Sounders Fishfinders sonar

[Geoff R]

I am kitting out my boat for Breamin, Barra chasin and general river and estuary work, I know nothing about sounders at all but i know what i want one to do for me.
Seeing as i am "strictly" an inland waterway fisherman, i figure i need a sounder that looks sideways to the bank rather than to the bottom, to identify structure, fish arches and tell me where the thermocline is. I have been on boats with a transom mounted transducer and the unit doesn't pick up where i am casting my lures at, "obviously the cone" of sonar is angled down. If i was to put that transducer on say my "Minn Kota" and angle it so the cone is in the direction of where i am looking at, will it be more usefull to me . Does any one know of a transducer or brand/whatever that does this, i can't seem to get any decent info out of retailers . I am looking at multiple transducers too, for other things like speed,temp,etc is this the way to go.
Trouty i look forward to your response
Regards Geoff P

[sonar]

yer, Geoff you can geta sounder by Humminbird called Smartcast, it has a wireless transducer that floats on the surface attached to your line. This allows you to cast your line where ever and the transducer which is floating directly above your gear transmits the picture back to the display screen on your boat. You can actually watch the fish take your lure! They sell for about $385.
If you are only fishing in shallow water you want a sounder with the widest possible beam angle, to get the widest coverage most sounders are about 20 degrees however I know the new Matrix range by Humminbird go a lot wider than 20 degrees, anyway its worth a look

I wouldn't have seen the thread if not for the PM...I sorta flick thru headings and if something catches my eye i open it otherwise I move on so if anyones looking for a response from me a PM to alert me is a good idea.

Actually I have two transducers I run on my humminbird - Ones ya standard tri beam transducer which shoots down and from memory has about a 45degree cone either side of the boat.

Like most sounders it' tells you whether a fish is to the port or starboard side of the boat or straight below. How big they are and how deep the water is and how far down the fish is.

As geoff has correctly pointed out tho - it doesn't actually "cover" much of the bottom with it's cone 'footprint' due to the usually pretty shallow water in a ariver - the Donnelly R for eg usually averages about 8, 10 or 12 feet depending on how full it is and how big the sandbar at the mouth is etc...

That said there are a few holes anything up to 22 ft deep on the odd corner - and in deeper water the standard 45 degree cone isn't so bad - in say 40 ft of water around geograph bay it's great for finding bait schools and big pink snapper following them along etc etc.

Now - the tricky bit is the other transducer.

IT is a "sidescan transducer" and actualy subscribes a 15 degree cone straight out the side. It's VERY effective at finding fish hiding in timber along the banks...once you learn how to use it.

IT's NOT as good as I'd like tho...It has it's problems and limitations.

Heres what I personally find wrong with it..

1. It doesn't differentiate "size" of fish like the tri beam does on my unit, it finds litterally "heaps" of fish - it'd drive you nuts with the numbers of fish it finds compared to the downscan tribeam...

How do you know tho if it's a minnow or a whale?.. should you waste time casting and casting to something that MAY be only the size of the lure????????

I find this my major dislike ...I tend to ignore the bloody thing becuase it doesn't tell me what i need to know - whether to "invest" a lot of time into fishing THAT particular snag..
(remeber as the guide it's my job to put the guest onto the best number and sized fish I can find, thus maximising their chances of biug fish and good numbers of fish. If I can't tell how big or snmall they are it's like being blind in one eye!)

It's better than nuthin - at least you know theres a fish of SOME kind there which is handy in the reverse situation - you know which snags DON'T hold fish and not to waiste time casting to over and over...keep movin as others have said...

2. In the rivers I fish - Hollow reeds growing in the water show up as fish - zillions of fish - it tells porky pies around ANY reeds with hollow stems and unfortunately there are Long lengths of the river I fish you could Waste a LOT of time fishing if you were dumb enough (as I was at the outset) to believe everything this particular transducer tells you.

3. It is capable of scanning either to the left or right or both sides simulataneously.

When you think about it - if it's transom mounted - in order to scan to the side - on the side where the outboard is - it HAS to scan thru the outboartd leg and or the electric troller as well (if you have a stern mount troller as I do...).

The blades of the prop on both OB's on mine, as they spin round show up as "fish symbols" on the screen right alongside the boat, obviously it can't see jack shyte on that side of the boat - thru the outboard leg and disturbance of the props..but out the open side it can see fine.

Therefore I tend to only scan one side as a result.

4. You've already gone past the snag and fish bye the time the transducer shows the fish - it tells you what fish you've already missed - NOT the ones you want to throw the NEXT lure at up near the FRONT of the boat.

Obviously a LOT of these "deficiencys" are as a result of the transom setup on mine, perhaps mounted on a bow troller cav plate it would be bloody fantastic.

I used to catch shyteloads MORE fish when I had these two transducers mounted on a bracket over the BOW of my canadian canoe, than I do with em on the stern of my boat...

Is that because of the publicity and resultant increase in fishing pressure on that river as a result of me writing fishing reports and articles for the internet about fishing the donnelly?..possibly but I also think the setup now on the boat isn't as good as it was on the canoe and THATS part of the problem.

Had a cray fisher on board one day who showed me a neat trick for finding fish in a big lake (ocean) with the sidescan which I would never had thought of....on my own (being an ocean fisherman he was used to big water while I was used to rivers)..his experience was worth it's weight in gold...

Drive along sectoring up the lake with sidescan on both sides, when a fish shows up throw a circle around the fish keeping him on screen...until you figure out "where the centre of the circle is" - then cut across the middle switching to down scanner - and that then tells you how big it is and how deep - then drop the appropriate bait, lure fly or whatever down it's throat.

In big water I was "lost" trying to find fish until he showed me this - it works even for finding tuna etc when out trolling in the ocean - very sneaky!!!

You have to get used to turning the sensitivity down in rivers otherwise every bit of sunken timber will show as a fish...bye turning it down to (on mine) -2, It gets a LOT more accurate IMHO...it tells less lies shall we say...

Thats all that springs to mind - maybe a few questions would prompt me to remember something I have omitted to post - hope it helps.

Cheers!