Just curious what people have found to be the most effective way to use their sounders. I'm still learning with mine so don't know if I'm using it as effectively as I can.

My typical setup is dual frequency, gain turned up (how much?), with or without auto view turned on depending if I want to focus on the entire water column or just one segment. Am I missing anything? BTW I'm using a Garmin 240 blue.
James

I keep my finder on the 200hz setting and mainly am looking for big bait balls and monitoring the bottom depth. I don't really bother with the split screen/dual frequency. I'm not sure you're really getting any additional info that's worthwhile doing that. I think you're better off spending your time checking your rigs and making sure they are working properly.

When I find a good bait ball, I run one rig above and one rig below and try to stay with the bait by circling around it a couiple of times. When bait is scarce, keeping the rigs in contact or near the bottom is what I do.

The Garmin Blue Line is certainly a great rig. I turn off my fish icon.Makes it easier to see the bait balls. I also played with the split screen/dual freq. I can't seem to get one screen to the bottom and the other in the column that I am targeting. Say 0-100' in 600' of water on the 50mhz. Any tips on that? Come on AKKings. I know you are the Master on electronics.

I was going to start a post today on the Garmin 240 Blue, as I installed one and used it for the first time yesterday and had problems. I'll just ask on this thread.

First, it was intermittanlty powering off. I am sure that all my connections are solid all the way to the battery, cant figure out what the problem is there? any ideas?

Second, when it did stay on, it would not give me an accurate reading of the depth. It read 500-650 feet all day long even though I know I was in 75-200 ft of water. At some times, the depth readout would slightly fade and return, fade and return, as if it was trying to tell me something.

Speed and Temp work fine. Voltage was +15v.

Anyone know what the heck the problems might be? AkKings, I know you know alot about these, any ideas?

AKKings can probably answer all these questions and more, but let me tell you what I know (or should I say I "think" I know) from my limited experience.

BigDog,
If I want to look at just the top section of the the water column I set the depth range to whatever depth I want to look at....say the top 100 feet of water. Alternatively, when I use the split screen feature there will be a shaded bar along the right side of the screen. By moving this bar up and down I believe you are selecting the particular view of the water column you are interested in zooming in on. One screen shows the full water column, the other zooms in on one section of the water column. Still trying to make sure I understand this option correctly.

Sky-Guy,
To confirm power to your sounder is okay, you can use a test light grounded to your battery or motor then touch the positive lead to the female receptacles on the sounder plug. I believe the shortest pin on the back of the sounder coincides with the female receptacle for power. If this test proves okay, I would call Garmin and see what they have to say. This past summer the power to my sounder was good, but the unit would not turn on. Sent it in to Garmin and they repair some sort of circuit that either fried or had a bad connection in the first place......this may be your problem.

JMS

Sky-Guy,

First thing I check when the sonar isn't working properly is a quick visual of the sending unit mounted on the back. It can easily pick up some grass and read incorrectly. The temp and speed are a separate unit (on mine) so it would seem like a logical first step (and the easiest).

Thanks for the replies so far Little Fish and Predator. I will perform the test you spoke of.
The Ducer was totally free of debris all day, and is mounted exactly to the specs in the installation manual- 1/8 in. below hull.

I am starting to think it may be a defective unit.
AK- when you read this, I bought it from the store you work at, what should I do?

Little Fish, A few pointers I give anyone looking for a sounders is,
1) when salmon fishing, always use the dual frequency, your maximizing the capabilities of the unit, on the 200khz setting you are better able to cover bottom/bottom structure as well as any fish that may be cruising on or near the bottom. The 50khz setting will give you a wider cone angle and show fish and bait higher up in the water column.
If your strictly bottom fishing, keep it on the 200khz and use both the bottom lock and the grayscale, if you learn how to read the grayscale you can see halibut on the bottom.

2) I never use any auto settings, manually adjust everything to get the most out of your unit.
As for your question on gain setting, I adjust until I'm starting to get some interference (interference is ok until it starts to become hard to distinguish what I'm looking at)

3) turn off fish ID, with it on, anything that enters the cone (fish, bait, thermoclines) looks like a fish. With the fish ID off, fish will appear boomerrang shaped, bait will appear as a ball/cloud, and thermoclines will show as a fuzzy line/image usually covering 5-10ft of the water column.

Bigdog, Little Fish had good advice, if you stop by the store I can show you how to make the adjustments. Without the unit in front of me I can't remember the exact proceedure to do it.
Been a while since I talked to you, wife gave me the boot, well, sort of, she's sending me back to Ak. next summer (tough job but someone has to do it)

Sky-Guy, I haven't heard of that problem before, sounds internal. Bring in the head unit and we'll check it out, if its defective we'll swap you out with another head unit, only thing is, we have a hard time keeping the 160 and 240 Blue's in stock, it may take a few days to get you 1 if were out.

Hope this helps a little.
P.S. you guys need to introduce yourselves, I have met a few of you (Jerry Garcia, DEAFfisherman, Bigdog) and know others are in quite often, I'm the short, stalky, balding, good-looking guy.

I know I've asked this before, but which store do you work at? Email me if you'd like.

-N.

I thought I met you A.K., but the good looking part has me confused!!

StorminN, Boaters World in Everett.