Side Imaging settings?

According to Humminbird, the side imaging can be set to a range of up to 300′ but recommend using less for better detail. What are most people setting their range at?

3x the depth is a good starting point and adjust from there for picture quality. I don’t usually fish deeper than 40 ft unless I am on one of the Great Lakes.

Usually only as far as I can cast, or up to 100 feet is where I have it.

When I was learning how to interpret SI, I started out )2008)at about 70 feet and stayed there for a full year. Then, as I got better at it, I started to widen out my range. It’s taken me several years, but my console unit rides at 135, and my bow at 120.

Here’s a large flat that had a monster school of walleyes on it that I mauled for half a day. When I was tired of catching them, I started playing around with range.

Frequency will determine range. Even though I have mega on my Solix on the console, both that and my Helix 12 gen 1 on the bow stay on 455 all the time.

$.02

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50′ is what they say if you are still learning and gaining confidence, like me. That said if you are looking for big structure like a crib sitting on featurless bottom you can stretch it out and go faster.

Having never used SI before, I am concerned about effective depth of water column as well. I fish a good amount of the summer between 40’ – 60’. How does that relate to the horizontal distance settings?

The deeper the water, the higher you need to set the range. Also, there is a setting to eliminate the water column, so you don’t waste all that screen space.

From the Humminbird manual:

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SuperDave1959 wrote:

Having never used SI before, I am concerned about effective depth of water column as well. I fish a good amount of the summer between 40’ – 60’. How does that relate to the horizontal distance settings?

Dave with what I stated being @ 100 feet, I don’t fish any deeper than a 34 foot max.

A lot of good info another thing are you looking for fish or structure if your looking for structure 455 and you can stretch out your scan If your looking for greater detail and fish bump up to mega and shorten the scan to 50-60ft. Just from what I’ve tried and researched.

Denny O wrote:

Usually only as far as I can cast, or up to 100 feet is where I have it.

Me too.