Garmin 240 Scroll Speed

[Guest]

I was wondering, when at trolling speeds (1 to 3 mph) Should my garmin scroll speed be set at fast, med. or slow? I know alot of you guys are smater with this stuff than myself, so thanks for the help!

[Guest]

3/4 or medium

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[kwkfsh]

In my opinion you should run the scroll speed at the maximum the unit allows. This will give you a more detailed picture of what is beneath you. Rocks humps breaks and ledges along with fish and baitfish will all be more accurately represented on the screen. Slower screen speeds could cause you to miss subtle bottom detail that could end up being the spot on the spot! Even trolling at 2 mph you are moving at approx 175 ft per minute. A typical sonar unit has a 16 deg. Transducer angle which shows a 4 ft circle in 15 ft of water. If your unit is putting a pixel on the screen every second when you are moving three feet per sec., you could very well miss a fish that would be shown at 3 or 4 pixels per sec. When you buy a depthfinder you should always get the most vertical pixels you can for your money. This gives you your best resolution and target separation. To get the most horizontal pixels just turn the scroll speed up, and best of all its free.

[Guest]

Hey D-man,

Thanks for the info, I'm by far no expert on fishfinders, but your explination seems to make sense to me. I will give that setting a shot. I have been running it at fast speed, and have yet to see a "arc" in the 4 months that I have owned the unit. I was starting to think there are no fish in any of the lakes I fished Maybe this will do the trick!

[This message has been edited by flyyboy (edited 09-04-2002).]

[Guest]

Also make sure the transdcuer is mounted correctly. I had to adjust mine a few times to get it to arch good.

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MILLE LACS AREA GUIDE SERVICE
651-271-5459 http://fishingminnesota.com/millelacsguide/
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[Surface Tension]

If you want more of an arc then use fast scroll speed. Your not going to get an arc all the time. Usually its a blip. It all depends on your cone angle, depth and boat speed. The deeper the fish and the bigger the cone angle the bigger the arc. The top or middle of the arc is the true depth of the fish. The outter side of the arc is the fish as it entered and left your cone angle. Your gain should be turned up till you get a double echo with minimal clutter. Also your transducer should be level when the boats in the water. With the garmin 240 you have plenty of pixels to run at full speed but keep in mind that your sounder still pings at the same rate. What Dman says would be true for lower end low resolution sounders. Slowing the scroll speed down will condense pixels but I havent found it nessesary with high resolution. Experiment with the speed and see what you like.

[kwkfsh]

Flyboy, as far as arches go they are something that the manufacturers put in their brochures and on their simulator screen because they look real pretty! But in the real world you are rarely going to see an arch. If you go over a suspended fish fast it will show as a blob, maybe just a few pixels (the faster the scroll speed the bigger the blob, because more pixels go on the screen during the time you are over the fish). If you go over the same fish real slow it will show as a line ( the faster the scoll speed the longer the line ). To get an arche you have to be going at a speed where as the fish enters the transducers cone shaped area it first shows a weak return that is a little farther away, gets stronger and closer as the fish is in the middle of the cone, and then weaker and farther away as it leaves the cone. I totally agreee with using zoom on half the screen ( I always have my zoom on half the screen ). The reason for this is so I can have all 240 pixels covering only 10 ft instead of 30 ft. This theoretically will separate targets at 2" instead of 6". Going horizontal is the same except you are putting more pixels in distance sideways instead of up and down. Try it both ways when you know what is on the bottom, boulders, weeds, etc. It will become quite obvious which gives you a better picture.

[Guest]

A slower scroll speed allows the pixels to register better giving you better archs and seeing all the detai. Crank the scroll speed up to max then back it down to 3/4. To gain more pixels, run the unit on split zoom. Scroll speed does not increase pixel counts,it lessen's them.

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651-271-5459 http://fishingminnesota.com/millelacsguide/
click here

[This message has been edited by D-man (edited 09-04-2002).]

[Guest]

Fish arch's are produced when the fish you are passing over are not moving. The lines and blobs you see are fish moving with the boat. It does take perfect conditions to get good archs, but they certainly are not a marketing gimic. I can say, when i ran a Garmin 240 along side an X-85 it's like putting a burger stand next to a McDonalds. I would say more than half of all anglers don't find tune thier electronics to get the most out of them, therefore missing out on alot of good readings.

------------------
MILLE LACS AREA GUIDE SERVICE
651-271-5459 http://fishingminnesota.com/millelacsguide/
click here

[This message has been edited by D-man (edited 09-05-2002).]

[Guest]

Hey fellas,

This is good stuff! Keep talkin, I listening and learning! D-MAN, work with me here, in your last statment, I think your saying that the Garmin 240 and the X-85 are neck and neck? Both strong units?

[Surface Tension]

Ahh the perfect arc. Dman and KWKFSF you both know what your talkin about so lets not get our feathers ruffled here.
Common Dman look at any retail picture of a sounder. Its full of perfect arc's. Thats what some users think they should be seeing. It just dosent happen like that in the real world.
flyboy, The Garmin 240 is the best bang for the buck. The X85 is better but you pay twice the price. To arc a fish you have to drive right over it. Lines are fish that stay under the boat. Blips are fish on the outside of a cone angle.
I agree with ya Dman but think its closer to 80% users arent using there sounders to there fullist. Made 2 gallons of Salsa and my fingers are burnin right now. Cut up Lottsa jalopinos.

[This message has been edited by Surface Tension (edited 09-05-2002).]

[kwkfsh]

Greetings all, I do not mean to get in a [PoorWordUsage]ing contest here. The opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of the station or our sponsers. Seriously tho D-Man hit the nail on the head when he said most people don't tune their electronics. This should really be each time you go on the water. Some quick tips, turn the auto off and adjust the unit manually for optimum readings. If you have a fish ID feature don't use the darn thing, turn it off and leave it off. All it will do is show everything that reflects a signal as one of 2 or 3 different sized fish symbols. It can drive you nuts seeing all those fish that are not really there. Set the gain, grayline,etc, manually. And use the zoom in a split screen mode if you have that capability. And as stated previously transducer positioning is critical (clean water flow over the face and proper angle ). And here is another tip. Since the transducer is usually the first thing to touch and leave the water when you launch and load it has a tendancy to pick up alot of scum on the face of it, which can degrade the signal over time. Give it a wipe with some soapy water on a rag once in a while.

[Surface Tension]

I think were all pretty close on our ideas.
If the three of us went out together would we need three sounders. I got dibs on the x85.

[This message has been edited by Surface Tension (edited 09-06-2002).]