Humminbird Fishfinders

A Quick Guide to Humminbird Fish Finders

A Humminbird fish finder can help enable you to catch more fish, lose fewer lures, and protect your boat from unknown hazards since you will be able to see what is under the water. A Humminbird fish finder is easy to mount on your boat, canoe, or kayak and is equipped with an easy-to-read display and GPS to mark your favorite fishing hole.

On a Humminbird fish finder system, a transducer is mounted on the bottom of the boat. This transducer sends out sound waves, or sonar, which expand into the shape of a cone as the boat moves. These sonar sound waves bounce off the bottom structure of the lake and other objects like fish, rocks, or tree limbs. The receiver picks up the returning sound waves, and the sonar unit digitally processes the signals, which are what you see on your fish finder display screen. With a typical Humminbird system, this process occurs up to 50 times per second, giving an accurate image of what is underneath your boat.

You can find an assortment of new and used Humminbird fish finders on eBay with various useful features that you can select from to suit your needs. Some of the features you can find include:

• Chartplotting: This technology combines GPS with maps to continuously show you where your boat is both above and below the water.
• Side scanning: A fish finder with side scanning uses sonar to scan on both sides of the watercraft with a wide beam at high frequency. It produces crisply detailed underwater maps.
• Networking: Certain Humminbird fish finder products can be networked with each other using cables or wireless connectivity. Check the manufacturer's website to see which products can be networked and how they connect with each other.

GPS is available on the Humminbird G2 models. It is handy for recording positions to map your lake or to mark a hot fishing spot. Most Humminbird models have the GPS antenna built in, and most units have a map package preloaded. The internal GPS shows your compass heading, speed, and estimated time of arrival at destination. You can set your favorite waypoints and use them to set up routes. GPS is also a safety feature necessary for boat trips on large lakes or high seas.

On a Humminbird system, the real-time sonar is displayed on the right of the screen. This shows you what is directly underneath your boat at that time. What you see to the left of the screen is what you have already passed over. If you are fishing, a view of fish arches is what you are after. Arch shapes show up where the fish enter and leave the sonar beams. You can turn on the fish identification mode, so the fish show up as symbols rather than arches. Some models are capable of showing the size of the fish by using different-sized symbols.