Fish Finder not spotting fish 2024

Georgia Jeff reply :

I have a Hummingbird 565 dual beam unit that rarely ever spots fish. It does a good job of charting the bottom, stumps, etc. but hardly ever spots fish. I know that the transducer is mounted correctly. I do fish in ponds that are less than 15 feet deep and am in water less than 10 feet deep most of the time. Even this shallow shouldn't it chart fish.

Does anyone else have a cheaper unit that charts fish in shallow water?

Rebbasser reply :

I never chart fish-not what I'm looking for. I have 2 of those units, and use then to find structure/cover the fish are around . I don;t know anyone who uses them to find fish-they use them for finding structure/cover.

BigEbass reply :

Yeah, I second that thought - if you find the best structure and fish it, you cant go wrong eventually! Finding individual bass or schooling bass is really hit and miss I think - however, baitfish is a fair indicator if bass are in the area....structure, cover, and baitfish is my primary focus so far in using my sonar so far...at least that is my understanding so far....

What sensitivity are you running at?

RoLo reply :

I'm proud of you fellows, you both provided an educated response.

Marketing hype refers to them as 'fish finders', but anglers in the know think of them as "Depth Sounders"

When we hone our 'depth-sounding' skills, 'fish finding' is a foregone conclusion.

Roger

Paul Roberts reply :

Ditto!

When Carl Lowrance first developed sonar they called em "fish locators" and used them that way. But they were missing the real show -the importance of underwater landscapes. Good hunter don't hunt deer and rabbits just looking for deer and rabbits. Eventually you get to know the landscapes they rely on to live, and understand how they make there livings there. Same with fish, but we cannot just go see it.

GF, I fish shallow ponds with sonar and do see fish, but not always. Realize your beam cuts a pretty narrow swath, and only fish near beam center will appear as classic "hooks".

Catt reply :

A fish finder is what's tied to the end of your rod

What y'all fail to understand is the is a little computer chip in those units that shows little fish symbols constantly going around in circles.

Dwight Hottle reply :

Chances are the fish are moving away from your boat because of the shallow water your fishing. I usually don't mark fish until I'm in 15-20 feet deep. The deeper the water the greater the cone display on your unit.

BigEbass reply :

We are educated yay ;D ;D ;D

Good point too - very narrow beam - difficult perhaps futile to have the goal of "finding fish" as a use of your unit.

gobig reply :

I tend to agree that the primary use of a fish finder is locating structure and cover. However I fish several deep water lakes and use the fish finder to target suspended fish at various times of the year. You can make a pinpoint presentation with a spoon, ice jig or a dropshot using the fish finder almost like a video game. Its really kind of cool watching fish go to your bait and then having your rod load up.

burleytog reply :

Lemme guess, you've still got Fish ID activated?

Georgia Jeff reply :

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Lemme guess, you've still got Fish ID activated?

I'm not sure I will have to check on that. I read the manual and set it up about 1 1/2 years ago and havn't messed with it since. Does Fish ID mess something up?

Thanks for the responses. I know that the main purpose of a "fish" finder is to locate structure but a friend of mine has a cheap $79 Cuda and he claims it marks fish in the river (shallow river usually 10 ft or less) and mine never does. Therefore I was wondering if I had something set wrong on my unit or if his unit was just a better unit. He claimed it really helped him find fish last year.

I have a pretty good grasp of where to fish in the river and in the ponds I fish but it sure wouldn't hurt if the fish finder actually "found" some fish for me!

Georgia Jeff reply :

Several of the ponds I fish have flat, unchanging, usually stumpless deep water areas. Usually we catch fish in the shallows. However, when the bite is tough in the shallows we always figure the fish are in the deeper water. It would be nice if the unit actually marked fish in this situation since the deeper areas are so devoid of cover.

Georgia Jeff reply :

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I tend to agree that the primary use of a fish finder is locating structure and cover. However I fish several deep water lakes and use the fish finder to target suspended fish at various times of the year. You can make a pinpoint presentation with a spoon, ice jig or a dropshot using the fish finder almost like a video game. Its really kind of cool watching fish go to your bait and then having your rod load up.

