# Hummingbird 788C Settings



## fishnguy (Apr 14, 2004)

Does anyone want to share how they adjust their settings to locate fish or do you just use the default settings. I'm not interested in the alarms as much as how to get the thing to help me locate fish.

Do you turn the sensitivity up or down?
Do you fish with the fish id on or off?
Do you mess with any of the zoom funtions?


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## freyedknot (Apr 10, 2004)

up for perch up till the screen gets cluttered and then back down just enough to take the clutter away. fish i.d. is always off as it will show everything in the water as a fish. fish hooks are real fish. maybe zoom if they are stuck in the mud ,but i use the split screen for it. bit i am still learning.


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## fishnguy (Apr 14, 2004)

Yeah there is a lot to learn with these new units. I'm going to read the manual again to get more familiar with it. I'm not comfortable enough with it yet to absolutely know i'm over fish.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

I have a Low but as with all units, they can be tweeked to get better performance.
Don't be afraid to make ajustment they always have a place to go to reset the unit back to factory settings if you get it all goofed up. They put those buttons there for a reason.

sensitivity - back the cluter off screen ,like previously stated
Zoom - I don't use it much
Fish ID - off
Surface clarity- Low


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## spinningwheel (Aug 6, 2007)

I have had the 596c HD DI since spring. It should be real similar to yours w/o the down imaging.

Sensitivity: As advised, turn it down until the screen is cluttered up and then up just until the clutter clears.
Zoom: Sometimes 2x, sometimes 4x depending on how tight they are to the bottom.
Surface clarity: Just enough to see that the surface is being marked lightly. I haven't found perch to be much at top feeding, so I don't want extra crap cluttering up the screen.
Split Screen: Definitely when using the zoom feature. The display will show you where the 'zoom box' is located at and you can then adjust the zoom multiplier to display what you want.
Arches: Since you're at anchor, most perch will appear as small '---'s instead of full arches. You'll also see them stacked in mounds while on the bottom like chord-wood.
Sonar update rate: Max while anchored. The screen display updates quickly.
Bottom Presentation: Set to Structure ID, not White Scale.
Fish ID: Off
Bait Balls: Really look like clouds as described in the manual.
Hope this helps.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

Fishguy
What depths do you normally fish. That may help refine the zoom question a bit.


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## fishnguy (Apr 14, 2004)

All sorts of depths...from innland lakes like Portage Lakes, Milton, Berlin, Mosquito, etc where maybe I'm fishing 5-20ft. To the big lake in 50+ft of water. I'm either headed to Mosquito or Berlin tomorrow. I'm going to make some adjustments based on recommendations and reading over the manual.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

I'm mostly in the 5-20 fow down here so zoom doesn't factor in too much. I can see where it would be a big help with the perch on Erie.


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