# Fishfinder not showing fish...



## Putty

I have a HB 346. Took it out today for first time. It shows temp and depth, but no fish. I dropped my lurr and anchor right in front of the arm and nothing. Any ideas, also,when i got home i put arm in my fish tank and it didnt ID any fish. What could i be doing wrong ?

I had fishid sensitivity set to 5 and then 10. The fish ID i have set to the 3 fish icons. The trans is mount with the flat piece on the bottom.


----------



## Bassbme

It could be a number of things. As far as your not seeing your anchor or bait on your depth finder when you dropped them in front of the arm (?) my first guess would be that the the transducer isn't facing straight down. Depth finders send out sound waves in a cone shape. The angle of the cone the transducer puts out determines the diameter of the circle of the bottom, or the water column you'll see on your screen. For instance, a transducer that puts out a 20 degree cone will show a circle with a diameter of roughly 1/3 of the depth you're in. If you're in 15' of water, you'll see a 5' diameter circle of the bottom. As you can see, depending on the depth you're in you may not be seeing very much of the water column. It doesn't take the transducer being that much out of plumb and level for it to not be showing what you think should be directly under it. Especially in shallow water. 

As far as it not showing the fish in your fish tank ... It's entirely possible and somewhat probable that the unit is being over powered by too strong of a return. It may be unable to show a fish between the transducer and the bottom simply because the return is too strong and too fast for the processor and the speed of the screen to display. Sound is 5 times faster under water than it is in the air. 

Also, I looked up the depth finder you mentioned and I see that it has two separate cone angles that operate at different frequencies. The higher the frequency, the more able a sonar unit is able to detect small objects and the more able it is to differentiate between separate objects. A hard bottom which is probably what you have in your fish tank is more reflective and makes target separation of objects close to the bottom even more difficult. Even though the high frequency depth finders of today are better at showing target separation, they still may have trouble showing fish or object that are close to the bottom. If your depth finder is using the lower frequency it won't be able to display as much target separation. Low frequency transducers usually have a wider cone angle so they'll show a wider area of the water column or the bottom, but they won't be as good at showing separate targets that are close together.

Anyhow....... my guess is that you don't have the transducer properly positioned. If you did you'd surely be able to see your anchor going to the bottom regardless of which frequency or cone angle your unit happens to be operating on.


----------



## Putty

Bassbme said:


> It could be a number of things. As far as your not seeing your anchor or bait on your depth finder when you dropped them in front of the arm (?) my first guess would be that the the transducer isn't facing straight down. Depth finders send out sound waves in a cone shape. The angle of the cone the transducer puts out determines the diameter of the circle of the bottom, or the water column you'll see on your screen. For instance, a transducer that puts out a 20 degree cone will show a circle with a diameter of roughly 1/3 of the depth you're in. If you're in 15' of water, you'll see a 5' diameter circle of the bottom. As you can see, depending on the depth you're in you may not be seeing very much of the water column. It doesn't take the transducer being that much out of plumb and level for it to not be showing what you think should be directly under it. Especially in shallow water.
> 
> As far as it not showing the fish in your fish tank ... It's entirely possible and somewhat probable that the unit is being over powered by too strong of a return. It may be unable to show a fish between the transducer and the bottom simply because the return is too strong and too fast for the processor and the speed of the screen to display. Sound is 5 times faster under water than it is in the air.
> 
> Also, I looked up the depth finder you mentioned and I see that it has two separate cone angles that operate at different frequencies. The higher the frequency, the more able a sonar unit is able to detect small objects and the more able it is to differentiate between separate objects. A hard bottom which is probably what you have in your fish tank is more reflective and makes target separation of objects close to the bottom even more difficult. Even though the high frequency depth finders of today are better at showing target separation, they still may have trouble showing fish or object that are close to the bottom. If your depth finder is using the lower frequency it won't be able to display as much target separation. Low frequency transducers usually have a wider cone angle so they'll show a wider area of the water column or the bottom, but they won't be as good at showing separate targets that are close together.
> 
> Anyhow....... my guess is that you don't have the transducer properly positioned. If you did you'd surely be able to see your anchor going to the bottom regardless of which frequency or cone angle your unit happens to be operating on.


I think you are right....I had it mounted the whole time like this...











After I read your message I changed it to this....










