I also have a 597ci HD DI, I love it. unfortunately the transducer got stolen and I haven't replaced it yet so I am fishing blind as of late.
 
Tinker: Good luck tinkering with the FF, but if you end up tossing the head unit overboard please PM me and maybe I can take the transducer from you (or anyone that has an extra Humminbird XNT 9 Di T transducer!) and bring back my 597ci HD DI. 

What are the dials below the fish finder mounting bracket (numbered 1 to 10)?

Hah! Good eye! I added those numbered knobs, which are the style found on Fender amplifiers, to the base of my fish finder for counting the number of fish I have caught that day.  Which is better than trying to keep track of the number of fish mentally, but is still subject to operator error.  I try to be systematic about adding a fish to the count on the knobs as soon as I have it in my net, but sometimes I forget to add a fish, and sometimes I double count a fish. See https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=18211.msg195599#msg195599 for a description of this counting device. 

What are the dials below the fish finder mounting bracket (numbered 1 to 10)?

Hah! Good eye! I added those numbered knobs, which are the style found on Fender amplifiers, to the base of my fish finder for counting the number of fish I have caught

I love it! Here in the Puget Sound area our bag limits are much smaller and often times we struggle to fill it, but hey if you can and it's legal in your area, "up to eleven"! 

What are the dials below the fish finder mounting bracket (numbered 1 to 10)?

Hah! Good eye! I added those numbered knobs, which are the style found on Fender amplifiers, to the base of my fish finder for counting the number of fish I have caught

I love it! Here in the Puget Sound area our bag limits are much smaller and often times we struggle to fill it, but hey if you can in your area, "up to eleven"! 

On Flathead Lake, the limit on both lake trout and lake whitefish is 100 fish (yes, one hundred fish).  And during Mack Days, some anglers hit that limit frequently.  You've got to catch a lot of fish per hour to catch 100 fish in a day!  See the statistics from the Spring 2019 Mack Days shown below.  Sorry about getting away from Tinker's fish finder question.

What are the dials below the fish finder mounting bracket (numbered 1 to 10)?

Hah! Good eye! I added those numbered knobs, which are the style found on Fender amplifiers, to the base of my fish finder for counting the number of fish I have caught

I love it! Here in the Puget Sound area our bag limits are much smaller and often times we struggle to fill it, but hey if you can in your area, "up to eleven"! 
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On Flathead Lake, the limit on both lake trout and lake whitefish is 100 fish (yes, one hundred fish).  And during Mack Days, some anglers hit that limit frequently.  You've got to catch a lot of fish per hour to catch 100 fish in a day!  See the statistics from the Spring 2019 Mack Days shown below.  Sorry about getting away from Tinker's fish finder question.
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Yes, apologies for drifting away from the FF issue, hope to hear back about your findings Tinker, maybe we will all learn something about it. 100 fish a day limit? Blows my mind. My comment on the dial "up to eleven" was on a Spinal Tap sense, this is more akin to the amplifier in "Back to the Future"

I have a "Humminbird 597ci HD Down Imaging" fish finder which I bought in 2014.  It's mounted in the transducer pocket in the bottom of my Revolution, so the transducer is in the water but protected by the plastic cover over the pocket. 
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Thank you, Peter.  I'm switching back-and-forth between sonar and down-imaging trying to see if I can pick out fish in either view.  I can't.  SIGH

Thru-hull should work with that transducer but I'll give it a try outside the hull.  After that, I'll have to think about sending it in to Humminbird in the off season.

I'm switching back-and-forth between sonar and down-imaging trying to see if I can pick out fish in either view.  I can't.  SIGH

Thru-hull should work with that transducer but I'll give it a try outside the hull.  After that, I'll have to think about sending it in to Humminbird in the off season.

If the fishfinder doesn't work with the outside-the-hull-on-a-boom test, call customer service at Humminbird and see if you can connect with a fish finder expert who can talk you through how to get the fish finder to do what it's supposed to do, namely find fish.  Or at least show them after you find them.

I have a Humminbird Helix 5 DI GPS.  I've had it for a year and I still can't get it dialed in.  I have yet to recognize a fish.  It has never recognized a fish when I turn on Fish ID (I understand the imitations but I was getting a bit desperate).

It seems to be in perfect working order, so I assume I haven't figured out the right settings.

I use a thru-hull transducer mount, using a fancy little Humminbird mount.  Ninety-nine percent of my fishing is in water less than 50 feet deep, and half of that is in water around 30 feet deep, the rest in water averaging around 10 feet deep.

I've seen a few videos recommending setting that don't seem to work for me.  I set it, the guy I fish with is a paddle-length away and starts shouting about all the cute little fishes he sees on his finder, while I can see the bottom and nothing in between.  I reset the system and start over.

I'd like to know how folks who use one of these units have it set up.  I suppose the Helix 7 and Helix 9 would use the same settings as a Helix 5.

The settings I start with are:

Frequency: 455kHz
Noise Filter: Off
Sensitivity: 12
Contrast: 10
Chart Speed: 2
2D Display: 83/200
Surface Clutter: 2
2D Switchfire: Clear Mode
Imaging Switchfire: Max

Please help.  It give my fishing partner no end of glee watching me mess with this finder all day and threatening to toss it overboard.

The first thing a Humminbird tech is going to ask you is, "Have you updated your fish finder to the latest software?" If the answer is no then you should do that first.



I sold fish finders for the past 5 years and the most common cause of your complaint was they had the wrong transducer setting for their fishfinder. What transducer r u running and does it match what you have in the settings?

The first thing a Humminbird tech is going to ask you is, "Have you updated your fish finder to the latest software?" If the answer is no then you should do that first.
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I sold fish finders for the past 5 years and the most common cause of your complaint was they had the wrong transducer setting for their fishfinder. What transducer r u running and does it match what you have in the settings?

Thank you, and an excellent reminder for keeping the software up to date.  Indeed, there had been two back-to-back software updates since I last did an update.  Wow!  But I'm up-to-date now.

I'm using the XNT 9 DI T transducer.  I'm reasonably certain the head unit settings match the transducer specs, but I was pretty darned sure the software was up to date, too, so I'll check the settings in a day or two when my fingers can again survive the temperature in the garage.  When I'd do a system reset I never went back to check what that did to the transducer settings.

I really appreciate the suggestions, even if I felt a bit dim as I read them.  I know better, I just skipped past the basics (like: "Is it plugged in?").