That would be pretty awesome! I saw one of the pros doing that during a tournament about a year ago (maybe Swindle). I assume you have to have a really nice unit to be able to see your lure with the sonar like that? Is that true? I assume a cheaper unit like mine won't do that?

Btech reply :

I was wondering the same thing I have heard you can watch your lure on the finder but I never could find my own.

Do you need a primo finder or is there a way to change the options

SoFlaBassAddict reply :

You don't need a super expensive sounder to do that. A couple hundred bucks is it. You've got to have the tuned properly to catch the lure, and you also need to be inside the cone of the transducer. A lot of times that means vertical or mostly vertical drops. Lowrance/Eagle and Humminbird makes this fairly easy with the real time sonar ping windows. I can easily pick up a 3/8 oz sinker and a 4" finesse worm and see both clearly on mine. Like somebody else mentioned, it is pretty cool watching your lure on the screen and seeing a fish chase after it and having your rod bow over.

basskatcher() reply :

Maybe there's no fish?

Georgia Jeff reply :

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Maybe there's no fish?

That's not the problem. We regulary catch 10 to 40 bass total per outing so I know there are fish in the ponds.

burleytog reply :

But the fish may not be directly under the transducer. In water that shallow, the cone is going to be very small.

Georgia Jeff reply :

I talked with my friend that owns the Eagle Cuda fishfinder ($80) and he says his spots about 20 or so fish a trip where as mine spots about 20 fish a year. This really makes me wonder what the problem is because we bought fish the same river and in similar ponds.

Georgia Jeff reply :

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But the fish may not be directly under the transducer. In water that shallow, the cone is going to be very small.

That is what I was afraid of.

Grey Wolf reply :

You ever think your friend might be BS'ing about spotting the fish ?

BigEbass reply :

I cannot imagine seeing so few fish ever on a depth finder on any given outing. The principles discussed are spot on so far - ie the very narrow field of view you achieve with a sounder - so there could be many fish in an area and you may possibly miss then in your narrow cone - the more shallow you are, the more narrow the field of view....having said that, I am not sure why exaclty you are not marking any fish or so very few fish - I am guessing you are running on auto sensitivity - but even at various sensitivities I cannot imagine not seeing very many fish EVER??

Gobig is right about verticle presentations, I have read about it and will one day learn this technique - just got my new HB unit that will likely be able to do this, but I am just not there yet. But at the moment if you can find good points, creeks, flats, humps etc and fish em top to bottom you cant go wrong - the fish will be there....I think...

Georgia Jeff reply :

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You ever think your friend might be BS'ing about spotting the fish ?

I wouldn't put it past him. He does fish against me in the river bass fishing tournament I put on. My regular fishing partner just bought the same Cuda model though so we will find out soon. That is if he will get off his lazy butt and install the thing!

Georgia Jeff reply :

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I cannot imagine seeing so few fish ever on a depth finder on any given outing. The principles discussed are spot on so far - ie the very narrow field of view you achieve with a sounder - so there could be many fish in an area and you may possibly miss then in your narrow cone - the more shallow you are, the more narrow the field of view....having said that, I am not sure why exaclty you are not marking any fish or so very few fish - I am guessing you are running on auto sensitivity - but even at various sensitivities I cannot imagine not seeing very many fish EVER??
Gobig is right about verticle presentations, I have read about it and will one day learn this technique - just got my new HB unit that will likely be able to do this, but I am just not there yet. But at the moment if you can find good points, creeks, flats, humps etc and fish em top to bottom you cant go wrong - the fish will be there....I think...

I was hoping that since it was a dual beam transducer that there would be a decent sized area of coverage even in 10 ft water or less. I guess not!

BigEbass reply :

Frankly I am not exactly sure of how wide an area is covered with that unit in 10 feet...?? But I doubt it will be anything more than 5-10 feet diameter?? But that is a total guess There probably is some sort of ratio that will tell you the area of coverage.....

jettech reply :

If its the standard 83/200 Your 83 khz beam is 60 degrees. At ten feet deep that only gives you ten feet of coverage(five to each side of the transducer) Worry more about the structure than the individual fish with that coverage.

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Fish Finder not spotting fish 2024

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