Humminbird help??

[FINICKY]

Hi all,
I fish offshore Morton island alot with varied success. I am using a Humminbird 788 GPS/SOUNDER with moderate success. I like to fish in 70-80m of water and find the Humminbird shows the bottom no worries and on advanced mode I can focus on my selected water column (eg 40 to 80m) but the sounder never seems to show fish.
You may say thats because there are no fish there. Sometimes thats true.. But on other occasions, like last september, myself and a mate have caught about 30 snapper between us from 40 to 63cm doing the same drift over and over and yet still nothing showing on the sounder other than a few pinacles and structure on the bottom.
What should I be doing with my settings?
I am in advanced mode and Saltwater deep is selected.
Any tips or advice would be much appreciated before another blind season.

[blackjew]

Gday mate when i cant see any fish on my sounder , i just set mine to simulator no probs heaps of fish and a great bottom structure .LOL
Just a dumb question do you have fish id on and the alarm on ,on the drift and not seeing any fish , maybe the fish are at the side of the boat when your drifting ,just a thought .Dp you see fish when you are in shallow water .
Cheers Rob

[FINICKY]

Thanks rob, when fishing in 40 to 50m can see fish with I'D on and off. Might need to play with frequencies.

[nigelr]

There is a great tutorial on here somewhere about setting up a Furuno.
Basically the same applies to the 'bird.
All noise filters, fish ID etc etc off. Use the most basic signal without processing the input. Set the zoom/bottom lock appropriately. Sensitivity to max. Then drop down incrimentally untill you can diffentiate the bottom clearly. Make sure you set the depth limits correctly.
And after that, well sometimes the fish HIDE during the day lol! So just look for structure and or bait and fish there.
Cheers.

[blueline]

dont know about the 788, but with my 988 you can change the fish id, as i have mine set as a coulor and arches but can set for fish shapes but clogs up the screen, you have to go to sonar sreen and push menu then scroll thru to the id, but as i say dont know about the 788, there is a humminbird web site with trouble shooting.hope this helps
could all so be the sensitvity to low.

[Scalem]

Finicky we have exactly the same combo and I hope you are wrong about it not picking up the fish, but since I replaced the transducer under warranty the weather has not been on my side to get out in that depth of water to test it out. But so far I know it all works in shallow.
One day we should know hopefully. I have invested a lot of time making my deepwater jigheads so very keen to see if I can get into AJ's and Kingies this winter, but I am told they have not started schooling in many of the usual spots. It's all new to me in that depth of water, hope we sort it out rather than being told we need to spend more money on a Furuno or something more powerful. But I have shortened the list of potential things that can affect it.

** Make sure you register your unit on Humminbird website and download the latest software revision.
** Turn auto depth off, and manually set the sounder a depth of 100 or so mtrs ( if fishing 80mtrs)
** Turn fish ID off.


Good luck.

Scalem

[capt. mud]

I have a 788 combo and it's fine, the best advice was to turn off fish I.D and up the sensetivity to produce arches and good colour.

After some experience (2 trips) you will soon work out I.D of bait fish to snapper etc.............

cheers Mud

[the gecko]

Ive been having the same problem with my matrix 27, ever since I replaced the transducer. I hope you solve this.
Bottom lock wont work, yet it tells the correct depth. Fish ID wont work. Software is current.

Strange thing is the new ducer worked for 4 trips, then went funny. Mighta taken a knock? im gonna reset the angle of the ducer next. It looks right, but maybe off horizontal when the boats on the plane. Just a thought.

Andrew