Fish Finder Question

Maybe someone on this board may be able to answer my question. I finally got a fish finder. An Eagle Cuda 300. I have gone through the manual to no avail with this question and I doubt it would matter what fish finder model I have.

When I look at my screen, what am I actually seeing? Even when my boat is stationary, the fish, for example, is still moving in the same direction, from right to left. Where exactly is that fish? So my question is, what is the actual cross section that I am looking at? Is it directly under my boat (transducer) or is it so many feet in radius, left and right of my boat? My manual really doesn't tell me this.

I think it is important because if I see a bottom structure that I want to fish, it would be nice to have the approximate location of where that structure is in relation to my boat.

Would anyone here know this?

Re: Fish Finder Question

You are seeing a history of what passed through your transducer cone beam ... most immediate images appear at the right side of the screen and they scroll from the right side to the left as new images appear. Your transducer beam is shaped like an upside down ice cream cone ... larger at the bottom than at the surface. When you see something of interest on the bottom, you just passed over it and you can turn your boat around and try to find it (reappearing on the right side of your screen). Whether the object was directly below or off to either side of your boat cannot be determined with your fishfinder. Fish are tricky because they just keep swimming.

Re: Fish Finder Question

Good explanation, Pez Vela.

Optsy, what is moving on your display is not space, but time. If your boat is not moving, time still is. Think of it like a EKG, which shows what is happening with your heart over time, even though you haven't moved.

When your boat is moving, then it becomes a chart of what you have passed over, but it is still time, not space, that the display is recording.

I hope that helps and doesn't add to confusion.

Good luck.

Re: Fish Finder Question

Thanks guys. That makes sense.