This could be exactly why I didn't see any fish, the beam was shooting ahead of me. Thank you for that info. The deepest I was in yesterday was 12ft. If you are familiar with these units, can you tell me what these settings do....the manual says nothing?

Beam select - 200khz or 455khz
Imaging frequency - 455khz or 800khz
Switchfire - clear or max mode
RTS window - off, wide, narrow
Demonstration - off/on


----------



## whjr15

The first pic is the correct way, put it back like that!! In your second pic, it is "shooting" the wall!!

As far as to why you didn't see any fish... Could it possibly be that there were none?!?! 

I think Bassbme hit the nail on the head with his fish tank theory. I doubt it would be able to make sense of anything with all those sonar reflections bouncing around in there.

Try to reset your settings back to default, I'd be willing to bet that something got switched around in a way that it shouldn't!

Edit: do you have the "fish ID" setting turned on? If so, turn it off.


----------



## lang99

Turn off the fish id, it is not accurate at all. Its more of a gimmick. You will see fish as arches on the graph not those cheesy little fish symbols . I have never had a lot of luck dropping a lure down to fish I see on my graph and catching them. I use my fishfinder more for temp, depth and bottom structure. Learn to read structure and you will find the fish. You tube has some good video that will help.


----------



## Gottagofishn

Seeing fish this time of year is not surprising.... There aren't a lot running around yet. It will be a few weeks till things get moving... 

I don't think my fish finder would see anything in a fish tank either. Usually there is "clutter" in the very top of the water column. Not sure if it would be the same in a fish tank but I think you would be best served with a lake test. 

I have had sonars not display fish when the transducer cable is damaged. I've damaged them by the head turning too far on my auto pilot. I have had them show the bottom but no fish because of it. Or possibly not a good connection at the unit.

Looks like a decent unit, I would think you would certainly see the anchor being lowered. Double check all the connections and settings and give it another go looking for the anchor or jig/spoon.


----------



## Putty

So if the first pic is correct, that's the way I had it while fishing. I do have fish ID on. I will turn it off. I feel like the connection is secure. I was seeing the bottom and things laying on it. At one point I saw what looked like a telephone pole sticking out of the bottom. My buddy told me the same thing that may there weren't any fish around. I will give it another shot with some changed settings and see what happens. I'm still puzzled why I didn't see my anchor or lure dangling.


----------



## Bassbme

Like whjr15 said ... the first picture shows the transducer in the proper position. I still think the reason you didn't see your anchor or your bait going down is because you don't have the transducer pointing straight down. Like I said earlier ... it doesn't take the transducer being out of position by much, to not have it show what you think should be directly below it. Here's how I would determine the position my transducer should be to show what is directly under the boat. On a nice calm day go out to deep water. The deeper the better. Put your anchor in the water and let it go completely to the bottom, then pull it up off the bottom by about 2 feet. That way it's suspended above the bottom. Now just start moving your transducer around until you see a solid line on your screen .... that's what anchor is going to look like..... a solid line being drawn as the screen scrolls. Once you get the transducer in position to see your anchor, that's the position you're going to need to mount it in. It's really pretty simple. 

As far as your questions about your unit, I don't have any experience with that unit. I actually don't have experience with down imaging units either. So I'm really not sure what the suspended anchor will look like. I know that on a 2D unit the anchor will simply look like a line being drawn on the screen.

And like others have said, turn the fish ID off. It's misleading and really pretty much worthless.


----------



## Lewzer

I just want to know where you got your boat out on the 9th!!!


----------



## Putty

Thanks, Bassbme....I will give your advice a shot.






Lewzer said:


> I just want to know where you got your boat out on the 9th!!!


Columbus. We had a nice weekend. Weather was like 62. Water was in the 30s, but it was a good overall day aside from my finder not doing what I expected.


----------



## nixmkt

You also need to adjust the transducer for the angle of the boat sitting in the water both front to back and side to side. If you set it based on the boat level on the trailer it could be shooting off vertical by quite a bit when the boat is floating. As noted it doesn't take much. I have a small boat and when I'm by myself the boat has a significant tilt both ways in the water.


----------



## polebender

Putty said:


> I have a HB 346. Took it out today for first time. It shows temp and depth, but no fish.


Try a different location Putty!


----------

