i just bought a hummingbird 150 and i have no idea how to use it. i set it up and set all the set up options but i go over a rock it doesnt pick it up i go over a weed line and it doesnt pick it up i went over a school of sunfish didnt pick that up either. its kinda just a water temp depth finder. idk if im doing something wrong or not?
@ sinista , welcome. I typically don't post much. But this forum is friendly and knowledgeable, that draws me to participate.
@ creaturefiend - looks like either your transducer is not working or not pointing down. What is the location that the transducer is placed?
@ creaturefiend - looks like either your transducer is not working or not pointing down. What is the location that the transducer is placed?
1st thing you do is turn off the fish id. It's a gadget feature. 2nd thing you do is take it off "automatic" and put it in "manual" mode. When fishing in under say 20' don't try to locate actual fish. Go to the "sensitivity" function and start to increase it till you start to get "screen clutter" between the bottom and surface and then back off till it just dissapears. You may have to readjust this feature as you make significant(5'+) depth changes.
Learn what hard and soft bottoms look like on your screen by going over those type bottomes in shallow water so you can see what you are looking at on the screen. Do the same over different types of weeds that are visable. Now when you find this stuff in deeper/stained water you will know what you are looking at. Being good at using your eletronics takes time and practice just like everything else in life.
I can think of 2 reasons why your depth readings are jumping. 1. improper transducer installation or 2. Interferance from the TM. Try hooking up the FF to it's own battery and see if that cures it. if not try reinstalling the transducer either deeper or shallower on your transome.
Most FF sites have a FAQ section that address these issues and how to go about correcting them.
Learn what hard and soft bottoms look like on your screen by going over those type bottomes in shallow water so you can see what you are looking at on the screen. Do the same over different types of weeds that are visable. Now when you find this stuff in deeper/stained water you will know what you are looking at. Being good at using your eletronics takes time and practice just like everything else in life.
I can think of 2 reasons why your depth readings are jumping. 1. improper transducer installation or 2. Interferance from the TM. Try hooking up the FF to it's own battery and see if that cures it. if not try reinstalling the transducer either deeper or shallower on your transome.
Most FF sites have a FAQ section that address these issues and how to go about correcting them.
Generally a softer bottom will return a wider "grey line" or colorline on the bottom and a harder bottom will return a thinner "greyline" or colorline. Short weeds will return a wide signal and taller stalky type weds like coontail or Cabbage will actually show up and a very irregular soft bottom with constant ups and downs in the bottom depth.
I will attach a pic to demonstrate. looking at this pic. the shallower water at the top of the drop has a thinner red line. that indicates a harder bottom then the wider red line at the bottom of the drop. The features projecting off the bottom are weeds. if they were harder things like trees or boulders they would return a lot of red in the image. fish, with the fish id off show up as arches above the structure. The cloud floating off the bottom with the red center near the top of the drop and in the weeds are tightly formed bait balsl, the arches near it are bigger fish.
I will attach a pic to demonstrate. looking at this pic. the shallower water at the top of the drop has a thinner red line. that indicates a harder bottom then the wider red line at the bottom of the drop. The features projecting off the bottom are weeds. if they were harder things like trees or boulders they would return a lot of red in the image. fish, with the fish id off show up as arches above the structure. The cloud floating off the bottom with the red center near the top of the drop and in the weeds are tightly formed bait balsl, the arches near it are bigger fish.
Go to the "sensitivity" function and start to increase it till you start to get "screen clutter" between the bottom and surface and then back off till it just dissapears. You may have to readjust this feature as you make significant(5'+) depth changes.
Great advice. I've been using a fishfinder for about a year and using the sensitivity settings was a huge step in the right direction. I was wondering why on stained/dirty water my whole screeen was black, or close to it...After deciding to read the manual, lol, I "discovered" the sensitivity setting.
Get off the default settings as soon as you can, and def. adjust your setting as the conditions/lakes you're fishing dictate.
The other thing is getting used to interpreting the 2-D image you're seeing. It def. takes a while, and I'm still trying to get used to it...