Fishfinders/sounders

[Paul Arden]

Hi guys,

I can't help feeling that it's cheating but that's what they said about Polaroid lenses. I realise that fly fishers are generally not known for using them, but Tim's bringing me one and swapping for an HT10

So, that will arrive in just under two weeks.

For those of you who do use them, what do you think? I'm really interested to see what it can tell me about the bottom of this lake (I imagine it's a pickle!), whether it can tell me what Snakehead do when they aren't gulping air, something about Gourami territory and of course it should open up jungle Perch fishing for me on Temenggor!

Cheers, Paul

[Graeme H]

I use a side imaging sounder on my kayak all the time. The SI lets me see fish and structure without going over the fish and spooking them. Invaluable.

Cheers,
Graeme

[aldear]

Im getting ready to buy a Garmin side image unit for conventional tackle bass fishing. My flyfishing pursuits are in saltwater 12" or less and generally vodka clear...
No sonar required.

[Paul Arden]

I think that there is much room for improvement in these systems. I was hoping that the technology or programming would be further advanced. Maybe I'm just expecting too much. However what it does do is give me an idea of structure when under power or drifting. It's no good for static fishing - I suppose it's because they're not very popular in the FFing world that they are a little limited.

One very good use however is finding anchor points at night

I'm still learning it however, but I don't think it's going to tell me what Snakehead do, only confirms what I thought I knew - i.e. they like water 20-30 ft in depth and the fish cruise at 3m with babies. A big pain in the arse is that its positioned in such a way that one side reflects off the outboard motor.

What I have found fascinating is to see both the subsurface structure as well as contours. It's a fascinating lake.

I still haven't worked out yet how to put Google Earth images on the screen but I'm going to have a go tonight.

Cheers, Paul

[Nick]

Interesting point about sonar not working whilst static fishing. You would need an actual scanning sonar for that (I.e. With a moving transducer). With normal systems you just get a static view, so for anything to change something has to move. It can be either the boat or the fish. If the fish moves through the sonar field then you should see it.

How much interference do you get from stuff in the water? I don't imagine that it is a particularly good environment for clear sonar views.

N.

[Paul Arden]

Hi Nick,

I see structure pretty well - trees and so on. The problem with the side view is that it's a band and not a cone. So I don't get a static view because the screen keeps scrolling. Maybe I haven't figured it out properly yet! There is a lot of algae in the water.

Moving fish against a static background would be the best. Then I'd see Snakehead rising!

The clock is handy for countdowns. One idea I thought of was there should be a seconds counter that resets to zero ever time you push it. You could have two counters, one for each angler.

I'll shoot some images or video this week. Unfortunately the map building software is for shitty Windows!

Cheers, Paul

[Graeme H]

What you're after is already out there. It's prohibitively expensive though.

I would have paid the price when it came out but the apparatus it's mounted on is way too big for my kayak. I couldn't buy just the transducer. I don't know if that's an option now.

[Paul Arden]

Now that would be useful! I'll see how much use I can get out of the current sounder in the meantime.

Thanks Graeme.

Cheers, Paul

[Nick]

Hi Nick,

I see structure pretty well - trees and so on. The problem with the side view is that it's a band and not a cone. So I don't get a static view because the screen keeps scrolling. Maybe I haven't figured it out properly yet! There is a lot of algae in the water.

The screen keeps scrolling, but if you are not moving it's showing the same thing, so it is essentially a static picture - the same thing over and over again. What you need to work out is exactly what it is picture of, and what it looks like when a fish moves through it. The most you will get from that is the depth and distance of the fish from the boat, but sometimes that is all you need.

N.

[Paul Arden]

Unfortunately the boat always moves a little bit so if it's trying to tell me something I'm not sure I want to know what it is