REALLY stupid question

Ok, I'm going to go out of my way here to ask the stupidest question I can come up with. Is a fish finder and a depth finder the same thing?

My fish finder never finds fish.

depends on - u can get a fishfinder stick for 50 $ at walmart that just shows u a image of the scan in the water - they suck imho

most boats have a combined tool: - deepth - waterttemp - fishfinder


and some systems are more fancy have better grafics and electronics and a gps - also a plotter for coupons and a short track to the nearest hospital to get ur buddys spinner out of your face

Any thoughts on Hummingbird vs Garmin vs Lowrance?

My fish finder never finds fish.

mine either, talk about false advertising.

im pretty sure they are the similar.

Ok, I'm going to go out of my way here to ask the stupidest question I can come up with. Is a fish finder and a depth finder the same thing?

Same thing, just different names people are using. Even a medium quality unit will pick up fish. The key is to read the manual that comes with it and adjust the setting according to how you are fishing. The deeper the water, the more likely what you are seeing is fish. 1st thing you do is turn OFF the fish id feature. Then turn up the sensitivity until you start to see "clutter" on the screen between the surface and bottom of the lake, then back down a little bit more and you are all set. Depending on depth and water quality this can be abywhere between 60% and 90% Also set the ping speed to HIGH. A fish/ depth finder can tell you lots of information. Along with depth and fish, it will show you the hardness of the bottom you are fishing, rocks, weeds ect. It is an invaluable tool for finding and catching fish. I am a lowrance guy.

Ok, I'm going to go out of my way here to ask the stupidest question I can come up with. Is a fish finder and a depth finder the same thing?

Based on the answer Stratos gave you can see why I rely on him when I have a question I need a solid answer to, right on Rich!

Im a hummingbird guy, (currently) My unit is a portable 570 fish/depth finder with a built in rechargeable battery, I do every thing Stratos does but at the end I turn the fish ID back on, in water deeper than say 12 feet the unit is dead acurate when detecting fish.. they beep, I drop the drop shot, I set the hook their in the boat, simple

the deeper the water gets (with my unit) the more accurate it becomes, Stratos made a good point about bottom contour, once you learn what bottom "CHANGE" looks like on a particular unit and you know what it feels like with the rod in your hand you can easily notice "CHANGE" one of the most important factors when searching for fish, the slightest change from rock to grass or vice versa can make all the difference in determining where and what the fish are relating to, its then about mentally storing that info (in a daily fishing log) and duplicating it time and time again based on time of year, water temp, and current conditions, fish live in an enviroment where their behavior is predictable, learning their behavior in different conditions/times of year in the hardest part of the battle

I just bought 1 this year. It's cool to see the bottom changes & temps, but Why turn off the fish ID feature?

Turning off features like fish ID and changes settings such as setting the max depth to the max depth of the water body or depth of water your fishing allows the unit to focus more on specifics, properlly adjusting the unit will add much more pixels to the screen and greatly improve detail of the bottom and its structure

Turning off fish i.d also allows more of the units features to be utilized in a more efficient manner. Kind of like having less windows open on a pc.

Turning off features like fish ID and changes settings such as setting the max depth to the max depth of the water body or depth of water your fishing allows the unit to focus more on specifics, properlly adjusting the unit will add much more pixels to the screen and greatly improve detail of the bottom and its structure

These are the things I've been trying to focus on. I got the fish finder at the end of last season and still haven't turned on the fish id. I think I have to do what Rich described with the sensitivity

Turning off features like fish ID and changes settings such as setting the max depth to the max depth of the water body or depth of water your fishing allows the unit to focus more on specifics, properlly adjusting the unit will add much more pixels to the screen and greatly improve detail of the bottom and its structure

These are the things I've been trying to focus on. I got the fish finder at the end of last season and still haven't turned on the fish id. I think I have to do what Rich described with the sensitivity

Theres alot of different settings you can tweek to optimize performance , and it varies from unit to unit, once you learn the settings (by reading that 5,000 page think called a manual!! lmao) you can really dial the unit in and make on water adjustments as nessessary

Turning off features like fish ID and changes settings such as setting the max depth to the max depth of the water body or depth of water your fishing allows the unit to focus more on specifics, properlly adjusting the unit will add much more pixels to the screen and greatly improve detail of the bottom and its structure

These are the things I've been trying to focus on. I got the fish finder at the end of last season and still haven't turned on the fish id. I think I have to do what Rich described with the sensitivity

Theres alot of different settings you can tweek to optimize performance , and it varies from unit to unit, once you learn the settings (by reading that 5,000 page think called a manual!! lmao) you can really dial the unit in and make on water adjustments as nessessary

Funny you say that cuz I'm a manual/instructions reader and I read my manual but retaining the info is my problem. I better look for it and give it another run through. Maybe I'll leave it in the bathroom

I alway got a ton of false readings with the fish Id on. It basically reads anything that is not the bottom or weeds as a fish. Try this to see what I mean. Go on a relitivly clear boady of water, one where you can see bottom in like 15', any cape pond or NH water will ususally do. With the fish id off you will mark the bottom and there will be "some" clutter on the screen between the surface and bottom. That can be debris, plankton ect in the water column. Look down with your eyes. No fish. Now turn on the fish id. That clutter is now identified as fish. Do the same thing with the sensitivity setting with the fish id on. Turn it up and all of a sudden you have every fish in the lake surrounding you. Hahaha. Nothing gets me more pumped then an arch on my graph. I KNOW that is a fish.

Think of the sensitivity as the "volume" for your depth finder. Leaving it on auto is my best advice. It adjusts it for you, between deep water and shallow water.