# Lowrance or Hummingbird?



## coldsteel (Jul 16, 2011)

My buddy has one of those large color screen, sidefinding Hummingbird units on his boat and it really never shows fish..... Sometimes marks bait, but doesn't throw those nice solid hooks like on a Lowrance unit. I had one years ago. Any suggestions? I know we go over fish, because we catch just fine while trolling, just would be nice to mark better when out looking for a place to setup and start or when looking for perch (lol... I know they're not around this year).


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## chaunc (Apr 11, 2004)

Your buddy just needs to learn how to adjust his unit. I have the twelve helix and don't have a problem marking fish. I took my lowrance ten off the bow and replaced it with a helix nine late this season.


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## coldsteel (Jul 16, 2011)

Any suggestions? Transducers? Settings? Not my unit so I’m not 100% sure what’s going on.....


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## chaunc (Apr 11, 2004)

Contact member rnvinc here and he'll get you setup. He's the bird guy.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

I agree with chaunc, it's got to be in the settings.


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## Riverduck11 (Jul 11, 2013)

Settings will help. I like to turn the grain up as high as possible then gradually back it off. 

I do think that Garmin and Lowrance have much more defined marks than a bird, but still adequate for sure. The bird seems better in the down and side imagery.


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

I previously had a Humminbird and it marked fish as globs. I have a HDS-9 now and it marks pretty arches. I saw a post in this topic once where someone had a theory that some sonar vendors might have had their programmers tweak the display algorithm to produce this effect. Who knows


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## rnvinc (Jan 14, 2015)

*Beam Frequency under the Sonar tab 83/200kHz (or Med/High if it's a CHIRP unit) ...

*Surface Clutter under the Sonar tab as high as you can stand the clutter at the top of the display ...

*Switchfire Max under the Sonar tab and adjust Sensitivity to an acceptable amount of clutter on the display ...

*Noise Filter Off under the Sonar tab (unless there is electrical interference to contend with) ...

*Max Depth under the Sonar tab to 10ft deeper than any possible depth of water in your lake ...

*Chart Speed 7-10 when viewing 2d ...

Arches are a result of the target being pinged repeatedly as it passes thru the Sonar cone (luck) - using a Beam Frequency Sonar cone angel wide enough to be pinged repeatedly (83kHz or Med CHIRP) - Chart scrolling fast enough to plot those repeated pings (Chart speed higher) - and shutting off or lowering filters in the unit (Sensitivity higher/Surface clutter higher/Switchfire Max/Noise Filter off = all are indiscriminate filters) ...

Max Depth is not a filter and simply allows the unit to perform more efficiently in the background if the unit is having difficulty maintaining bottom ... 

Rickie


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## Popspastime (Apr 1, 2014)

Arches are created by distance to the target.. as you or the target moves to the edge of the coverage it is further away on the angle, thus starting the lower mark and rises up as it gets closer to the middle and further again as it gets to the edge creating the arch.


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## gillnet (Oct 19, 2017)

I had birds on my last boat and lowrances were already on the new one...I seem to prefer the birds but think it is because im use to them..they both have there pros and cons its all in what you get use to
I haven't had as much time with the new ones so maybe they will grow on me


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