Is a Fishfinder just pixelized torment?

So,,, I ordered the fishfinder for my oversized pool-toy, waited the obligatory 6-8 months (in mail-order years, 3-4 CALENDAR days if you want to get technical) for it to be mailed to me, drilled at least 35 holes in my kayak to install it, (glued the dog to the hull at one point) and managed to carve a diesel battery out of a 73 AMC Gremlin that was quietly rusting, in amidst the forest of plastic pink flamingos, in my overgrown front yard, and balanced the battery, duct-taped to my bow, on the kayak and actually managed to launch the pool-toy at the Deep Water channel in West Sac, with the new fishfinder, beeping and flashing at me, Sunday morning first thing.

Couldn’t find a damn salmon…

Which brings me to my first (yet much less existential) question about fishfinders; Do salmon (being fish) show up on said “fish”-finder? I was having a conversation with one of my useless relations, normally I am able to drive him away with a cloud of cigar smoke (unfortunately I had been threatened by my lovely wife earlier on the use of cigar smoke while we were AT the chuck-e-cheese, and nothing short of full-on-weapons drive my wife away, even then you have to know how to USE them, cause she does, and, well you get the point,,,) said-useless-relation claimed that fishfinders were unable to locate salmon, which is why commercial fishermen would look for bait-balls with the fishfinders instead??

Since I am a noob, and didn’t know the answer to this, and wasn’t able to call BS based on more than past experience of said-relations’ claims, I fell back on scowling and trying to drink heavily..

Back to the water… So I couldn’t manage to jig up a salmon in the area I normally fish, no-one else seemed to be catching them either, and my activity pass was quickly expiring, so I decided to try some of the other sage advice I had seen from these boards, threw on a Brokeback Rebel and started trolling. I paddled all the way up the channel under two bridges and out into the Port area, where I finally started marking fish,,, LOTS of fish,,, all sizes of fish, and every damn one of them was in 30-40 feet of water, and my rebel was trolling, I’m guessing, at about five feet of water….

I got out the salmon jig and tried dropping that down for a bit, but honestly didn’t have a lot of time to spend mooching it, had no bait to soak, no minnows, pretty much just got to hyperventilate and wish I had a few sticks of dynamite and a net….

So is the purpose of a fishfinder REALLY to find fish? Or is it some kind of karmic balancing for all of the wrongs you have done in your life, teaching you privation and longing, being able to SEE all those fish, yet not do any-damn-thing about it? Would I have been happier just HOPING there are fish under me instead of knowing? Did you all actually ENJOY fishing more AFTER you got a fishfinder?? I am an information junky, but this little thing has the potential to REALLY piss me off!!

I would appreciate hearing any stories where a fishfinder has actually improved your life…

i have been similarly frustrated in freshwater. I can say it helps me the most to locate structure in fresh and salt water.

I use the ff to primarily for depth sounding, water temp. and to find the areas where said fish should be ,structure, bait, etc. If you mark fish then its a plus or more frustrating if they don't bite.......

 
   I've been on water (Loch Lomond in Ben lomond) and seen 0, ZERO fish some days, others I've seen schools swimming in circles every 4 minutes under my boat. And every 4 minutes I landed one out of that circling school! 
   It's nice to actually see the raw returns of fish, (I don't use the "Fish identifier" symbols on my FF) but I use it more for locating drop-off's, brush & trees under water. Speed & temp also.  Some times
I've even seen a Thermocline on Loch Lomond.

Most sophisticated ocean salmon fisherman claim salmon will not show up on FF. I use FF to find striper frequently on the delta and in that case it is invaluable for locating deper spoon fish.

I was told that when looking for Salmon, look for the chevron symbol. It is bait fish running from the Salmon. At MBK I saw a lot of activity all at once at 165', then bam 21 lb'er on. I may have seen the bait, or theasalmon. Don't know and don't care. That fish was a pig. I mainly use for structure and speed, but at Berryessa I find schools of Kokanee. They are Salmon, just small. So I guess the answer is " at least some form of Salmon show up".

are you using it in the fish symbol mode or the arches,in the fishsymbol mode its just bouncing whateverthats under it sticks, debris itll just bounce anything back as fish symbol.now in the fish arch mode the sonar picks up the air bladder so it comes up as arches.they say to use it in the arch mode so you can get use to it.well thats what i was told by my bass guy.but at san pablo dam i did mark some arches as i was trolling for trout.got a hit after i pass over the arches.me in a hurry reaching too fast for it almost dropping it over the side and fumbling around with it the fish finally got off

"Did you all actually ENJOY fishing more AFTER you got a fishfinder?"



