I have this particular finder and cannot figure out how to use it properly. A guy told me a year ago not to use any of the features such as the fish alarm, and all the other fancy options. He also told me to keep it in the manual mode. If anybody has any tips on this model I would really appreciate it. I only use it for ice fishing. Maybe its time I get a better finder.
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Hey Deathman, is it the fisheasy 320c, 240, or 2? Here is a link to their website [url "http://www.eaglegps.com/Products/products.htm"]http://www.eaglegps.com/Products/products.htm[/url]
I noticed on that page it has the manual for each product in pdf format.
* Sorry, I put up a bad link at first-- it should be good now.
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a lot depends on what you are fishing for too. How deep, what species. I caught a lot of fish on a $35.00 Hummingbird that I bought at a yard sale. I now use a Lowrance X85 and have complete confidence in what is says. Learning how to read it means a lot. I do agree on using the ''Manual'' settings over the ''Auto''. I never had much faith in Fish I.D. or Alarms. JMHO.
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I have the fisheasy 240 and it's great for ice fishing. I second the recommendation to not use any of the fancy features. I've found that the FishID is pretty much useless. It thinks everything is a fish. It's much easier to learn to interpret the readings yourself. It definately has helped me catch more fish.
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Hey you guys I appreciate all the comments. I guess I'll keep playing with it.
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You will want to play with the sensitivity until you can see your jig. Then don't get it too strong. There will be a lot of clutter on top of the screen but just ignore it
When I pull mine out of the water to land a fish, I will sometimes have to re adjust the settings. The more that you play with it the more you will like it.
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So DKS you put your transducer in the same hole you fish? I always drill a seperate hole for my finder. Am I making a mistake doing that? Does it seem to read better if its in the same hole? Any suggestions would be appreciated on this. Thanks
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Mine is a differnt make and model but I get a better signal return when fishing in the same hole as my sonar. It does good in a hole about 6 inches away but better in the same hole.
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I just purchased the 240 and have used it twice at the berry. The first time I used it I left the fish ID on and I thought I had fish swimming by all day. Today I turned that off and just tried to learn how to read the fish arches. Do all the other work the same. This is my first fishfinder. Should I have bought a cuda168? I will be using my fishfinder for float tubing this summer, any information will help!
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It should work just fine. Turn the fish ID off and turn your sensativity up until you can see your jig on the right of your screen. If there is clutter on your screen as well then turn the sensativity (maybe called gain or noise reject) down until you can still see your jig but lose most of the clutter. You should be able to see your jig all the time and watch it go up and down as you jig it. Then any dark blobs or lines that appear near your jig is prob a fish. Hope that helps.
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Thanks, I'll try turning the sensitivity up. I think I kept it at 65% today. I'll try adjusting the sensitivity more next week and adjusting the scroll speed.
Thanks again,
Gabby
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I would crank the scroll speed all the way up. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but play around with it, and you will think it is the best thing since sliced bread.
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Maybe someone who uses that exact unit would be willing to go crank their unit up and write down what settings give them the best results and give you some help. I have a Garmin 250 and the settings probably vary widely so I can't help you much.
When you turned the fish ID off what did you see?
I know Eagle makes a good unit and should work great for you both on the ice and in the tube. I think the 240 has more power, pixels, and features than the cuda (don't quote me on that one) so I think you made a good choice. You just need to figure it out. If you haven't already figured out how to rig it on your tube then head on over to the float tube board and check out THE BEST OF thread on the top of the page. Great stuff in there.
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When I got the unit I rigged it up for my float tube and for ice fishing. I'll try it on the float tube when the weather warm up just a bit.
I'll play with the setting everytime I go out so I can become very familure with the unit.
If someone would send me a pm on their settings on this unit it would save alot of time but if not I think with a litte effort I should be able to figure it out.
Thank, Gabby.
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I use a Lowrance. The Eagles are made by Lowrance and usually operate very similar to the Lowrances, but the available features from one unit to the other may differ. Here is what I suggest/do:
Once it is in manual mode, look for the surface clarity option. If you have it, adjust it to either medium or high (this clears up some of the surface clutter that you normally will see). As stated earlier, for ice fishing, you will want your scroll speed (or ping speed) maxed out. Auto depth is not always ideal for ice fishing, if you have too much of your screen taken up with the area below the lake bottom, try to manually set your depth range and use the zoom with the arrow keys (if you zoom in and it shows the middle of the water column, you should be able to hold the arrow key down for a few seconds and the screen will move down to where you want it).
Now for the important part, the sensitivity. So you know, as far as I can tell, there is not a given setting for the sensitivity that someone can give you and have it work. The sensitivity settings will be different for different depths, water clarities, bottom structures, ect (typically lower for shallow water and higher for deeper water). I usually (with out the jig in the water) turn my sensitivity down until I can just see the bottom and maybe a little surface clutter at the top of the screen, then slowly turn the sensitivity up until the screen starts to become cluttered (usually with spots and streaks), then back it off one click at a time until most of the clutter just barely goes away. At this point, put your jig in the water and look for it on the screen, it will show as a horizontal line across the screen that moves up or down when you move you pole up or down. It is possible that you may not see your jig on the screen. If this is the case, try the following things before you increase the sensitivity: [ul] [li]Slowly raise and lower you pole as far as you can while you look for your jig, if you are set up over a sloped bottom or near a cliff, you may have a blind spot near the bottom.[/li] [li]Move your transducer around, move it closer to the hole with your jig, try to point it slightly towards your line, ect and repeat the above [/li] [li]try a bigger jig, or a flasher above the jig (if, the fish don't mind)[/li][/ul]
Sometimes, your fishing line will create some clutter on the screen initially. You can turn the sensitivity down, but note that usually after the line has been in the water for a few minutes this will go away and you can turn the sensitivity back up. As far as I can tell, if you have a blind spot due to a sloped bottom there is no way to make it go away other than move to a flatter spot (any suggestions here?). To see how big this blind spot is lower your jig (that you now see on the screen) down to where it just disappears, them continue to lower your line until it hits bottom and goes slack (this is the blind spot, if you have one).
When still fishing, fish will not usually appear as arches (unless they quickly swim through the transducer cone or swim by the far edge of the cone), but will appear as lines similar to your jig, but hopefully thicker. If the line (fish) starts out thin and gets thicker, it usually means that the fish is swimming from the outside of the cone towards your jig, the reverse is also true. If the line curves up from the bottom towards your jig, it does not necessarily mean that the fish is coming from below (due to the shape of the transducer cone if a fish swims straight horizontally towards your jig it will appear as a curved line coming from below). Sometimes the fish will just appear out of no where right on your jig, if your jig line starts to look thicker, but you don't see a fish come in, try pulling your jig up quickly and look for a separate line below your jig, that may follow it up. If you see a random streak or arch on your screen, it may be a fish passing through the edge of your cone. Sometimes you can quickly move your jig slightly above the elevation of the streak and jig to bring these passers-by in for a hit.
(hows that for a long answer??!!??)
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Wow!
Thanks for the info, I will try everthing you said this weekend.
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Fishry,
Wow! that was an excellent explanation of exactly what it is really like! Nice job!
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Fishry you the man baby. That was an awsome explanation. I appreciate you and everybody else who has taken time out to explain some of this to me. Hopefully I will run into you guys one of these days. Thanks.
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Good Explanation Fishry. The best way to learn how to read a fish finder is to use it while on the ice. Don't be afraid to adjust Sensitivity, Greyline etc. untill you get a good reading. Good Luck.
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