# Fish Finder Hack???



## milenine (Nov 25, 2007)

My fish finder is good for spotting fish directly under me, as they are biting my lure, and that is about it. I also have a higher end finder with a bigger cone angle that allows me to see fish in a bigger area. However, what I want is to see a HUGE area without drilling all over the place, allowing me to quickly find fish, instead of just having the finder alert me when the fish have arrived (found me).

I am wondering if anyone has tried mounting their transducer on a pole with a 45-90 degree angle so they can poke it in the ice hole and take a look at what is going on in other directions other than straight down. I know that the depth readout would be way off, but if you mark a school of fish 100 feet away and you are pointing the transducer due south you would know to go drill 100 feet south of you current location. Any thoughts? Anyone tried anything like this?

It seems like you could really cover some serious area with only one hole drilled.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

I have a Bottom Line Fishin Buddy finder that had a feature called sidefinder.
In this mode, the finder looks at the bottom and also out in front of you.
There are also finders that have a wide cone that will cover a larger area under you.
I don't know if you can change the angle of a fish finder to look out instead on down. I think that the ping has to hit the bottom and then bounce the signal back to the finder in order to work, but if the ping bounces off of a fish, it might send that signal back and show the distance.
I have never tried to do that and I don't plan to try it.
I just use the finder to show fish as they are approaching my area and the depth that they are suspensed. That it how the instructions show to use the unit.
A flasher unit can detect how far a fish is away from you.
This may be what you need.


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## huntducksordietrying (Sep 21, 2007)

Have you ever tried putting your transducer right on the ice? I have heard that you can get a reading on fish if the ice is clear and solid with a little water on it. I just got a fish finder today so Im gonna try it out going threw the ice. Ill see if I can find the fish then drill the hole. The question I have is if you drill right above the fish wouldnt it spook them away from that area for a while?


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

Grandpa D said:


> I have a Bottom Line Fishin Buddy finder that had a feature called sidefinder


Does the side finder show the depth of the fish?


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## huntducksordietrying (Sep 21, 2007)

fixed blade said:


> [quote="Grandpa D":21fxiiqt]I have a Bottom Line Fishin Buddy finder that had a feature called sidefinder


Does the side finder show the depth of the fish?[/quote:21fxiiqt]

I had one this last summer. The sidefinder Transducer is on a 9 degree angle. So you just kinda project down on that angle to figure where the fish is exactly. Also you can tip them up so the transducer is 90 degrees to the surface of the water and it will show you fish that are just below the surface. They work quite well. They tell you how far out the fish are. One time there was a rainbow jumping about twenty feet out I tiped the finder up so the sidefinder could see it and sure as the sun will come up tomorrow the fish showed up at 19 feet. The fishin buddy portable fishfinders are a sweet deal wish I hadnt sold mine.


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## skeet4l (Sep 11, 2007)

hd, take a gallon jug of water with you, pour a little on the ice and put your ducer on it, yes it works and is really helpful if your trying to find a drop-off and all you have is a hand auger. The humminbird 700 series is capable of shooting two cones at the same time differentiating fish in different colors. 20 deg in one and anything outside (in the 60 deg cone) in another.


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## tcb (Sep 26, 2007)

When we used to fish crappies in Minnesota we never drilled a hole unless we first found fish by shooting through the ice. We used the biodegradable RV antifreeze instead of water. I also added a little food coloring to it to mark hole locations for drilling fish house holes, and then moving the house over them.


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