Re: Tips on fishing from a boat?
James, <br />I'm no expert, but the more time you spend with it, the better ya get - it doesn't take any special talents. Reading the sonar is more of an art than a science, but here's what I remember that helped me when I was starting out (hasn't been but 2 1/2 years or so.) <br /><br />I started out with the bottom of the line humminbird...I kept fishID on because otherwise it didn't show depth of targets, I think yours is the same. The Fishmarks have a depth indicator scale drawn down the side of the screen. <br /><br />My biggest problem was wanting to view the screen as a picture of what's under boat, vs. more of a time-line sort of thing. Check out the eagle tutorial I linked above, it's got real good illustration of what I mean. It'll show you why a fish makes an arch. <br /><br />Imagine an inverted cone from your transducer to the bottom. Anything anywhere inside that cone will light up a pixel on your display. Assuming a 20° 'ducer angle (common), at any given depth, the diameter of the circle cut from a cross-section of the cone is about 1/3 the depth. So pixel lit at 30 feet indicates an object within 5 feet of your transom (if that's where your 'ducer is), a 10-foot diameter. You don't know if it's left, right, behind or under the boat. <br /><br />The computer evaluates the echo and decides how dark or light gray to make it depending on signal strength, or whether to draw the fish picture. Turn the sensitivity way up you get lots of clutter, just from the tiny particles in the water.<br /><br />Something suspended under a stationary boat will draw a line across the screen, just because it keeps lighting up the same pixel.<br /><br />Your Cuda has 128 vertical pixels, so if the screen is scaled at 10 feet, each pixel represents about an inch of the water column (120 inches ÷ 128 pixels); at 30 feet it's closer to 3 inches. For the 480 the figures are 1/4 inch and 3/4 inch. Resolution is the most important feature, IMHO.<br /><br />If you're bass fishing shallow water, you won't really be looking to the screen to show you the fish you're after, the boat'll spook 'em and besides you're casting out away from the boat. But it will show hard or soft bottom, contours, hydrilla, stumps, you know, habitat. <br /><br />If you're fishing deeper water you can find the fish you're going to catch, and the prey they're feeding on...sometimes see your bait on the screen & use it to set your depth. In this kind of fishing remember to look at the screen when you hook a fish...it's a picture of your pattern for the day, depth, structure, whatever.<br /><br />I did pretty good with the basic unit...eventually you'll want to upgrade - you'll really appreciate the better resolution.
