Electronics for Dummies

[WyoRado]

As far as SI goes, it is not that helpful at a vertical canyon wall, however in more open areas it is incredible. The more you get comfortable with it and learn to read it, you'll see how beneficial it can be. It went from being a novelty for me, to typically taking up at least 1/2 or one whole screen on the dash. Finding that striper school you'd been on for 15 minutes before it just disappeared is much easier. What traditional sonar did for vertical laker fishing is what side imaging can do for any fish you are chasing in a horizontal manner. Marking a fish, noting it is of larger size, casting to it, then catching it is a neat experience.

 

[Dorado]

As far as SI goes, it is not that helpful at a vertical canyon wall, however in more open areas it is incredible. The more you get comfortable with it and learn to read it, you'll see how beneficial it can be. It went from being a novelty for me, to typically taking up at least 1/2 or one whole screen on the dash. Finding that striper school you'd been on for 15 minutes before it just disappeared is much easier. What traditional sonar did for vertical laker fishing is what side imaging can do for any fish you are chasing in a horizontal manner. Marking a fish, noting it is of larger size, casting to it, then catching it is a neat experience.

This what I hoped to use it for.....but I never see fish, just a weird looking alien screen that is really not intuitive to interpret!!!
Guess I should spend some time on YouTube and try and figure it out....

 

[WyoRado]

I found with my fishing boat, the install is where a lot of the make/break comes with SI. I used the boat several times without cleaning the water line off, leveled that line in the garage, then made sure to true the transducer front to back and side to side off that water mark line. Once you've done that, start looking at shorelines you already know well. Rip rap transitions, boat ramps, old road beds, etc. knowing what it looks like in reality will help you understand what is on the screen. Once you've got that, you'll learn to note shadows created by the SI, if a fish is even a foot off the bottom it will cast a shadow a few feet to the side of it, learning those shadows helped me immensely. Lastly, a boat speed of at least 1-1.5 mph is necessary for clear screens. I typically go 2.5-3.5mph while scanning shorelines.