Read A Fish Finder

The question of how to read a fish finder screen has been a bit of a challenge for several users over time. Do you have any questions about how to read a fish finder screen?

It’s okay if you have this same question. We have compiled a list of the basics and primary tips behind reading a fish finder that you will certainly find useful.

If your a beginner on fish finders you can take a look at Fish Finders For Beginners.

How to read a fish finder basic- and what to read?

When you start fishing, you will need to know the bare minimum features of a fish finder that will help you.

When you use a fish finder, you can identify the fish in the water, discover the different types of structures under the surface, determine the fish’s size, and assess the bottom’s style.

1. Identify the fish underwater

The first thing you need to know about how to read a fish finder screen is a fish finder with fish ID technology to help you find fish.

It displays different icons for plants, other fish, and even rocks on the display.

You may, however, get a false alarm when the fish icons illuminate, because some rocks underwater or even vegetation can be mistaken for fish by fish finders.

For understanding fish finder images, fish arches come in handy.

Using fish arches, you can display the fish detected underwater as arches on your fish finder’s display screen, which can also fluctuate in size depending on the size of the fish detected.

However, spotting rocks and plants through arches can be challenging.

2. Different types of structures present underwater

On your fish finder’s display screen, you can see small V-shapes representing depressions underwater.

They’re easy to identify and are often easy to target. Catching a point is just as easy as observing them. U

sing a narrow sonar beam to ensure an understandable reading, a balanced and stable reel speed provides a correct and precise reading of how abruptly the slope slopes.

 

When you come across vegetation, the vertical lines highlight the vegetation and weed. Sometimes you need to fish on this vegetation and sometimes away from it.

 

3. The fish’s size- fish arc width, half/ full arches, and finding a baitfish. 

A fish arc’s width provides a better picture of a fish’s size than its length. Larger fish are identified by wider arcs.

The length of an arc does not necessarily indicate how big or small the fish is. The arc with the thickest width is indeed the largest fish.

It indicates that the fish swam fully to the sonar cone if a full arc is displayed on the screen. A half arc is displayed if it does not.

Half arcs are not always indicative of small fish; they could still be very big fish. An arc’s quality does not indicate how big a fish really is.

 

Fish finders display baitfish with lines and dashes on the screen, as if it were vegetation.

However, its color is different from the vegetation it is displayed in. Baitfish are primarily slinging in the water rather than the bottom.

To distinguish between baitfish and vegetation, down imaging fish finders often use yellow for baitfish and green for vegetation.

 

4. Consider the type of the bottom- Thickness, color, and 2nd returns.

The sensitivity of the sonar also affects how thick a sequence is, so it is better to adjust the sensitivity of the sonar according to your taste.

In a fish finder, the color intensity varies in standard palettes and day modes depending on the severity of sonar returns from a hard bottom.

Sonar returns from a hard bottom are more intense than sonar returns from a soft bottom.

A rigid bottom produces strong echoes, glancing off the surface. It then displays a second (2nd) sonar return next to the line that indicates the bottom.

This shows a rigid base.

 

Sources: wired2fish, allbestfisher