How to Operate a Fish Finder

A fish finder provides the technological means to find fish. It is effective at doing this both in a lake and in the ocean. A fish finder uses an echo sounding technology to find the fish and additionally locate the bottom of the lake or ocean. Transmitted signals produce echoes that are returned to the fish finder after striking the lake or ocean floor. Echoes also occur when there is something in between, such as a fish. In order to know that an echo is a fish, you have to know the difference between a brush pile echo at the bottom of a lake and a fish echo.

Things You'll Need

• Boat
• Fishing pole
• Fishing tackle

Instructions

1. Read the instruction manual thoroughly for your fish finder. Although the general controls for a fish finder are the same and the guidelines for reading a fish finder are similar, details vary between manufacturers.

2. Determine the depth of the lake or ocean floor. This is a numeric value on the fish finder's display. Knowing the depth will help you to determine how much line to feed out from your pole.

3. Learn to identify brush piles if you intend to fish on a lake. Brush piles will appear as blobs or masses resting on the lake bottom on your fish finder display. Many fish hide out in brush piles, so consider stopping your boat and fishing near these echoes.

4. Turn off the automatic mode of identifying fish. In automatic mode, the fish finder displays a small symbol that looks like a fish, along with a depth. But these symbols are often misleading, and the fish finder will not tell you where the brush piles are when you are using the automatic mode.

5. Become familiar with how fish appear when the automatic mode is turned off. Fish will appear as short curved lines above the display's representation of the ocean or lake floor. The floor will be a jagged line near the bottom of your fish finder display.

6. Adjust the fish finder controls to make the echoes more visible. There will be a sensitivity control that should be increased if the echoes are faint. Increase the value on the noise filter if there are too many lines in your display that appear as static.

7. Adjust the brightness control as necessary to view your fish finder display as weather conditions warrant.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep track of what the fish finder was showing when you catch a fish so that you know what to look for next time.

• Use caution when handling fishing hooks and lures, which can cause injury.

Resources

• Fishing regulations