Fish Id Question

[kayakfisherman]

I have a Garmin 140 that works well for what I use it for ,kayak Fishing.
This fish finder features a fish ID with a fish alarm for small, medium and large fish. My question is how big are the fish suppose to be, with fish id.
how big is a large fish with fish id etc.

[cheapNdisgusting]

First of all - welcome to the BOC. I'm not familiar with the garmin unit you have. Most units with fish ID operate on the return signal from the fish's swim bladder. If the size is not listed in your owners manual, go to Garmin's website and ask. I wish I could help.

[SSgt Fishslayer]

kayakfisherman,
first let me tell you that i personally dont use the fish id selection on my depthfinder for one reason. it is not accurate. if you float over a rock or a stick in the water, the depth finder will alot of times get it confused and pop up a fish symbol when there really isnt one. if i were you i would use the regular sonar feature and turn off the fish id selection. learn to use your sonar feature and this will help you out dramatically.

[schoonie]

Hey Fred, welcome. Always glad to see another yakker aboard. Check out the kayak and canoe threads. Present your question in there. Maybe one of us kayakers have the same unit.

[mmarcum6]

Joey was very correct in saying to turn off the fish ID. I have a garmin 160c and used to use the fish ID feature and found that a tightly clustered bait ball can give a return of a fish. The only time I turn mine on now is if I see a good arch and want to get a better depth reading then turn it back off. I hope this helps a little and I'm still learning how to use mine after a year of having it. Now after playing with it and adjusting it I'm beginning to have confidence in what it is telling me. I was about to spend big bucks for a new unit until I spent some time on the water just adjusting the garmin and seeing what I knew was already there to start with.

[etexun]

I am not familiar with your finder. I use a Eagle 250i. Eagle recommends that you not use the FISH ID for their units because it is prone to read a lot of things as fish. They say the arch reading is the truest. I have been using it instead of the FISH ID and it seems to be better. It takes a lot of time experimenting with the unit to learn the best settings for your conditions. And If your unit is like mine it will do WAAAAAAAY more than I will ever use. Good luck.

[Longjohn119]

Put a fish on a stringer, add some weight to help keep it down and drop it off the back of your boat so the fish is below the transducer and see what you get on the screen. Try different size fish at differing depths

I got a color unit this spring and although it's a relatively cheap one (Garmin 300C) it made a huge difference in being able to pick out fish with the Fish ID turned off ... It sure made it easier to find shad

I bought it mainly because it had a NMEA 0183 depth output which I can run to the serial port on my laptop and plot depths on GPS enable maps but I really like the color screen that makes differentiating fish from structure and differences in bottom surfaces and hardness a lot easier