11-05-2005, 05:24 PM
I am enjoying my new Piranah Max 20 but being my first ever sonar unit I have a lot of questions about what I see on the screen. Unfortunately the Humminbird manual is rather sketchy on intrepreting what is on the screen. This unit has a dual cone 20/60 degree coverage. I think I've got it figured that solid fish icons are close to the tube and the hollow outlines are fish that are more in the periphery. Do any of you have units that work this way?
When trolling a breakline I'm kicking back to the shallows, finding the deeper dropoff point and then turning parallel to that and following the deeper water. However at this point I'm only getting a reading for the depth I'm covering and I can't see that shallower water anymore as I am parallel to it and in deeper water. If the water had dropped off from 4 to 8 feet and I'm maintaining a path in that 8 feet of water I really can't tell how far that 4 foot level is away from shore now. I can tell when the 8 foot level dips to 10 or 12 feet but in my present direction of travel I'm not certain where that 4 foot edge is. Does this make sense or is it just my spatially/ mathematically challenged brain confusing the issue?
By the way my unit helped me catch a few trout yesterday. With the surface water temperature a constant 45 degrees the fish were spread out all over the ponds and I didn't mark a lot of fish. However I came over one area where the fish alarm was constantly sounding so I stayed in that area and eventually caught 4 nice rainbows. Without the sonar I would have just kept trolling through. But with the unit suggesting there were fish in the area my stopping to explore the area with a series of fan casts paid off. Your thoughts, gentlemen?
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When trolling a breakline I'm kicking back to the shallows, finding the deeper dropoff point and then turning parallel to that and following the deeper water. However at this point I'm only getting a reading for the depth I'm covering and I can't see that shallower water anymore as I am parallel to it and in deeper water. If the water had dropped off from 4 to 8 feet and I'm maintaining a path in that 8 feet of water I really can't tell how far that 4 foot level is away from shore now. I can tell when the 8 foot level dips to 10 or 12 feet but in my present direction of travel I'm not certain where that 4 foot edge is. Does this make sense or is it just my spatially/ mathematically challenged brain confusing the issue?
By the way my unit helped me catch a few trout yesterday. With the surface water temperature a constant 45 degrees the fish were spread out all over the ponds and I didn't mark a lot of fish. However I came over one area where the fish alarm was constantly sounding so I stayed in that area and eventually caught 4 nice rainbows. Without the sonar I would have just kept trolling through. But with the unit suggesting there were fish in the area my stopping to explore the area with a series of fan casts paid off. Your thoughts, gentlemen?
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