Posted: December 22nd, 2001, 11:34 am
This is a question that was brought up at last nights NFGFC meeting and I felt that it was worth repeating here.
For all of you who have new Lowrance bottom machines but just aren't finding exactly what you're looking for, here are a few tips that may make operation a little smoother and more productive. First off you'll want to switch from AUTOMATIC to MANUAL operation. AUTOMATIC is fine for running around or for simply looking at water depth, but MANUAL is going to give you the fine detail that you'll need to find that little hidey hole old mister grouper is lurking beneath.
Ok, now that you have it off of AUTOMATIC and on MANUAL, you'll need to check your SENSITIVITY. You'll want to set your SENSITIVITY to a very high setting. Not so high that you see nothing but clutter, but at least 90% should be the starting point. Higher sensitivity will allow you to see those blips on or near the bottom that might represent fish or bait. ALWAYS GIVE AN AREA SHOWING FISH OR BAIT A SECOND CHECK!
GRAYLINE is another important feature you'll notice on your Lowrance bottom machine. You're going to want to set the GRAYLINE at a very low setting. I typically use the lowest setting that is above ZERO. Somewhere between 4-8% is usually good. This will make sand and mud bottoms show as a solid black line and anything that is hard such as rock, metal, concrete etc...will show with a portion of GRAYLINE underneath the black line. Here's another little tip, don't pass up hard bottom that shows zero relief. Although it may be flat, it will likely still hold fish and will most definately not recieve as much pressure. These kinds of spots can only be found by using a low GRAYLINE setting.
CHART SPEED, believe it or not, plays a very important roll in making your machine function the way YOU want it to. By setting your CHART SPEED at MAXIMUM, you're giving less desireable echo's less of a chance to reveal themselves. This will mean that only the strongest echo's (grouper, snapper, bait schools etc...) will show up on your screen. This can help prevent you from wasting valuble fishing time on unproductive bottom.
Hopefully these tips will help some of you put a few more fish in the boat. And these tips don't just apply to the Lowrance line of depth finders. The techniques above should be used as a rule of thumb and can be adapted to nearly any brand of machine available. Good luck and good catching!
_________________
For all of you who have new Lowrance bottom machines but just aren't finding exactly what you're looking for, here are a few tips that may make operation a little smoother and more productive. First off you'll want to switch from AUTOMATIC to MANUAL operation. AUTOMATIC is fine for running around or for simply looking at water depth, but MANUAL is going to give you the fine detail that you'll need to find that little hidey hole old mister grouper is lurking beneath.
Ok, now that you have it off of AUTOMATIC and on MANUAL, you'll need to check your SENSITIVITY. You'll want to set your SENSITIVITY to a very high setting. Not so high that you see nothing but clutter, but at least 90% should be the starting point. Higher sensitivity will allow you to see those blips on or near the bottom that might represent fish or bait. ALWAYS GIVE AN AREA SHOWING FISH OR BAIT A SECOND CHECK!
GRAYLINE is another important feature you'll notice on your Lowrance bottom machine. You're going to want to set the GRAYLINE at a very low setting. I typically use the lowest setting that is above ZERO. Somewhere between 4-8% is usually good. This will make sand and mud bottoms show as a solid black line and anything that is hard such as rock, metal, concrete etc...will show with a portion of GRAYLINE underneath the black line. Here's another little tip, don't pass up hard bottom that shows zero relief. Although it may be flat, it will likely still hold fish and will most definately not recieve as much pressure. These kinds of spots can only be found by using a low GRAYLINE setting.
CHART SPEED, believe it or not, plays a very important roll in making your machine function the way YOU want it to. By setting your CHART SPEED at MAXIMUM, you're giving less desireable echo's less of a chance to reveal themselves. This will mean that only the strongest echo's (grouper, snapper, bait schools etc...) will show up on your screen. This can help prevent you from wasting valuble fishing time on unproductive bottom.
Hopefully these tips will help some of you put a few more fish in the boat. And these tips don't just apply to the Lowrance line of depth finders. The techniques above should be used as a rule of thumb and can be adapted to nearly any brand of machine available. Good luck and good catching!
_________________
