Garmin 320c

jawjerker · Post by **jawjerker** » December 4th, 2003, 7:53 pm

I got a Garmin 320c fisfinder today. I will be using it in 25-65 ft of water. Can anyone tell me how to set it up, or give me some tips on how to use it and how to read the screen?

Thanks

Post by **Tom Keels** » December 4th, 2003, 9:11 pm

Turn the fish symbols off.
Turn the gain up to +3 or +4
Chart Speed to Max.
Set depth range to 1.5-2 X the depth of the water.
Use the 200 Khz Setting.
I would leave the whiteline off. That way the harder the bottom the thicker the redline will be on the bottom.

jawjerker · Post by **jawjerker** » December 4th, 2003, 9:57 pm

Thanks,

Can you tell me how the bottom lock works? Is it useful?

Post by **Tom Keels** » December 4th, 2003, 11:37 pm

Basically its like a zoom. Lets you keep only the bottom section of the water column on the whole screen.

jawjerker · Post by **jawjerker** » December 12th, 2003, 7:40 pm

Tom, or anyone else that has some advice

I went out today to try my machine. Have a couple more questions.
Why do u leave the fish symbols off?
The gain u said to set it on 3-4, did u mean 30-40 percent?
Mostly I saw had a red line about an 8th-16th thick. When it widens does that mean rock? There was really very little difference.

Post by **Tom Keels** » December 12th, 2003, 8:12 pm

Why do u leave the fish symbols off?

Because it uses so many pixels on the sceen to draw the "fish" that it can hide more important info like structure or more fish. Plus most machines I have seen that use the symbols return ANY echo of a certain size as a "fish", when in reality it probably isn't

The gain u said to set it on 3-4, did u mean 30-40 percent?

No, I mean + 3 or +4 above normal. On my garmin 240 it is a + or - number from 0. On other machines it is a number out of 100. 85-90 is best if that is the case.

Mostly I saw had a red line about an 8th-16th thick. When it widens does that mean rock? There was really very little difference.

I hope you marked the spots that were thicker. This probably means hard bottom, probably limestone, which means rocks, cracks, coral, etc. All of which equal fish.

The norm is thin because you have 95% sand, mud, etc. The other 5% of the bottom is the stuff you are looking for. It's not a needle in a haystack, but it is a 10 penny nail.