Fish Finders - Post Your Experience / Tips

[Lenny Rat]

Just dropped some coin on a boat with a Pro FF.

There are one or two threads out there pontificating upon the merits of whether these units are of any use or just a pretty picture that tells you, "fish here and you might catch something".

What has been your experience and what tips can you provide if you have had success using them:

1) Do they scan in front, to the side (s), or in the back of the boat? The FF sits slightly on the right; is it scanning directly in front of its location?

2) Do they scan below the boat or some distance away from the boat? For instance, do you cast away from the boat a certain distance or simply unwind your line to drop your bait straight down (for a bottom rod).

Let's hear from all of you that have had some time to test them.

[Lenny Rat]

It is all good information, @i50! The only way to get some understanding of these units is to post the data.

For certain the Devs had to do something, the questions is "what". I was out again today using the FF in Russia. I found several spots using it so it is most certainly effective in finding general locations that have fish.

I'm sticking to my 360 degree hypothesis; watching the display the fish, the bottom terrain, and the weeds, all move right to left. There is no way that all fish move in only one direction; also, the fact that the background weeds vary in height while the display scrolls would indicate they are "different" weeds (not a static view).

Diane; where are you?

[Marshall_maz]

Originally posted by i50:

I couldn't catch an 11.1 lb catfish for a mission so I decided to try sonar and it worked. So, after finding and marking the area, I caught a 12 lb catfish and completed the mission. This video just displays the sonar view and the marked area.

https://youtu.be/bxJ2pZ1tGrg

Note: Best viewed at full screen. Takes about 20 seconds to focus.

How did you place the marker when you found fish ? I thought one could only place a marker after catching a fish.

[gazza]

how about an official reply from FP that would be nice :)

or do they want us to keep guessing !!!!!

[Lenny Rat]

Originally posted by Marshall_maz:

How did you place the marker when you found fish ? I thought one could only place a marker after catching a fish.

When the question is asked, "Do you want to place marker at the location of the last fish caught?", you just answer no. Your cursor will change to a reticle and you can place your marker anywhere on the map.

[Lenny Rat]

Originally posted by gazza:

how about an official reply from FP that would be nice :)

or do they want us to keep guessing !!!!!

Yes, that would be extremely helpful!

[Marshall_maz]

Originally posted by Lenny Rat:

Originally posted by Marshall_maz:

How did you place the marker when you found fish ? I thought one could only place a marker after catching a fish.

When the question is asked, "Do you want to place marker at the location of the last fish caught?", you just answer no. Your cursor will change to a reticle and you can place your marker anywhere on the map.

Copy that thanx.

[Lenny Rat]

Originally posted by DrCulocane:

Maybe seeing how it works irl will clarify some of your doubts

Great video, @Dr! I was about 30 seconds from going out looking for exactly that when I saw your post!

Without better info from the Dev's, I'd say that you are correct in considering this to be the best example of how the in-game FF works. It is not likely that the unit rotates at all. After looking at a few units it is clear that they simply scan then render from right to left based on time, not movement.

Assuming that the in-game cone is around 60 degrees straight down, you should stop the boat immediately and drop bottom rods directly alongside the boat. If you are casting, you would be better off passing the zone that you marked with fish and then stopping the boat to cast off the rear in the direction from which you came.

[Cpl Tunnel]

this is what 360 looks like
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrJ7Jaz2TFdzzMA6k9XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=humminbird+360+imaging&fr2=piv-web&fr=tightropetb#id=0&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FLbe4fHWQN8A%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&action=click

this is not in the game,nor is side scan
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrE19nR2jFdb2EAH3tXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=side+scan+imaging&fr2=piv-web&fr=tightropetb#id=2&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi36.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fe6%2Fimonem%2FS00316.png&action=click

This is whats in the game
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrExdzS3DFdvGQA_hmJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBsZ29xY3ZzBHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEc2xrA2J1dHRvbg--;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNjI4NTcEX3IDMgRhY3RuA2NsawRjc3JjcHZpZANKbXZtQnpFd0xqTFMzZExzV1QzdGJRQndOamd1TVFBQUFBQVh1djNQBGZyA3RpZ2h0cm9wZXRiBGZyMgNzYS1ncARncHJpZANkdVVHcDZibVRGQ1dQYm8wQlNneFpBBG5fc3VnZwM2BG9yaWdpbgNpbWFnZXMuc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMwRwcXN0cgNodW1taW5iaXJkJTIwc29uYXIEcHFzdHJsAzE2BHFzdHJsAzI1BHF1ZXJ5A2h1bW1pbmJpcmQlMjBzb25hciUyMGNvbmUEdF9zdG1wAzE1NjM1NDg4OTE-?p=humminbird+sonar+cone&fr=tightropetb&fr2=sa-gp-images.search&ei=UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt#id=22&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fishfinders.info%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F11%2FSonar-Frequency-Transducer-Fish-Finder2-1.jpg&action=click

[Jack Schitt]

Originally posted by alohastone:

Originally posted by Lenny Rat:

2) Do they scan below the boat or some distance away from the boat? For instance, do you cast away from the boat a certain distance or simply unwind your line to drop your bait straight down (for a bottom rod).

