The recreational fishing sonar business has moved forward by leaps and bounds in the last few years. In fact, the technology has progressed so quickly, most anglers haven't had time to absorb the tidal wave of sonar advancements available to them.
Most anglers never progress beyond the basic functions of their sonar equipment and sonar companies are partly to blame for creating a generation of anglers who don't understand how to use the equipment they have paid top dollar for.
Call me radical, but putting an automatic function on fishing sonar was an evil thing. Most of the sophisticated liquid crystal display units on the market today have an automatic function that's designed to make it easy for anglers to use their new graph. Perhaps, but virtually all graphs that operate on automatic do so at the expense of less target resolution or in other words the ability to mark fish!
Hmmm! You mean when I put my LCD on automatic, I'm not marking all the fish beneath the boat? Probably not. The automatic function on various fishing graphs operate in a way most anglers don't understand.
In order to keep the viewing screen nice and clear an automatic suppression system is employed to filter out interference that would appear on the screen as undesirable clutter. Interference may be in the form of turbulence from outboard motors or sound waves from other nearby graphs. In filtering out this clutter, some desirable information such as schools of baitfish and even game fish may get suppressed.
Automatic suppression systems used in fishing sonar prevent the angler from getting the most from sonar equipment. Designed to aid the average angler in normal fishing situations, automatic functions short change the angler who wants to see everything including baitfish, game fish, fish that are resting near bottom, weeds, and sunken brush.
Alas, most LCD units have a manual setting that can be dialed in to provide the ultimate in sonar information. Most units feature a single key that when depressed transfers the unit from automatic to manual.
Once the unit is set on manual, increase the sensitivity or gain key slowly upwards. Increasing the sensitivity is like turning up the power of your unit so it can see every tiny detail. Depending on water depth and the hardness of the bottom, the sensitivity may need to be turned up to near maximum levels for the desired results.
Let the viewing screen be your guide. A good rule of thumb is to slowly adjust the sensitivity or gain until enough clutter is visible that interpreting the screen becomes difficult, then back the sensitivity down a notch or two until the screen shows only light clutter.
This setting maximizes the ability to mark fish and other objects. Now go a step further and increase the grayline setting until the bottom shows a clearly defined bottom edge. The grayline function helps to identify soft and hard bottom areas by the thickness of the bottom signal. The thicker the signal, the harder the bottom. Grayline also helps to separate targets that are located close to bottom.
If your graph has a zoom function, now is the time to use it. Most graphs offer a 2X or 4X zoom feature that simply increases the size of the marks appearing on the screen. This function is a great way to fine-tune your unit into producing easier to interpret fish marks, bottom contours, and underwater objects.
These simple steps allow anglers to get the most from their LCD or video sonar units. Take these tips and see what you've been missing.
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