Fishfinder Tutorial

One of the best tools for a kayak fisherman is a good fishfinder. It would seem like the hardest part about owning a fishfinder is saving up to buy one or possibly the installation process.  But for me it was neither. I always assumed my fishfinder should display perfect little arches where the fish should be (not the case).
I stumbles across this link to Lowrance's website with a tutorial on FF, GPS, and proper FF settings. There was a Lowrance rep at the Sportsmans show a couple years back that gave a similar presentation. The first step to having a properly calibrated FF is to understand exactly how a FF works. This resource isn't an end all to all of your questions and you'll still have to make adjustments to your FF to fit your individual needs on the water but it helped me so I thought I'd pass it on. Also check out the links on the left side of the page as there is good info there as well.

http://www.lowrance.com/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/Sonar-Tutorial/

Hope this helps!
Paul



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Thank you RR! I have been looking for this kind of info for a while.

What's an "arch"?

Ha ha  - I expected the same thing. It should look like the demo - right?...not my experience with my little X4. The best I get is a couple dots next to each other.

I think the reasoning I've figured is that I'm not moving fast enough to create the arch.

Thanks for posting, this is good stuff.

What's an "arch"?

Ha ha  - I expected the same thing. It should look like the demo - right?...not my experience with my little X4. The best I get is a couple dots next to each other.

I think the reasoning I've figured is that I'm not moving fast enough to create the arch.

Thanks for posting, this is good stuff.

Does the x4 have a setting for scroll speed?  It might be set relatively slow condensing the return data into the couple dots you see.   Try setting it fast to create more of an arch.

Does the x4 have a setting for scroll speed?  It might be set relatively slow condensing the return data into the couple dots you see.   Try setting it fast to create more of an arch.

Good tip; it does have scroll speed. I've adjusted it before, but I'll crank it up next time and see if that makes a difference. (I think the manual said to turn it down if you aren't moving much and I believe I've had it at ~50%)
-Thanks

Dont mean to hijack the post but do you take your X4 out in the salt regularly? I just got the X4 pro and in the manual it says there might be problems if you turn it off while in saltwater and dont also cut the power from the battery. Thanks for any info you can give me.

Dont mean to hijack the post but do you take your X4 out in the salt regularly? I just got the X4 pro and in the manual it says there might be problems if you turn it off while in saltwater and dont also cut the power from the battery. Thanks for any info you can give me.

Ya, I've taken mine in the salt plenty of times. I read the manual a couple times but don't recall that warning being there. Mine is just the X4, but they most likely share the same manual.

That's a weird warning though, the only problem I could see them referring to would be possible corrosion from electrolysis if you have a metal boat??? Does it give a further explanation?

Yeah they state that on page 15 and again on page 20. Here is a jpeg of it. I guess they must be talking about if you leave your boat in saltwater when not in use. At least I know guys are using them in saltwater, thanks alot.