Fish finder images

[Sea Monkey]

Hello,

I have a TZT3 12F with an Airmar B275LHW transducer. I am new to using electronics and need some help dialing the unit in and determining what I see on the screen. For the time being, I am fishing in Southern California next to the islands, typically in water 200' or less.

Can you please tell me what I am looking at in the following images?

Are these fish or kelp stringers along the bottom?



Is this fish along the bottom?


Is this a bait school?


Is this a rock or bait school with bigger fish going through it?


I appreciate any help. Should I change any settings on the unit to get a better reading between 20 and 150 feet of water?

 

[Andrew NZ]

I too would be grateful of any guidance on settings. I have the 16" version of this MFD and the same transducer. (fish a little deeper though)
Using LF in 38 feet of water may get a comment Sea Monkey.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Sea Monkey]

I realized afterward that I had somehow switched back to lf. I thought I had set it to hf at the dock, but that was when the fish finder was on full screen. When it was set to split screen with the chart plotter it was in lf.

Next time I am at the boat, I will fix that.

 

[TheReaper]

@Deep Blue

 

[allrelative]

The red arches look like fish.

Where are you in the world and were you anchored or moving? Are you expecting to see kelp? Do kelp have large air pockets that look like fish?

For the testing, swipe up on the sounder screen and set to auto fishing until you get comfortable with what you are seeing- then try manual gain and clutter down the road.
Set and leave on the HW unless in much deeper water or for some reason really want the L.

Screenshots
If you already know this, then disregard, but I set up my TZT3 to take a screenshot with the press of one button.( screenshot how to add below)

With the data syncing to the cloud via hotspot (on phone) every 10 minutes, by the time I get home, they are all uploaded to the timezero cloud for free and higher quality than via my phone camera. Just sharing the feature in case you don’t use it yet.

If you set up the account here, https://mytimezero.com/tz-cloud , then add that same account to the TZT3- when the TZT3 connects to the internet to sync data, all the screenshots, waypoints, catches uploads to the cloud. So no thumb drive needed. this is a screenshot of what it looks like from home.

 

[Sea Monkey]

Thank you for the response and information. These photos were taken on the east end of Catalina Island while traveling around 2 knots. There is kelp in the area, but I don't think the air pockets would register as fish.

I am using TimeZero already, so I am going to program the screen shot feature as you have suggested, that will help.

I am curious to know (I won't be able to go back to the boat until next week) are the sounding settings different in each screen setting? I.e, I setup the Sounder in full screen to HF and used the settings recommended on another thread from this site. However, when I opened the split screen that has the Sounder and Chartplotter, the Sounder is in LF and is in auto gain.

Again, thanks for the response it is much appreciated.

 

[Fishkilla]

Hello,

I have a TZT3 12F with an Airmar B275LHW transducer. I am new to using electronics and need some help dialing the unit in and determining what I see on the screen. For the time being, I am fishing in Southern California next to the islands, typically in water 200' or less.

Can you please tell me what I am looking at in the following images?

Are these fish or kelp stringers along the bottom?

View attachment 6458

Is this fish along the bottom?
View attachment 6459

Is this a bait school?
View attachment 6460

Is this a rock or bait school with bigger fish going through it?
View attachment 6463

I appreciate any help. Should I change any settings on the unit to get a better reading between 20 and 150 feet of water?

You have some fish under your boat! Looks like bait size mostly on some hard bottom, but pay attention to the bottom my friend, you will see that some of that show is hugging close to the bottom. Those are what your intrested in. If your target species is a bottom dweller then a green or color close to that in the color spectrum indicates a nice size. The large clouds of yellow to red are a bait school. Notice the deeper red trails that are coming off of the bottom in your last picture where the fish are stacked up just above the bottom, to the far right. Here in Florida we target grouper, which are a bottom dwelling species. If I see rocks and green mixed in with them , then there are some nice ones there. I heard a saying one time that the hotter the color the harder the bottom. The long tails from the red at the top of the bottom tell you that bottom is hard. I always tell my friends don't anchor up on the fish show anchor on the bottom structure. The fish will be there.

 

[jp498]

To determine if something on the bottom is a rock or not, set your range to be >2x depth. Maybe 250' range in 100' water. You'll see a double echo for rock/ledge/hard bottom. See the furuno network sounds photo attached; you see where the 2nd echo starts, that's where it turns to hard bottom. A fish won't create additional 2nd echo. Surface acho from another boat passing by previous. There are probably fish atop the high part of that ledge or maybe some ghost gear you don't want to tangle with.



Here is a rock or boulder on soft bottom mid-screen. Note the healthy 2nd echo. It has a small ball of bait above it. The right side of the screen also has a transition to hard bottom with some fish above the ledge. On the surface is bubbles in the water. It's probably in a boat channel and we're going over the same water a boat recently went through and got bubbles in.

 

[Sea Monkey]

You have some fish under your boat! Looks like bait size mostly on some hard bottom, but pay attention to the bottom my friend, you will see that some of that show is hugging close to the bottom. Those are what your intrested in. If your target species is a bottom dweller then a green or color close to that in the color spectrum indicates a nice size. The large clouds of yellow to red are a bait school. Notice the deeper red trails that are coming off of the bottom in your last picture where the fish are stacked up just above the bottom, to the far right. Here in Florida we target grouper, which are a bottom dwelling species. If I see rocks and green mixed in with them , then there are some nice ones there. I heard a saying one time that the hotter the color the harder the bottom. The long tails from the red at the top of the bottom tell you that bottom is hard. I always tell my friends don't anchor up on the fish show anchor on the bottom structure. The fish will be there.

Thank you for the response. It is appreciated.

 

[Sea Monkey]

To determine if something on the bottom is a rock or not, set your range to be >2x depth. Maybe 250' range in 100' water. You'll see a double echo for rock/ledge/hard bottom. See the furuno network sounds photo attached; you see where the 2nd echo starts, that's where it turns to hard bottom. A fish won't create additional 2nd echo. Surface acho from another boat passing by previous. There are probably fish atop the high part of that ledge or maybe some ghost gear you don't want to tangle with.

View attachment 6606

Here is a rock or boulder on soft bottom mid-screen. Note the healthy 2nd echo. It has a small ball of bait above it. The right side of the screen also has a transition to hard bottom with some fish above the ledge. On the surface is bubbles in the water. It's probably in a boat channel and we're going over the same water a boat recently went through and got bubbles in.
View attachment 6607

Thank you. I will try this at the same spot next time we go out to the island. I appreciate the advice and will play with the depth settings to help determine the bottom type. I am learning slowly but surely.