Hummingbird 597 hd

[basssmasher*]

I have the opportunity to use one of these next weekend on LOTW and I'm used to having a marcum vx-1.. If i use this will I be able to figure it out fairly easily or do I need more than 2 days of fishing to play around with it to get used to it??

[hamms-scooter]

Very easy menu. Have fun with that unit only problem with using it you will want one asap!

[hamms-scooter]

Track down amaturefishing on here he runs one.

[basssmasher*]

lol hamms right now I will settle for a bird -55!

[amateurfishing]

i do really enjoy mine, have had it for just over a year, i am still learning to tweak it constantly and find/learn about options but if you are already familiar with fish finders, you should be able to figure it out quickly and easily but a dry run on anything new to an individual can never hurt im sure

[basssmasher*]

Amature, do you run it at clear mode or switchfire?

[amateurfishing]

depends on depth, over 10 ft with switchfire, if less clear for less clutter but also forget sometimes when hole hopping especially with ice 16-24 inches thick if you are in less than 10 FOW, switchfire will really clog up screen, i also always use black color for screen, much easier on eyes in winter for low sun and colors jump off screen & clearier/easier to read

[basssmasher*]

I'll be fishing 25-35 ft on some reefs. Hope they arent too hard to figure out!

[amateurfishing]

nope, not hard to figure out but do recommend some time b4 hand to play with or familiarize yourself with unit to find what you want on it faster, youtube or google some videos to familiarize yourself with buttons/setup.....if you were closer we could meet up for a little "play" time on mine if u liked

[basssmasher*]

yeah that sucks ur 2 hrs away! lol

[PFUNK]

I have some experience running a bird 385ci which is the same thing basically with a smaller screen. They are pretty user friendly and quick to figure out. You can go to humminbirds HSOforum and pull up the manual to familiarize yourself with all the menus. I also use the black background which you change by pressing the power button but dont hold it down. I run it in max mode most of the time unless I am in shallow, murky water where clear mode is better. Adjust the sensitivity until your jig gives a constant return and isnt flickering in and out. If you set it too high the bottom signal will "grow" and you wont see the bottom hugging fish as easily. Watch for the color of the bottom to change to detect bottom hugging fish. I run the scroll speed on 9. Make sure to switch the user mode to advanced and turn on ice fishing mode. With the advanced menus you can select an upper and lower depth range to see only the portion of the water column you are fishing. For example, if you are in 30 feet and after fish that are usually near or on the bottom, you could set your upper limit at 20 and lower limit at 32. This will give you better definition of the area you are interested in. If you are chasing fish that may be suspended high I would adjust to see most of the water column. Turn the backlight down when you dont need the extra brightness. This will help conserve battery life. If you arent around anyone else and dont need to worry about interference turn the noise rejection to low or off. And most importantly have some fun and catch some fish! Then let us know how it went. I'm jealous.

[basssmasher*]

I hope I can figure it out! This is my buddies unit and I'm looking forward to using it but gunna bring my marcum for back up in case I can't figure it out.. is ther a flasher feature on it or is it graph only?

[PFUNK]

There is a flasher view but once you use the graph I bet you wont want to go back to the flasher view. You can really pick out those bottom hugging fish on the graph.

[amateurfishing]

there is a flasher feature but once you start watching the graph it is 10x easier with the scrolling screen cause you can watch for "differences" on the screen in colors & movement as the screen moves and thats ususally fish

PFunk is right on bout everything. I am a novice and still learning and making changes from time to time. I also and not into reading manuals and just prefer tinkering with something new to get to "know" it.

[basssmasher*]

Yall got me excited to use it now! !! I'm just hoping I can read the graph right having never used one before!