reading a sounder

[Luke]

How do you tell by your sounder what is beneath you-rocks,sand,mud etc. I've read the manual and it doesn't tell me too much. I noticed someone else asked and there wasn't too much response and I know a lot of people out there can read a sounder. What can you tell me or does it depend a lot on the qaulity of the sounder?
Cheers Luke

[aquarius]

Hi Luke, mate im no expert in sounders but i do know that you get what you pay for...by that i mean the higher the pixel count the better(dots on the screen)The ones with 240 by 240 pixels are the better sounders but then it depends on where you are going to use them.
Im going to let someone more quialified if thats the word go into detail about there workings.
Cheers Brent ;D

[Luke]

Thanks Brent,
I've asked this because without diving in and checking I guess I'll never know unless someone enlightens me. I think the sounder I have is an average old job but I'm buggered if I can be sure at any time what is below me.
Cheers Luke

[blaze]

Hi all
my sounder is an older one with gain and all that jazz, dear sounder in its day but i thing a $400 job would do a better job my advice is to get the most pixils you can afford

[aquarius]

Luke does it have a grey line?
this separates the fish from the bottom structure.
Its a bit hard to explain the screen to someone without being able to see it.
Next time im out on the water i will atempt to photograph some examples for you...not sure how they will turn out but hey why not give it a try....ill give you a shot over reef and one over the sand just to compare.
What brand and model sounder do you own?
MY ONE IS THE EAGLE MAGNA 3
Nothing to exspensive.
You could also do what i did and download a manual from the lowrance web site.....My mate owns the top of the range x91 sounder and i wanted to learn more about the workings so i downloaded 60 pages....great info there!!
Cheers Brent :)

[Luke]

Humminbird 400tx. I can pick out rocks and snags and sandy bottoms with ripples like on a bar for eg. but I find it hard to pick out sand from mud in a situation with deeper water-it basically all looks smooth to me on this sounder. It might just be me not checking differences enough but the only way I can tell is if I pull the anchor and its got mud on it. What I'm after also is what weed looks like and schools of baities etc and how you tell the difference. Also when planing it will give me the depth intermittently and at other times will give me 500 ft? Any of you guys know how to set it up to stop that if possible at all?
Cheers Luke

[krazyfisher]

luke,
I have just got a humminbird legend and I read the book too much to understand but after 2 months I can tell rock gravel sand weed and most things the easiest way is to go some where at low tide look at the bottom and at high tide go over it again. Its easy to do up here with 6 mtr tides. But the thicker or darker the line on the bottom of the sounder the dencer the bottom i.e rock lighter or thinner i.e mud but with out knowing what sounder you have its hard to say as they all use somthing differant.

[jaybee]

Luke I am still trying to figure out the lowrance i have ..but it appears the deeper the water the better it works in manual mode. If you have grey line turn it on...if you get a good grey line with thin black on top its hard bottom..if the bottom shows all black then its usually mud...you can download user manuals for just about anything here
http://www.planetgps.net/planet-gps/

cheers

[Volvo]

Luke go down to your local K-mart store and in the fishing section you should find a book re , reading Lowrance sounders etc. principles are the same for most sounders .
May answer some of your questions and dont be afraid ta play around with your sounder, learn ta read it every time ya think ya might be goin over different bottom, when catching fish etc.
Ive got an echeapo Eagle boottom of the range and over the years have learnt ta read it for all bottom readings, just a matter of getting used to it.
Could write you a lengthy post regarding how i read my sounder but may not suit you??.
If you dont have any joy with k-mart Pm me and see what i can do for ya otherwise give Kerry a hoy(sorry Kerry) if he cant explain it to ya , no-one can.

[Heath]

Simply the softer the bottom, the less the return signal. Pic 1 shows a soft bottom.

Pic 1.
http://www.lowrance.com/images/Tutorials/Sonar/softbot.gif

Pic 2 shows a hard bottom. The harder bottom the more signal is bounced back.

Pic 2.
http://www.lowrance.com/images/Tutorials/Sonar/hardbot.gif


If you want a good excellent tutorial in Sonar go to the Lowrance site.
http://www.lowrance.com/Tutorials/Sonar/sonar_tutorial_01.asp

[Luke]

Thanks all guys,
thats all really good advice. Definately have a better idea of what I'm over now and will check out those sites and will grab that book on reading sounders Volvo. Thanks again
Cheers Luke

[DeeGee]

Luke, I have a 400 TX too, and the manual only has one brief mention of how to interpret the bottom trace. In the last para of "what you see on screen" it says the trace will be narrow and darker if the bottom is hard, wider and less dark if it is soft (e.g. mud).
However the illustration shows what I would call medium width line for both types.
The difference is with soft bottom there is a dark grey area below the main trace, and another lighter grey below that. With hard bottom there is no grey below the main trace.
I can tell rocks & reef by their shape, but not by the thickness of the trace, or how dark it is. I can't tell the difference between firm sand and hard gravel bottom, because as far as I can see, they both show the same trace.
Hope this helps at least a little,
Regards, Don.