Bottomline Sidefinder
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Greg Slivka
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 4:00 pm
Bottomline Sidefinder
I bought a SideFinder unit hoping to use it for icefishing this winter. I recently tried it out at the end of a dock while fishing for catfish. I'm new to SideFinders and was wondering, when your looking at the SF screen the distance to the first fish is always displayed first. How do you know how deep that fish is or is it just locating fish near the surface?
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Greg Walters
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:00 pm
Bottomline Sidefinder
Greg,
Not my brand (I work for Humminbird) but…
It is my understanding that the Bottomline Sidefinder has the transducer beam pointed straight outwards. Based on this, it does not have the capability to show you how deep the fish it shows are but rather how far away they are from the transducer.
All sonar units can show you is time. The time between when a sonar signal is transmitted from the depth sounder to when it gets a returned echo. This time is than translated into depth or distance. (Okay, they can also show you a relative signal strength of a returned sonar signal but that doesn’t apply here.)
Now you can make a best guess as to how deep the fish could be if you knew how much the sonar beam spreads outwards for the distance the fish is shown at. Example: if the sonar beam spreads out to cover an area that is 6 feet wide (tall in our application) when a fish is shown 20 feet away, the fish would have to be within 6 feet of the water’s surface. This doesn’t mean that the fish has to be 6 feet deep. I don’t know what Bottomline specs their area of coverage for this product at so you would have to get that information from the operations manual, their web site or their customer service folks.
Greg Walters at Humminbird
[email protected]
Not my brand (I work for Humminbird) but…
It is my understanding that the Bottomline Sidefinder has the transducer beam pointed straight outwards. Based on this, it does not have the capability to show you how deep the fish it shows are but rather how far away they are from the transducer.
All sonar units can show you is time. The time between when a sonar signal is transmitted from the depth sounder to when it gets a returned echo. This time is than translated into depth or distance. (Okay, they can also show you a relative signal strength of a returned sonar signal but that doesn’t apply here.)
Now you can make a best guess as to how deep the fish could be if you knew how much the sonar beam spreads outwards for the distance the fish is shown at. Example: if the sonar beam spreads out to cover an area that is 6 feet wide (tall in our application) when a fish is shown 20 feet away, the fish would have to be within 6 feet of the water’s surface. This doesn’t mean that the fish has to be 6 feet deep. I don’t know what Bottomline specs their area of coverage for this product at so you would have to get that information from the operations manual, their web site or their customer service folks.
Greg Walters at Humminbird
[email protected]
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RNE
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 5:00 pm
Bottomline Sidefinder
Greg is right, sidefinders do not show depth of fish. Just relative distance and location.
I've owned a couple of sidefinder units, Humminbird and Lowrance both. (Both some time ago, Lowrance only made them for a year or so.) Not a Bottomline fan.
In certain specific applications they are very good. F.I. docks, which is what I used them for mostly, to see which docks had the most fish under them. The usual caveat applied, what species?
They are however susceptible to 'clutter' and misidentification of objects within the sound cone as 'fish'.
I will add this, I stopped using them, I discovered that in some situations they seemed to spook the fish.
Over the last few years I begun turning off my locators when fishing shallow water. Sometimes I'll even turn off everything, including aireators and automatic bilge pumps if possible.
With the pressure Eufuala gets, fish have become more and more wary. All species of fish, including the white bass strangely enough. You do not run up to a school of surfacing whites and bang out ten casts. You sneak up with the electric, and be careful where you cast. Or they're long gone.
I take every advantage I can get.
I've owned a couple of sidefinder units, Humminbird and Lowrance both. (Both some time ago, Lowrance only made them for a year or so.) Not a Bottomline fan.
In certain specific applications they are very good. F.I. docks, which is what I used them for mostly, to see which docks had the most fish under them. The usual caveat applied, what species?
They are however susceptible to 'clutter' and misidentification of objects within the sound cone as 'fish'.
I will add this, I stopped using them, I discovered that in some situations they seemed to spook the fish.
Over the last few years I begun turning off my locators when fishing shallow water. Sometimes I'll even turn off everything, including aireators and automatic bilge pumps if possible.
With the pressure Eufuala gets, fish have become more and more wary. All species of fish, including the white bass strangely enough. You do not run up to a school of surfacing whites and bang out ten casts. You sneak up with the electric, and be careful where you cast. Or they're long gone.
I take every advantage I can get.
Fishing is life, any kind of fishing!