What’s a fish finder in your mind? To me, it’s a person who finds fish. To others, it’s a machine with bright colors.
I’ve never used a fish finder to find fish. In fact, I had always had the “fish icon” option clicked in mockery of my inability to interpret the black and white squiggles presented to me on the sonar screen.
However, those days are gone! For 2024 I drank the kool-aid and purchased a modern Garmin Echomap GPS/Sonar complete with CHIRP technology and side-scan view sonar. The colors are amazing and the menu allows me to customize it to make the colors even more vivid. There are tons of menu items that I can play around with to even further enhance the image, I mean to better find fish.
Truthfully, the upgrade to a color GPS with charts is really nice. It gives me a leg up when the fog rolls in and I am unable to see past the bow of the boat. I don’t go out often at night, but when I do, my new GPS will help to ensure that I can find my way home, especially through the sticks that mark the marina channel. Those sticks are largely impossible to see at night.
Most of the navigating that I do is base on what I see around me. After 20+ years as a fishing guide, I am very familiar with the harbor’s flats and channels. Nevertheless, it can be reassuring (especially in poor light conditions) to glance down at the GPS and see that I am in the channel and not about to run aground.
Fish Finder
Still, the fish finder has me flummoxed. I’ve yet to see anything on it that resembles a fish.
I already miss my fish icons.