Sounder settings

[Dmc57]

I’ve installed a m265lh, connected to my tzt12f. I havnt had a chance to try it out except holding it in a bag full of water to make sure it would read at speed. It did that fine. I’ve since installed the tank and hopefully going out fishing soon.

What is the best way to approach setting it up? I see I can adjust gain, TVG, and clutter.

I generally fish in 100’-200’ of water in the gulf. Mostly bottom fishing.

 

[FishTech]

Our advice is to try it first with the out of box settings. We have done a lot in recent years to give the best out of box experience we can. Of course every installation is different, as are the sea conditions at that time and location. If you want to make adjustments from there, change one thing at a time and see what happens. If you mess something up, you can always choose "reset default settings" at the bottom of the menu.

 

[Sparky Wire]

Is is much like asking someone "What flavor of Ice cream would I like?" Some like chocolate, some like orange flavor and there are many flavors and people out there to take a good guess. There is no magic setting combo that makes everyone warm and fuzzy. Some like running a hot sounder with high gain and others run them clean and cool. Like fishtech says, one would try the default that has been established as the best general "flavor" and go do some of your own tasting to find what works best for you.

 

[Dmc57]

Went out yesterday and went tried it out. Varied between cruising and fishing presets. Good news is I was still getting readings up to about 40 mph. I have a stepped hull with a fuel tank in the center that makes placement tricky.

Only problem is the range on the right side of the screen is to large. I was in 100’ of water and it was scanning 300. It was showing another bottom at 175’. Makes it hard to see the suspended fish.

I’d show pics, but they are to large.

 

[Johnny Electron]

It sounds like you have the gain a bit high and getting a second bottom echo. You might bump your gain offset down a bit so the auto setting doesn't have that second echo. That way it should settle down and range to the true bottom echo.

 

[Dmc57]

Thanks

 

[jp498]

Yes, preference vary widely.
If the fish are bottom fish, then the 2nd bottom echo can be useful for deducing the type of bottom (habitat) ; colorful 2nd echo indicated hard bottom. If the depths do not change fast you could manual range to see this or not see this.
You could also run a split screen with bottom lock to zoom in, shifted view of the same frequency to zoom in on a particular depth range. As many ways to use the sounder as their are preferences.