Eagle sounder questions

[kingkev]

Had 2 lower priced eagles and a navman and all have sufferered the same problem. That is, endless streams of fish showing and the fish identification has to be kept switched off because it appears to be like a tape running with endless streams of fish. Noise suppressor attached but makes no difference.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?????????????????????????

[the gecko]

Some do this when the boat is on the plane, and the cause is a loose transducer, but they should reset at rest. Push it down with your fingers and it should be ok, if this is the cause.

Does its see the correct depth, and does it go strange all the time?

Andrew

[kingkev]

It sees the correct depth but the fish finder goes strange all the time

[artesian]

This could be a bit basic for you Kingkev, if so , sorry :-)

turn fish id off, so you no longer see fish symbols. Set to manual. then adjust gain up until screen comes close to blacking out with clutter, and then adjust the sensitivity lower until the screen is more clear, but not completely so.

Motor forward at slowly increasing speed, and see what happens. Depending on the sounder and conditions, you can expect the top couple of feet to be full of clutter, and that gets worse at speed unless transducer set up is really good.

Since you have gone to all the trouble to set the sounder to manual now you might as well fill the screen with what you want to look at, and depending on how the menus work, that could look like, go to the menu that lets you choose between a depth range and zoom, choose zoom, choose zoom size, make that something close to the depth plus say 3 feet. then move the zoom so it starts at 3 feet, eg, if trolling in 33feet, set the zoom size to 30 feet, and then shift the zoom up to start at three feet. That way you avoid surface clutter, and can see everything below that to the bottom. Eg 2, if fishing in 60 feet, and you know that the fish are sitting just above, just below the thermocline at 15feet, and all the way up to the surface, you might set the zoom at 20 feet, and start it at 1 or 2 feet, or even 0 feet deep. eg 3. Trolling a creek for flathead in 3' of water. Forget all of the above, run the sounder in auto, and just look at the depth. The cone from the transducer is only showing a foot or less of the bottom anyway, so you probably won't see any fish.

Turning off the fish id means that if there is a thermocline (change in water density due to temp or salt or both)it will appear as a line rather than (lots of) fish symbols. Thermoclines can concentrate bait, suitable temps, or suitable disolved oxygen, and thus from time to time the fish we are chasing. Or not :-).

Sometimes the sounder blacks out because there is a lot of something between the 'ducer and the bottom, eg plankton in dams. A fiddle with gain may sort the fish from the soup :-)

[kingkev]

Thanks for that........I will try everything you said.

[stevos]

I have always turned my fishID off. Have never been convinced that it actually showed fish (skeptic maybe). Rather I just look for the characteristic arch that a fish produces and go from there.

After all you usually look for bait rather than than single large fish that is likely to cruise in and out of the view.

Cheers,