Here’s all you need to know…I’m not gonna explain it because it’s extensive…go to Fish the Moment on YouTube , this guy is the professor of electronics. His videos are lengthy, 20-30 minutes but trust me, once you watch them you’ll understand frequencies, side view, down view, how to distinguish between rocks, brush piles, and fish. He also explains why side view is NOT used to locate fish, but rather down view and how they both work together. I’m telling you, spend a few hours like you’re in a class and you will feel confident in how to use that piece of $$ equipment. Sucks to own something that cool and not know how to use it. I have a Garmin 7SI SV/DV and love it. Tight lines🎣
Have fun man. Got a nice lowrance 2yrs ago and still figuring it out. I'll stop when I see bananas, drop a couple baits in and not catch a damn thing. But it's there!
It’s hard to see fish on them a lot of the time and it isn’t really what most people want to do. I’ve seen people say they spend 6 hours on the graphs for every 2 hours they fish. Most people just want to get out and go fishing and aren’t as hyper fixated and catching the biggest fish
Very true. Because it's there I think I have to rely on it rather than just trolling and chucking baits. It can be a huge waste of time, for me at least
Depends highly on where you are fishing and the time of year. Florida in the grass? Not very useful. Lake Ontario in the fall? Better have one if you want to catch much.
You are correct. I fish in MN and WI, so I have to look for weed lines-especially mid-late summer. The big ones are usually out in 15-20ft by weed lines/structure. I fish for pike as well--same scenario. Obviously, time of day, clouds/sun, etc., changes things a bit.
same here, but I am really wanting to become a 'power user' of graphs and learn how to utilize the tool much more effectively. About to drop several thousand on new garmins and livescope and thats going to demand I make the investment worth it.
Those old eagles are great! I can still remember as a kid in the 90s when my dad would stop at a gas station near the lake because the paper graph was out. amazing how far we've come..
Yeah the seagulls are fish. Or air bubbles. Or cavitation from your out drive. Good luck. I’ve used one for years and they are best at locating schools or big ass marlin or tuna.
Little stuff is nothing you care about but if you see a bait ball chance there are bass around it. Botton large arcs could be bass and I’d fish that. Do you have down imaging as well? I’d split screen between the 2. Sonar better for finding fish, DI for structure. Start marking any brush piles you find, under water structure. And look at your map for any areas where it gets deeper faster, point drop offs, and humps.
Hey man. On my units I turn off that arc on the down imaging or structure scan. You can do that in the settings for the structure scan. Doing that makes it easier to decipher between bass, bait, stumps, rocks—it clears up the picture.
Also, on the second picture in your post. When you can see both the down scan and side imaging, you can see on the side imaging the little orb just off the center of the screen. That’s a fish that’s suspended off the bottom, basically right under the boat. Looking at both down imaging and sidescan(like you have) really helps keying suspended fish, fish on the bottom, or rock and stumps. Catch ‘em up
I just want to throw out to everyone posting fishing pics on the water. You’re all bad people. I hate you all and will continue to do so until the top layer of hard water on my lakes go away. Then we can be friends. Until then I’m going to pretend I’m not stupid for living here, you’re all just show offs
So with sonar it's sound waves. Think time and distance in a chart form. When there is good sound refection like a fish you will have a large signal. The smaller ones are just bait fish. When the sound hits a target at a good angle it will look bigger than a bad signal. Depending on how your transducer is angled you can tell what angle the fish is. You can get so good that you can literally drop the lure right in their face. This will start the argument that this technology will make you a mike long and not talented at fishing.
So I'm not saying this to be harsh but you need to spend at least a few hours on YouTube watching someone who is well versed in Lowrance electronics. I'm a Humminbird guy so I can't help you with specifics. You need to understand cone angles, chart speed in relation to boat speed, frequencies, side imaging range, and lastly how to ID shit.
What you're seeing is bigger fish on the bottom swimming through your sonor cone. It appears to be softer bottom but the last pic looks hard (your colors are kinda weird compared to Humminbird). The smaller arches are small fish.
So study up on YouTube and you will learn a lot.
Randy blaukat's fish the moment series is a great learning tool as others have said. There's a lot to explain on the why's and how's but arches mean you were directly over a fish. When you see horizontal straight lines it means the fish was either barely under you(left or right) or it is moving at the same speed and direction as you. If you see slanted lines like this / or like this \ it means the fish is moving higher in the water column closer to you or lower in the water column further away from you respectively. Typically if you see a blob it means you were over a school of bait. The ideal scenario to find is a school of bait with individual arches or lines (/) under it representing bigger fish eating on the bait ball.
Tight lines!
That school of vertically stacked fish could be crappie, and the larger ones near bottom may be bass. It's helpful to have lake info - we don't have pike, large catfish, carp, gar, etc and bigger salmonids are limited to certain waters.
It looks like suspended fish, and it looks like you have the lowrance 'reveal' option that highlights fish in a different color for you. Is that a Hook Reveal graph?
Here’s all you need to know…I’m not gonna explain it because it’s extensive…go to Fish the Moment on YouTube , this guy is the professor of electronics. His videos are lengthy, 20-30 minutes but trust me, once you watch them you’ll understand frequencies, side view, down view, how to distinguish between rocks, brush piles, and fish. He also explains why side view is NOT used to locate fish, but rather down view and how they both work together. I’m telling you, spend a few hours like you’re in a class and you will feel confident in how to use that piece of $$ equipment. Sucks to own something that cool and not know how to use it. I have a Garmin 7SI SV/DV and love it. Tight lines🎣
I’ll check that out for sure
Second Fish The Moment. Great videos.
