A fishfinder, also known as a sounder, can be defined as an instrument that uses sound navigation and ranging (Sonar) techniques to locate fish underwater by detecting the reflected pulses of sound energy. Modern fishfinder devices have a customized display that enables the operator to interpret the information from the reflected sound and is, therefore, able to identify a school of fish, underwater debris and even the depth of the water at any given location in the water body. Fishfinder instruments are used by both the commercial and also the sports fishermen. They make the fishing activity easy and very interesting if not fun.
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How Do We Read a Garmin Fishfinder?
As you read this section, you will be acquainted with most, if not all, of the parameters that can be displayed on a Garmin sonar fishfinder.
For the Garmin echo series, the water column is displayed on the right edge of the screen. You can know how deep the water is at any location you are by reading this column. The boat is basically located at the surface where the reading is zero, and the bottom of the water body is at the level where the rock and the debris in the water appear as a solid line. The right section of the screen shows what is right under the boat at any particular moment while the left portion shows what was under the boat a few minutes past.
For the image displayed on the screen, strongest returns show their color in yellow and weaker returns will show up on the screen as blue and red. Rocks and other strong structures will show up in yellow. Fish can be located anywhere in the water and would give strong returns. On the screen, the fish will show up as arches. This makes it easy to identify fish and school of fish.
The fish finder has a number of buttons that can help you customize your fish finder and read even finer details of the parameters being shown. The power button has a dual purpose of switching on the device and also setting the back-light brightness level. These brightness levels are pre-set into high, medium and low levels. You can use the power button to toggle between these levels.
All the functions of the echo series can be accessed using this menu button. By pressing the button, you get to the various choices of the parameters to alter. The first is the page option. Highlighting this and pressing the enter button, you can choose how your display will be. The choices in this category are full screen, split zoom screen with a depth reader on one side and a zoom on the other, a flasher, log, and numbers for basic depth values and split frequency showing both the 77 kHz and 200 kHz returns.
You can use the range option to change the depth scale to the value that you wish. The gain option helps you adjust the sensitivity of the transducer. If you increase the gain, you are able to see more targets. The zoom option in the menu helps you zoom the feature of interest. Depth line is very useful in helping you identify the depth that the fish occupy.
The following video shows you the basic operations of the sonar fish finder. For more advanced setting operations, click here.
The Garmin fishfinder is one of the best fishfinders that any serious angler can use to locate fish while on a fishing adventure. To be able to use the Garmin fishfinder successfully then one needs to know how to read a Garmin Fishfinder and interpret the information that it will display on its screen. Luckily enough, this article has explained in finer details how to successfully read, interpret and understand the information displayed on the Garmin fish finder’s screen. Now we are confident that you can successfully use this device to locate fish and increase your returns. Enjoy your next fishing session using the Garmin fishfinder.
Why to Choose Garmin Fishfinder?
Garmin is an American multinational technology company that is concerned with GPS technology development and its use in automotive, marine, aviation and even in sports activities. They also manufacture sonar fish finders, not to mention that its fish finder devices are probably the best of all that you may find on the market today.
Garmin fishfinders come in a variety of sizes and capabilities ranging from the Striker 4 CHIRP Fishfinder with GPS to and including the vast range of the echo series and even the echoMAP CHIRP Chartplotter Fishfinder Combos, just to mention a few.
Perhaps you are still wondering what makes the Garmin Fishfinder the best. Well, to mention this in just a few words, I would say that the Garmin fishfinder designers did their work with the user in mind. The product perfectly comes in handy due to its ease of reading, installation and use. They are also good at displaying the details of the water conditions and have the ability to resolve even the finer details depending on what the user requires.
How can the Garmin Fishfinder be Best Used?
To answer this question in details, I would first mention that the proper use of this device depends on its proper installation and even proper setting. The unit must first be firmly secured to the boat or any other marine locomotive motor. This will ensure minimal error during operation.
You also would have to customize your fishfinder to a language you would want to use, measurement units of depth, speed, temperature and distance that you are comfortable with. These can all be modified according to the requirements of the user.
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Final Note
The Garmin fishfinder is one of the best fishfinders that any serious angler can use to locate fish while on a fishing adventure. To be able to use the Garmin fishfinder successfully then one needs to know how to read a Garmin Fishfinder and interpret the information that it will display on its screen. Luckily enough, this article has explained in finer details how to successfully read a Garmin fishfinder, interpret and understand the information displayed on the Garmin fish finder’s screen. Now we are confident that you can successfully use this device to locate fish and increase your returns. Enjoy your next fishing session using the Garmin fishfinder.
how do I get multiple echos up to read the bottom. for eg. if the depth is 12 fathoms and I want to set it at 60 fathoms so I can get 1 -2 or 3 echos depending on how hard the bottom is . if the bottom is hard you will get more bottom echos underneath spaced at 12 fathoms. the more echos, the harder the bottom. its like bouncing ball on grass compared to concert. the harder the bottom the better the bounce, with means more echos.
I am a rookie and trying to learn how to use My Garmin Echomap Plus 43CV.
thanks Article is very Good,
I want to know if I can put in a location by name as a destination I want to go to, like for example Green Island , West ref etc….or do I have to know the coordinates.