"Reading" fish on a Garmin 541S

[Fin Fever]

On my past fish finders, fish would show up as a definite "arch", with my Garmin I don`t see that at all. When I know I`m over fish, I get some red blobs on the screen but not the arches. Am I doing something wrong or is the way that the Garmins read?

[wen]

Don't have a Garmin, but blobs are common on some FF.
I have a Lowrance so I see arches, but at speed youn will see blobs or streaks depending on speed, concentration of fish,etc.

[JT]

You have a good unit. Color and clarity is SUPER. Blobs you are seeing are bait balls. Arches will come. If you keep seeing arches that are not complete from end to end then you need to move/level your transducer. If you have just recently bought a new motor and put depthfinders transducer in same location then you need to make sure that your prop turns the same way as old motor. Most transducers read better when there at least 18 in away from prop and on right side of motor when looking at back. 90 percent of motors blow bubbles and cause distortion on left. Only 3/8 of an inch of transducer bottom should be in water. Keep away from the rake on bottom and try to find flat spot. That unit will read arches at 40 mph.

[Fin Fever]

Thanks for the replies. I know that I`ve picked up bait ball signals but havn`t seen the arches that I would expect. It seems that I`m getting more of a hot dog shape when I`m over fish. I`ll keep working with it.

[Fin Fever]

JT you were right.
I was fishing inshore of the third island spine and was catching some small trout a couple of weeks ago in around 35` of water and those small fish were congragated in a school on the bottom and you could see everyone of them. I was relieved and impressed. Some real nice detail.
Dean

[boondoggle]

[wen]

These are two Lowrance shots at different Frequencies.(HDS)
As you can see,show as arches, but using a lower frequency will give you more defined arches--less seperation ability ,but better arches.
In the 83 KHZ shot there was some bait closer to the surface and you can see the fish mixed in with the bait.
Wen