# Is my fish finder broken?



## rdiddy801 (Aug 13, 2013)

Okay, I'm a fish finder newbie. Just bought a dual-beam Humminbird and took it out Saturday on Willard Bay (never used one before). We trolled with the finder on for about three hours and the finder only displayed a fish like 4 or 5 times! There's no way we only crossed paths with that few of fish, right???

Most of the time it would display very small vertical lines, about 4 or 5 pixels in length. I'm not sure how much of an angle the transducer shoots (like I said, it's a dual beam model), but I was wondering if with how shallow Willard is if it really is possible to only be directly above a fish that many times in a span of three hours. It seemed to read temperature correctly and depth. I messed with the sensitivity settings and also used it with the trolling motor off, but those small vertical lines still showed up:


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## scartinez (Apr 22, 2008)

I would try it at a deeper lake.


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## Gumbo (Sep 22, 2007)

Looks like it's reading bottom just fine. Make sure the transducer is set up properly, and play with the settings while on the water. Turn off the fishy mode, adjust sensitivities, etc. As said, deeper water would help you troubleshoot since in a shallow lake your cone covers a small area.


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

My fish finder shows all kinds of fish at Willard. With the amount of bigger shad, bass, crappie, walleye, carp, and catfish it should be a rarity to not have fish on the screen.---SS


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## bowhunt3r4l1f3 (Jan 12, 2011)

I'll be honest with you. It's not broken, that fish finder just kinda sucks...I had the exact same one a year a go. I would mess with it forever just to get the sensitivity just right for the fish to show up. I returned it and bought a little nicer one, never had any problems since. It really is just not that great at showing fish.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

I bet the cone angle is narrow and you are shallow. Translates to no fish on the finder!


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

You need to find out what the degree that the trasducer is. Even if it is a 45 degree one at 12' you are not seeing very much bottom and even less as it comes up to the transducer


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

At a cone of 53 degrees, your cone width = the depth of the water. IE: if you are in 23ft of water, your cone is 23ft wide on the bottom. I only remember it because that was one feature of my finder and it stuck with me.

Anything wider than 53 degrees will give you even better coverage but less definition. My finder actually has 6 built in transducers shooting out smaller beams in different angles to form a fan. It allows the finder to identify a fish at a specific position relative to the boat and depth.

-DallanC


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## Gumbo (Sep 22, 2007)

That Hummingbird definitely is a low-end product, but if that's your budget use it. I'm not sure what vertical lines would indicate--maybe fish? Usually they show up as an arc. Most of the time seeing fish doesn't translate to catching fish anyway. I'd be more concerned with distinguishing bottom type, hard bottom, soft bottom, rocks, structure, schools of fish, etc. If you get to the point where you want a unit to allow you to jig over fish you've identified on your fishfinder, then you can upgrade. But in the short term, just maximize your ability to use the tool you have.


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## 12many (Apr 14, 2008)

Fishing in only 12' and at Willard my guess the vertical lines that your seeing would be the algie, just mess with the settings do not have your sensitivity set really high it would result in false readings, look for structure ie rocks and such. I had a POS 737 that would show the same thing never really worked for me at any body of water.


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