Understanding
Your Color
Fish Finder Screen
The
Anglers Options:
Boating anglers have several
options when outfitting their sportfishing platform with a
fish finder. A color CRT, mono LCD or color LCD fish finder
offers boating anglers a form of X-Ray vision, where you can
actually "see" the vast underwater world that rests beneath
your sportfishing rig. But there are two challenges that come
with this territory, the first of which is to have the knowledge
and skill to be able to tweak your fish finder so that it
paints a precise picture of what's going on down below. The
second hurdle is to be able to interpret this picture of the
bottom and then take the appropriate action steps to leverage
your sportfishing opportunities.
The Harder the Echo, the Hotter the
Color:
A color fish finder that offers eight
colors, usually range these from light to dark, depending
on the echo return, starting off with soft colors like white,
light blue, medium blue, dark blue, green, yellow, orange
and finally red. Schools or small pods of baitfish are usually
in the blue-to-green family.
Denser concentrations of larger
forage fish might even approach yellow hues of color. Gamefish,
depending on their size, concentrations and depth in the water
table, usually are represented by yellow, orange or red colors
on the display. Bottom structure like the seabed floor, artificial
reefs, shipwrecks, rockpiles, etc. are normally either a dark
orange or red color on the color scopes screen. When gamefish,
bait and structure are all jammed into one spot on the bottom,
the bait will typically look like a tight pale blue or green
cloud, with yellow or orange marks to the sides and underneath,
with a dark red signature showing the bottom or fish-attracting
structure nearby.
Differentiate the Bottom Type:
Soft
bottoms like mud or grass usually send back a signal that
appears like a thin red line that marks the bottom. In contrast,
harder seabeds like sand, clay or rocks are usually identified
by a very thick and dense red line that marks the bottom.
The general rule that applies is that the harder the bottom,
the thicker or denser the "tails" that show where the bottom
is situated.
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