I Have On My Boat A Garmin Gpsmap 430s Chartplotter With Sonar?
the 430s has a Dual Beam Transducer, when in the sonar mode and the fish id is enacted it shows some red fish and some will be blue, what does that mean?
the 430s has a Dual Beam Transducer, when in the sonar mode and the fish id is enacted it shows some red fish and some will be blue, what does that mean?
Well I just wasted a bit of a lazy Sunday afternoon downloading the user manual for this unit – and it really is a bit skinny on info regarding the fish id bit.
Red returns on my Furuno (industry standard) indicate a lot of air (fish air bladders – school of pilchards for example) or larger fish with high fat content (Schnapper, tuna etc).
I hate any sounder that gives me a picture of a fish as a display. They will show fish with every bubble or blob of grape weed.
It takes time and practice to learn how to read a colour sonar – when you work it out the hardness and makeup of the bottom, even the type of weed is visible to the skilled operator. The different frequencies are useful for different things, deep needs a narrow signal or the reflection will be too diffuse. Shallow is better with a wide signal or you will miss a lot of stuff only metres to the side.
I know the fish symbol is very useful, but in the end this unit has an astonishing range of features, that will take many hours to learn even a fraction of it’s capabilities, and the manual itself only treats the sonar as a minor feature.
This is a system that would have cost tens of thousands for the features only a decade ago, it will take a long time to learn all of it’s features, please be persistant and practice in shallow water with the sonar where you know/can see the features, and work out the way it shows the info.
Enjoy this machine – I would take it if you are unhappy with it
the colours show different types of fish,im assuming that its not merely size reference
read the manuel