Do you trust your fish finder?

[djhunt]

I figure some parts of a fishfinder are reliable, like the depth reading  and the readout of the bottom etc.

but the feature where they claim to detect fish vs random floating crap - is it reliable? Do you look at it and think, ah there’s definitely fish there?

[SPEARFISH]

yes

You can tell fish from debris and bait from bigger fish once you learn

[Kayak Ken]

I'm not the most experienced person but I use it more to look for structure and depth changes. Looking for fallen trees, vegetation, or rocks usually brings me more succes then looking for fish icons to pop up. But this is what works for me. It also depends on the type of fishing. If your looking for Large mouths, stucture would probably be best. If your looking for stripers you might want to look for schools of bait fish.

[Booner]

What are you fishing?? Salt or fresh??

[flukebelly]

Mine …no, it sucks.

other peoples …yes.

time for an upgrade.

[electricstart]

Which one do you have ? I Trust My Lowrance hook 5 . Works good . There is a learning curve .  Should show  Depth, water temp ,  fish , and structure Mine also has GPS . You have to use the zoom  fish look like a quarter moon side ways .  I will not  fish in boat with out . Great tool , I may up grade to a better one . Also your transducer must be mounted right on your boat or it will not work right . Go on you tube and put in your make and model they will explain how to use and set up .  

[MGHunter66]

Yes, it’s all about learning to use it. If you have it just in automatic with fish symbols then just trust depth

[djhunt]

3 hours ago, Booner said:

What are you fishing?? Salt or fresh??

Both, but nothing really deep. Lakes & coastline

[djhunt]

2 hours ago, electricstart said:

Which one do you have ? I Trust My Lowrance hook 5 . 

I actually don’t have one right now, so I’m thinking about how much to invest. I was looking at the Hook series

[toxo]

5 minutes ago, djhunt said:

I actually don’t have one right now, so I’m thinking about how much to invest. I was looking at the Hook series

Go with the biggest screen that you can afford.

[electricstart]

47 minutes ago, djhunt said:

I actually don’t have one right now, so I’m thinking about how much to invest. I was looking at the Hook series

With fish finders you get what you pay for.   

[Mallard1100]

Yes I trust mine but like some guys mentioned above, it takes time. You have to learn what certain fish look like, what bait looks like etc. Some of these new units have so many features it takes a hell of a lot of time to learn it all. Lots of of good videos out there. I’m still dialing in and learning my side scan.
 

When it looks like this you know it’s game on as long as they want to chew! 

[Booner]

2 hours ago, djhunt said:

Both, but nothing really deep. Lakes & coastline

What size boat?

[Rjtfd]

2 hours ago, electricstart said:

With fish finders you get what you pay for.   

The transducer is more important than the fish finder. Fishfinders come with a lot of bells and whistles such as better resolution or user friendly but transducer is what makes the difference to get the most out of your display. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Rjtfd

[Rjtfd]

that’s not debris under the water. Lol