May I ask for some help and guidance from knowledgeable anglers? I enjoy the change in fishing with a depthfinder, and it has put me on some fish witch I would otherwise miss. The common problem I am having, as i am sure many others is identifying what I am seeing. Sometimes the picture is completely foreign to me, such as image#2.

Here are a few screenshots for a recant outing, if anyone would be interested in explaining what is what I am sure it would help me understand my fish finder more. I fish from a kayak with scupper mount, the transducer is sightly tilted down and the unit is DragonFly 5pro.

Thank you.

Pic 1 is s bush or tree, 2 looks like transducer vibrations or interference, 3 some more bushes or stumps with fish on them, 4 a hump with baitfish and fish , 5 grass or weeds with baitfish.

Looks to me same as what Ranger21 said.

Sander

On 2. Your speed is very, very slow. So your transducer is sending many "pings" and in a small place. Let's say on your yak you are tied up to a tree. If there is a branch under your transducer it will look like a long "line". The "scroll" speed on FF doesn't change so it will look like a line. It would be great if consumer FF tech would allow us to get good images like your other ones at 0 speed but not possible now. Having said that I am very impressed with your other images. That is a good FF.

Not real "technically" happy with my 1st response.

Not sure if my measurements are correct but idea is good.

Transducer signal is 1 inch to 1 foot front to back. Side to to side is depending on depth but let's say 10 feet for this example. So a branch is underneath your boat at 5 foot and is sitting front to back. You are not moving so a long branch will will continue to show a line but continue to show the bottom say at 10 feet n

Now let's say the branch was perfectly set at left to right of transducer and you are not moving. It would show branch at 5 feet and bottom would be at 5 feet.

Clear as mud?

That is actually pretty clear and understandable, I really appreciate it. The transducer is mounted via home-made mount, it looks like it is moving quite a bit and not perfectly steady - how much of an effect will this have on the readings? I can happily mount it better with hot glue. Also, do you think the sensitivity is a too strong? The FF is set on auto for almost all settings.

For sure you want steady as possible.

Sensitivity is perfect looking to me. That bait and brushes are looking perfect.

I am mad at you though. I may have to look at that for my yak.

Go to crappie section and 1st post is graph pictures. Look thru those and you will see lots of DI pictures. Your is DI only I am sure. This will give you idea of what you are looking at on DI.

It has been very interesting using it thus far, Ive only had it for a short time. Some readings are still not perfectly clear to me, any input to clarify what is showing up on these here ;

1. What are these marks? Air bubbles/motion for the paddle? No yellow means it is not a strong reading, correct?
2. I am sitting in 7 foot of water and FF is zoomed in, its reading all the way down to 24! Soft ground? Its reading layers of rock/sand?
3. One more that looks pretty cool, no idea what that is. Looks like a boat at first glance.

1 more thing.

The color part of yours I think is worthless to those new to FF. Us Old dogs can use that but it takes a while of looking at it to "interpret" the image.

I am for sure not an expert but have many years of looking at X-ray and camera data and have learned how to interpret data. Basically if you want better explanation look up line scan camera that will give good idea of how FF sends and receives data.

Your killing me.

On a color pic different density will have different color. My last post said color is worthless but you just proved me wrong. LOL.

Best way to see which color is "hardest" is to maybe go over concrete boat ramp and see what color it is.

Yes I think it is soft material you are seeing. Unless you are fishing for species that are "hard" bottom or "soft" bottom specific it may not matter. Now we are getting into areas I am for sure not expert in giving my last 4 outings looking for crappie or hybrids.

Thank you for all your input, I do appreciate it. Speaking of crappie, that is the main reason I got the FF, with time and practice I hope to catch a few!

It looks like in your selected color palet for the sonar hardest is red, then yellow, green, and finally blue. Your range is showing a triple image. That means you are tuned in. People used to go double the depth to make sure they had the appropriate sensitivity. Sonar will penetrate more than water....

On the imaging side, if the sensitivity is the same, the brighter color denotes denser features. However, density can be depth-dependent if you don't adjust accordingly.

Thank you for the input David, I did not know the sensitivity change according to depth - really good information. I wonder if the auto gain adjusts accordingly to depth.

Looks like somebody's fishing Joe Pool.

Lake Murray in Oklahoma

Whats in Joe Pool?