Side imaging settings

I watched a great show with Brad Hawthorne and Joel Nelson on Lund Fishing about using side imaging to find crappies. I can find structure with my HDS Carbon but really struggle with seeing fish. Can anyone give me recommendations on settings? I realize shortening the distance out helps, but sonar setting, color palette, ect? I’d love a screen shot of how those of you that feel confident in finding fish with side imaging have your settings configured.

Thanks!

try one of these.
https://www.technologicalangler.com/humminbird-reference-cards

Not to sound crass but for exceptional side imaging nothing beats Humminbird, I have been in boats with Lowrance and Garmin SI and not even close to Humminbird when it comes to marking fish they all do decent marking structure.

There really is no set settings as water depth changes bottom content etc I am always adjusting my Hbirds on the fly to get the best information I can. Color palette is personnel choice as every ones eyes are a little different.

Leveling your transducer will help get the best out of any manufactures side scan.

My HDS Live is awesome now that mine is leveled out. Structure and fish show up perfect out to 150ft.

Yes the MEGA from bird is good, but it doesn’t have the distance Lowrance does. I have had a few people as how I am getting my detail out of my 3 in 1 like I do.

It all comes down to levelness of the ducer and playing with contrast. I only run 800K unless I am in deep water say 60ft or more which I never fish.

Why do you only run 800? I have been primarily running 455 with good enough success. The 800 is more focused correct? Do you feel like you miss bigger picture things while searching etc? What I’ve seen/experienced is that I like the 455 for searching big areas for structure or obvious fish etc, then if I run over it with 800 the picture is a bit better. I’ve never dedicated a day to doing all the new graphing with just the 800.

Thanks,

Thanks for the helpful replies, Chris and Cody.

Chris, when you say leveling your transducer, do you mean front to back or side to side?

Cody, I’ll play around with 800 vs 455, I appreciate the info!

Dr. Pomoxis wrote:

Thanks for the helpful replies, Chris and Cody.

Chris, when you say leveling your transducer, do you mean front to back or side to side?

Cody, I’ll play around with 800 vs 455, I appreciate the info!

Actually both ways you want to level it. The side to side is not too hard just go off of the step on the transom or some where with a level line going across port/starboard. The bow/stern level is a bit more important and it takes more effort to do it. I watched some videos on how to do it and the best one is while you are on the water. 99% of the time you are going to use structure scan while moving at an idle. You want to level the transducer while the boat is moving. To do this you will need a torpedo level and either a handful of washers or coins. While the boat is moving at idle on calm water place the level against a spot on the gunnel of the boat. Typically the bow will be higher than the stern. Then stack up washers under the level to raise the back of the level up till the bubble is in the middle. Once you have it level then put all those washers/coins in a bag. When you get home and the boat is on the trailer level the boat using the same technique with the torpedo level and your coins. Use the tongue jack to get the bubble into the middle on the torpedo level. Once you have that done then take the torpedo to the back and level the transducer or transducers in the back. Now when you are on the water moving at idle your transducer will be level with the water line.

Here is a video on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuYsmJRc_fE

I would pick a range such as 80′ and not change it. If you constantly mess with the range, your size of objects will never really get dialed in. I find that 80′ is at least as far as I can cast and I can still make out objects as small as bait perch / 15″ walleyes etc. If you start pushing your range past 100′ it starts to get very difficult to determine what everything is on your screen. Especially things that are small.

80′ range is great for marking fish accurately. Species and size. 150-200′ is great when looking for structure. Big items like brush piles, rock piles, trees, boulders etc.

The lower the frequency level the better it is for longer ranges. The higher the frequency is the better detail you will get at shorter ranges.

I run Humminbird electronics so exact settings would differ on your HDS LIVE units.

Definitely spend time to dial in your settings at the 800 kHz frequency. One of the reasons everyone loves Humminbird right now is because the MEGA transducer runs at 1.2 mHz. Higher frequencies don’t reach as far, as Pat said, but they offer better clarity. Most guys run 60-80′ wide on side imaging and never switch away from the highest frequency they have, and for good reason.

Curious if you run different settings based on the lake. My Helix 10 G2N Mega shows great details on some lakes and poor on others. LOW for instance the side imaging doesn’t do well. I haven’t spent much time tweaking it while out there though. What adjustments do you all modify per body of water?

I think this has to do with the lake bottom, sandy or hard bottom lakes will show better then a muck bottom lake like LOW if your out in the mud.

fishingchallenged wrote:

Curious if you run different settings based on the lake. My Helix 10 G2N Mega shows great details on some lakes and poor on others. LOW for instance the side imaging doesn’t do well. I haven’t spent much time tweaking it while out there though. What adjustments do you all modify per body of water?

fishingchallenged wrote:

Curious if you run different settings based on the lake. My Helix 10 G2N Mega shows great details on some lakes and poor on others. LOW for instance the side imaging doesn’t do well. I haven’t spent much time tweaking it while out there though. What adjustments do you all modify per body of water?

90% of the time I can get what i’m looking for by just adjusting the sensitivity and contrast. Most of the time it’s just sensitivity. If i’m in 8′ on hard sand, my sensitivity might only be at 2 or 3. If i’m out on 30′ mud basin my sensitivity could be at 15. The harder the bottom the lower the sensitivity.

Some times if you’re trying to side image in really deep water it could benefit to adjust your frequency to 455 khz. I wouldn’t do this unless you’re stretching your range out to 150+’

Thanks bigcrappie and Pat!

New to side imaging here. Thanks for the good information. Wondering if anyone ever adjusts the start and end frequencies or do you just leave it on 455kHz or 800kHz?