Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fish Finder

I have a Humminbird Wide one hundred portable fish finder. When we lived in Virginia, it worked fine. We tried it yesterday evening and we could only get it to pick up one small fish. I know there are fish out there because we see them feeding. Could my settings be wrong? Or, are the fish too small to be pick up? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

It could be a number of things. Someone on crappie.com recently had a problem similar to yours and someone suggested it could be the depth finder you have isn't setup to determine size of fish. I could be 100% wrong, but maybe that's your problem.

Do you see the bottom on the screen? If on auto gain, go to manual and when gain is increased, more 'noise' or speckles should be seen? Check orientation of the transducer face if transom mounted. Is the battery well charged? Liston for an audible thump with transducer next to the ear. Hold the transducer face parallel to the floor 1 ft. high, it should show 4 ft reading.

How deep is the water you are over? Is this a pond? What I'm getting at is if you are over fairly shallow water the fish may move away from the boat and the zone of the cone. I have also see where the fish were up high in the water column and moved away from the boat. That's why some of us use planer boards on larger bodies of water for trolling expecially when the water is gin clear.

Some of the water in the middle of the pond would be over 10 feet. The detector varies a lot on depth. It used to work very good but it seems I am not setting it proper. I did add some straw to remove what little algae that was present. The pond is just under 3 acres. As soon as I finish the building over the pond I will work on the detector some more. We will have a screen room with toilet and a fishing area. Now if it all falls in the water I will just hang my head and ----.The building is 20 by 30 feet and does not have a scotch bar. I used a different method for my piling so as not to start a leak in the clay lined pond. Lots of pictures later.