Yes. But it's going to take more than one or two trips to get used to understanding what you are seeing & what you need to watch for on the screen. You also need to play with the settings such as the sensitivity to compensate for debris in the water. Give yourself a few months or a year to figure it all out. I read on another forum that just going from a standard finder to a side scan unit it usually takes about a year to get used to that change and my friend that uses a side scan agrees with that. I switch back & forth between arches & fish id. I like knowing the exact depth of 'marks' and fish id is good for that. Good luck, jim

I'm new to my fishfinder as well and I'm still learning about what I'm seeing.   They are a useful tool but they won't put you on fish, that's up to you.  One thing that I'm still grasping is that you have to me moving in order to "see" shapes.  Fish arches will pop up when you move over a fish or the fish moves under you, but if you're stationary the resulting signal you're getting is off the same spot of whatever is under you.  I figured this out while getting a good steady drift and started understanding the bottom and the holes and structure there as I passed by and watched the screen.  Upon trying to go back and finding the same structure I was having a hell of a time until I happened to go over it again while paddling.  Anyway, I wouldn't worry about the fish much, just find the structure, or maybe the bait, and get those lines in the water.  Remember: it's the fishfinder, YOU'RE the fish catcher!

I've caught ZERO fish since I got my FF installed on my yak, LOL. I have chartplotter and dsi but I find myself only using it to check water depth and structures. I'm pretty sure I'm just too stupid to fully understand how to use my ff.

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I curse my FF more tan I praise it, that's for sure. Usually when it's showing pixelized fish flippin me the bird!
Sometimes I'll ditch the FF just for S&G's. It's like going back in time.
But I was surprised at how different Humminbird and Lowrance are--after switching to Lowrance recently. I'm still trying to figure out the settings on this thing...even though it seems so basic.   

 

  One thing the "Fish ID" does, is it identifies where the "Fish" (whatever it is that returns the US pulse back to the FF) is in the "Cone" (Both my Hummingbird and Eagle cuda do this) if the fish symbol is facing Left, then the fish was imaged from the left side of the cone.  If the fish symbol is facing Right, well it was imaged in the right side of the cone. The Cone being the field of view from the transducer.  At the moment I can't recall what the fish symbol for fish in the middle or directly below is, maybe an open symbol (Not solid black/grey?)
  But, again, anything suspended below the surface and above the bottom will be painted as a fish,  be it trash, clump of algee, turtle, whatever.
  I only use raw data (Arches) when my FF is on. 

I have been fishing without a FF quite successfully but have finally bought one.  I am in the process of installing it now.  I really want it for salmon and WSB fishing so that I can find baitfish that are deep.  It will also be nice to see the structure below when going for rockfish.  Trying it out for my first time tomorrow.

For me it really depends on how powerful the unit is. After using mine for few years in FW I can see the bait and fish easily on the sonar and I often white bass fish totally based on what I am marking. I also mark catfish when they come in to bite. I think this is due to the relatively shallow depth. Once I move out to deep salt water for WSB or Salmon I don't often mark anything. I will mark HUGE clouds of bait and/or fish but anything that doesn't light up the whole screen goes unnoticed. I fish with someone that uses the mark 4 DSI sonar in color and he can tell me how many WSB are in a particular school or if there is a little bait on the bottom, fish in the kelp ect. His sonar is almost 2x more powerful by wattage rating and it's color which makes a huge difference.

I did ask my PB buddy about marking Salmon and he seemed to think they didn't show up on the screen. He catches tons of Salmon though and has a lower wattage ff.     

I fished my yaks for 10 years before getting a FF 3.5 years ago.  It does help very much with depth, structure and schooling bait or rockfish, but I too have heard that salmon don't show up - that likely depends on the technology you actually have.  I enjoy fishing about half the time without the FF, and when I do have it on I like to use it sparingly.  It can become a hindrance to the overall experience at times, but it can also enhance it.

I like your writing style and sense of humor, Dude.  It's nice to have you in the club.