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How do fish finders work and why would you want to know such information? Purchasing and installing a fish finder is not enough. The fish finder is growing to be a part of every fisherman’s life. Due to this development, some of the small boats have even made a provision for it. The Kayak is one such example with a provision for mounting an electric transducer for the kayak fish finder. Knowing how a fish finder works will help us recognize any inconsistency and diagnose the problem. Let us go through different parts of our fish finder system and describe their functions.
1. The Screen of Fish Finders
This will be the user interface in your fishing trip, reflecting all information on what is under the water and even how deep it is. It shows fish as arches. While a screen with more color will provide a better defined image, you may adjust your screen using the zoom in function or by bottom lock. This will ensure a better resolution of the select section you are interested in viewing.
The screen also comes in two different variations. In one variation, you will note a bias towards the vertical pixel count. This ensures you get the best view possible of the sea bed with a clear definition of anything that floats or lies above it. In case you are more interested in splitting your screen functions and retaining a longer history, the variation with the higher horizontal pixel count works best. You may be interested in knowing that the length of the object on the screen is independent of its actual size and dependent on the length of time spent in the cone; which we will discuss later.
Besides facilitating your fishing experience, your screen may be useful in influencing your anchoring decision.
2. Transmitter
It acts as a link between your battery and the transducer, it doesn’t require much from you though learning how fish finders work would be difficult with its omission. Your battery transmits current which your transducer can’t use. The transmitter will therefore convert this current to pulses before sending them to the transducer.
3. Transducer
Upon receiving the pulses, the transducer sends out vibrations or signals and captures echoes. This enables you to know the nature of the object and its distance from your boat by measuring time taken for the wave to bounce back. The transducer will then convert this information into electric signals and send the information to the fish finder.
Signals sent by the transducer into the water start off narrow and widen as they flow through the water creating a cone like structure; which we mentioned earlier on. The narrow the cone the deeper it goes and vice versa. Water currents may affect your transducers efficiency by creating bubbles that disburse signals. Waterfronts may also cause signals to reflect back but that depends on your fish finder.
4. The Chartplotter of Fish Finder
Knowing how fish finders work is not always of much help without knowledge of the plotter’s function. The plotter does not have to be part of your fish finders system. However, installing it will not only help you trace your steps to the dry land if you go too far into the water but also help you find fish more easily as it is in constant communication with the finder. It also makes work easier by allowing you to record spot coordinate of the places you spotted fish at your own leisure. You only need to trace the spot from your finder’s history.
A handheld GPRS is still necessary if you wish to go into the water. A back up never did harm.