I haven't really tried out the sonars much. But from my personal and my friends experience, as well as some googling I did, sonars / fish finders usually shoot straight down, and scan the area below your boat in a cone-shape.

See attached image:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7a/8f/24/7a8f24947726ee930bdcb8b3911469d8.jpg

So if you see fish on your sonar, you'd have to drop your match / bottom rod straight down. I tried this with the catfish in germany, and it seems to work quite nicely.

If you'd want to go with spinning, I guess you'd have to drive back a bit, and retrieve your lure through the area your boat was at when you saw the fish.

More experienced players & fishermen might correct me if I'm wrong, but I guess this is the way it works.

Correct. The sonar range is spec'd at a range of what the sonar covers, which is primarily straight down from the sensor of the fish finder from your boat in a pyramid shape so when it finds fish they are pretty much directly under the boat. In real life what I do and how everyone uses fish finders is when they find fish you still move the vote forward the distance you want to cast to that location and anchor there, a distance away from the targeted area so you can cast TO it instead of dropping straight down. Sometimes and some of us who use sonar instead of reading water in real life use some kind of marker buoy to mark where the FF indicated the fish are. We throw something (anything) that floats at that location so we know how far to move the boat from it so we can cast to there. Can't do that in the game so you just have to take a good guess as to where to anchor/stop the boat and where to cast from where you're stopped.

If I'm using a bottom rig in real life or a float rig when my FF finds them I'll keep the motor moving the boat but drop my line right away, right there, and use that and memory as the buoy marker. Maybe try that (if it's possible to cast while the boat is still moving - I just saw that they FINALLY have motorboats in this game!). Drop a float line when the FF indicates there are fish and let the boat drift out with your line loose so the fish aren't spooked by the boat being right there on top of them.

[Maj.Tryhard]

@Jack Schitt There's marker bouys in-game. Just press M and you should see an icon somewhere on the GPS/map.

[Lenny Rat]

With respect to spawn locations from a boat versus from the shore. Are they somehow spawned differently?

I drove my boat over to a few extremely repeatable markers that I have placed from well established shoreline locations; the finder did not register a single fish. I've tried this at 3 markers on 2 different lakes and had the same results.

Anybody else experience this?

[Marshall_maz]

Originally posted by Lenny Rat:

With respect to spawn locations from a boat versus from the shore. Are they somehow spawned differently?

I drove my boat over to a few extremely repeatable markers that I have placed from well established shoreline locations; the finder did not register a single fish. I've tried this at 3 markers on 2 different lakes and had the same results.

Anybody else experience this?

Well I have seen many times that the sonar shows no fish at all while I am actually catching fish in the spot.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally posted by Maj.Tryhard:

@Jack Schitt There's marker bouys in-game. Just press M and you should see an icon somewhere on the GPS/map.

Thanks! I haven't played in a while, not since several updates ago so I must have missed the news that there are place-able markers? I saw there are finally real boats! And I'm tempted to check them out but I'm reluctant to spend as much as they want for them.

[Lenny Rat]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

Originally posted by Maj.Tryhard:

@Jack Schitt There's marker bouys in-game. Just press M and you should see an icon somewhere on the GPS/map.

Thanks! I haven't played in a while, not since several updates ago so I must have missed the news that there are place-able markers? I saw there are finally real boats! And I'm tempted to check them out but I'm reluctant to spend as much as they want for them.

Well, consider doing what I did...buy the best rubber boat at 1/3 the price of the best bass boat. The provided fish finder is just as good and it is plenty powerful. The bass boats are too big, overpowered, and only have an incrementally better fish finder (I think it allows you to see fish when traveling faster). It also comes with a trolling motor, which I don’t consider worth an extra 240k.

[Maj.Tryhard]

I got mine for about 100k. Seems like a lot, but not if you compare to a kayak for 30k. A lot of people don't think they're worth the money, but I'm quite fond of mine.