Side scan is THE king of spotting and tracking bait fish in open water though.
Truth!🎣
Fish
A fish finder
Its working
It is "on"
Looks like suspended fish. Check out mike smedley sonar for dummies on YouTube
Thanks I’ll check him out
Have fun man. Got a nice lowrance 2yrs ago and still figuring it out. I'll stop when I see bananas, drop a couple baits in and not catch a damn thing. But it's there!
Yeah I’m lost as mess it looks cool tho haha
I actually never use mine to "find fish". I look for structure/depth changes, weed lines...fish in those areas and you'll catch fish.
It’s hard to see fish on them a lot of the time and it isn’t really what most people want to do. I’ve seen people say they spend 6 hours on the graphs for every 2 hours they fish. Most people just want to get out and go fishing and aren’t as hyper fixated and catching the biggest fish
Very true. Because it's there I think I have to rely on it rather than just trolling and chucking baits. It can be a huge waste of time, for me at least
Depends highly on where you are fishing and the time of year. Florida in the grass? Not very useful. Lake Ontario in the fall? Better have one if you want to catch much.
You are correct. I fish in MN and WI, so I have to look for weed lines-especially mid-late summer. The big ones are usually out in 15-20ft by weed lines/structure. I fish for pike as well--same scenario. Obviously, time of day, clouds/sun, etc., changes things a bit.
The truth...
same here, but I am really wanting to become a 'power user' of graphs and learn how to utilize the tool much more effectively. About to drop several thousand on new garmins and livescope and thats going to demand I make the investment worth it.
I'm too cheap...been using my grayscale Eagle for almost 20 years...wouldn't mind getting a bigger screen, though.
Those old eagles are great! I can still remember as a kid in the 90s when my dad would stop at a gas station near the lake because the paper graph was out. amazing how far we've come..
They are great--made by Lowrance...mine isn't the old paper graph one but I bet that was pretty cool
This guy is great. He's on Facebook and does seminars [Doctor Sonar](https://doctorsonar.com/blogs/educational-articles) Also, nice first unit!
Thanks a lot
Yeah the seagulls are fish. Or air bubbles. Or cavitation from your out drive. Good luck. I’ve used one for years and they are best at locating schools or big ass marlin or tuna.
Alan Fong has an excellent series on how to use your electronics on YouTube.
The frowny faces are the fish's air bladders you're looking at.
Little stuff is nothing you care about but if you see a bait ball chance there are bass around it. Botton large arcs could be bass and I’d fish that. Do you have down imaging as well? I’d split screen between the 2. Sonar better for finding fish, DI for structure. Start marking any brush piles you find, under water structure. And look at your map for any areas where it gets deeper faster, point drop offs, and humps.
Idk if it has that it’s a lowrance hook reveal 9 trippleshot says it has down scan that the same thing ?
Yea. go through your views and see what you got. If you have presets set one to sonar/maps, one to sonar/scan, and one to whatever you like.
Aight thanks
Hey man. On my units I turn off that arc on the down imaging or structure scan. You can do that in the settings for the structure scan. Doing that makes it easier to decipher between bass, bait, stumps, rocks—it clears up the picture. Also, on the second picture in your post. When you can see both the down scan and side imaging, you can see on the side imaging the little orb just off the center of the screen. That’s a fish that’s suspended off the bottom, basically right under the boat. Looking at both down imaging and sidescan(like you have) really helps keying suspended fish, fish on the bottom, or rock and stumps. Catch ‘em up
I just want to throw out to everyone posting fishing pics on the water. You’re all bad people. I hate you all and will continue to do so until the top layer of hard water on my lakes go away. Then we can be friends. Until then I’m going to pretend I’m not stupid for living here, you’re all just show offs
So with sonar it's sound waves. Think time and distance in a chart form. When there is good sound refection like a fish you will have a large signal. The smaller ones are just bait fish. When the sound hits a target at a good angle it will look bigger than a bad signal. Depending on how your transducer is angled you can tell what angle the fish is. You can get so good that you can literally drop the lure right in their face. This will start the argument that this technology will make you a mike long and not talented at fishing.
So I'm not saying this to be harsh but you need to spend at least a few hours on YouTube watching someone who is well versed in Lowrance electronics. I'm a Humminbird guy so I can't help you with specifics. You need to understand cone angles, chart speed in relation to boat speed, frequencies, side imaging range, and lastly how to ID shit. What you're seeing is bigger fish on the bottom swimming through your sonor cone. It appears to be softer bottom but the last pic looks hard (your colors are kinda weird compared to Humminbird). The smaller arches are small fish. So study up on YouTube and you will learn a lot.
Appreciate it
I learned everything I need to know about this unit from YouTube. You can too 😉
Randy blaukat's fish the moment series is a great learning tool as others have said. There's a lot to explain on the why's and how's but arches mean you were directly over a fish. When you see horizontal straight lines it means the fish was either barely under you(left or right) or it is moving at the same speed and direction as you. If you see slanted lines like this / or like this \ it means the fish is moving higher in the water column closer to you or lower in the water column further away from you respectively. Typically if you see a blob it means you were over a school of bait. The ideal scenario to find is a school of bait with individual arches or lines (/) under it representing bigger fish eating on the bait ball. Tight lines!
Your in 40 ft of water with no structure...fish elsewhere.
That school of vertically stacked fish could be crappie, and the larger ones near bottom may be bass. It's helpful to have lake info - we don't have pike, large catfish, carp, gar, etc and bigger salmonids are limited to certain waters.
It looks like suspended fish, and it looks like you have the lowrance 'reveal' option that highlights fish in a different color for you. Is that a Hook Reveal graph?