New fish finder, need tips!

[StrikerMC]

Hello,

I just got a Garmin Striker 4 installed on my Perception Striker (wow I didn't notice that until now) and plan on targeting rockfish, halibut, wsb, and big whitefish from NPH. I've been successful at limiting out on whitefish every time I'm out, but now that I have a FF, I'd like some help as to what to look for when going after rockfish.

Could anyone post shots of their FF when passing over hard bottoms or structure that they've caught fish on?

[f'nsabiki]

Start with YouTube lots of good info. Type in your specific make and model and I'm sure someone has posted info on how to get the most out of it.

[Uncle_Tomas]

There are other users on this forum who know a lot more than I do when it comes to fish finders and how to read different marks on your unit but I thought I will try answer anyways..
Luckily for you, when it comes to targeting rock fish, you are not really looking for specific fish marks necessarily but structure (pile of rocks, wrecks, drop offs). Any bottom features that attract fish. Flat bottom wonÂ’t hold any rock fish. You are also looking for hard bottom, that typically shows in yellow color, soft bottom typically shows red.
You also need to be mindful of depth you are fishing in. Some places are different than others but you probably want to start around 100Â’ and go from there (deeper). (You canÂ’t fish deeper than 450 though).
If you donÂ’t know the area you are planning to fish that well, Navionics Webb app allows you to look at charts of the entire coast which is super helpful when doing you homework the night before. You might able to spot different bottom features using google maps as well.
There were some rock fish reports from NB I believe not too long ago, look for those. Other good rock fish spots are La Jolla and Redondo. The advantage of these places is that they get deep fast and you donÂ’t need to paddle 10 miles to find rocks or drop offs.
I am sure others will chime in as well.

[TJones]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Tomas

There are other users on this forum who know a lot more than I do when it comes to fish finders and how to read different marks on your unit but I thought I will try answer anyways..
Luckily for you, when it comes to targeting rock fish, you are not really looking for specific fish marks necessarily but structure (pile of rocks, wrecks, drop offs). Any bottom features that attract fish. Flat bottom wonÂ’t hold any rock fish. You are also looking for hard bottom, that typically shows in yellow color, soft bottom typically shows red.
You also need to be mindful of depth you are fishing in. Some places are different than others but you probably want to start around 100Â’ and go from there (deeper). (You canÂ’t fish deeper than 450 though).
If you donÂ’t know the area you are planning to fish that well, Navionics Webb app allows you to look at charts of the entire coast which is super helpful when doing you homework the night before. You might able to spot different bottom features using google maps as well.
There were some rock fish reports from NB I believe not too long ago, look for those. Other good rock fish spots are La Jolla and Redondo. The advantage of these places is that they get deep fast and you donÂ’t need to paddle 10 miles to find rocks or drop offs.
I am sure others will chime in as well.

what he said. like mentioned above, try google earth. try to punch those coordinates into your unit. you can also just google hots pots for your area across the web and see what comes up. there are books you can buy or a general map from your local tackle store with some basic coordinates to start off with. good luck.

[Saba Slayer]

" You are also looking for hard bottom, that typically shows in yellow color, soft bottom typically shows red."
Uncle Thomas is right...you are looking for hard bottom...
But I must differ on his info on the hard bottom color...most of the newer finders will let you set your color pallet for your display and with that said it could be any color...But...
The older original traditional and the modern default colors are usually Red for hard bottom and then the color travels up the color spectrum to Blue and Green for the softer returns on your sonar like small bait fish or squid.
I've been using Lowrance since I joined the Hobie team so most of my experience is with those units...
Besides the hard bottom or structure you should also be looking for bait or fish marks on the bottom or just off the bottom...they don't have to be big arches but sometimes it's just blue stuff as opposed to a plain flat bottom...do a few drops and see if it's just whitefish or actually some nice eating Vermilions...
Once you've found some biting fish don't forget to use your GPS bread crumb trail to relocate on them and if it's a really good spot...hit your MOB button to set a waypoint that you can return to on your following trips.
Good Luck...

[ProfessorLongArms]

I actually just bought an Echomap and a Striker4, so i'm quite familiar with that setup.

They're great rigs. I was chatting with someone from Los Buzos down in Panama and they said that Striker4 is the model they landed on down there after abusing and destroying every other entry level fish finder.

I got a striker 4 so I could throw it on one kayak if I go out with my dad, switch head units on the same transducer between kayaks, and the price was almost the same as buying a power cable and a transducer.

I find it kinda limited compared to the Echomap, but only because I really like to get into google earth and spot contours, put pins down, and scout them out. That's been super productive for me out past 120'. The problem is you need an SD card or their Wifi technology to do so. (that's in their crazy expensive models)

I will say this- good deep water spots look like acne scars on the bottom of the ocean.

You *can* enter manually, but I didn't really see a way to do that too conveniently. In case you ever have a buddy who's willing to share their waypoints, there's also a very poorly documented feature where you can connect two data cables on the power setup between two units and transfer all data between them almost automatically. I regularly sync my striker with my echomap that way.

All of that said, that unit is amazing out of the box for what you pay.

If you got a striker 4 _plus_, one thing I'd recommend reading up on is how to turn on Quickdraw contours. That is a really cool feature for a unit without navionics. You basically paint the map with depth readings as you go. It starts to feel like a bit of a game of pacman when you're working an area.

Another thing I really like about its mapping setup is that it has a plethora of really good icons for dropping waypoints. I have a colored/numbered fish icon for each kind of fish I catch with like 5 icons to spare, a kelp icon, and a rock icon... it's also super easy to switch between them so I'm not just dropping random points.

I don't have any screenshots handy, but I can say that it's pretty easy to tell when you're on some structure with fish on it. Suddenly you'll get bump that are different color from sandy bottom, with fish suspended over them. Calico/sandbass spots are the most conspicuous and common I've seen.

For me it was a lot of trial and error. See something interesting. Drop down on it. Start to make associations.

Out deep I find dramatic changes in depth are pretty good tells for structure. Where I fish there are some underwater ridges that run the span of a football field or two, and suddenly jut up 10-15 feet over the span of 50 feet.

Also do some searching through the forum. there are some good past posts on sonar screenshots.

Another thing I recommend when you get out deep is to figure out your settings for bottom lock. You can tell it how deep to zoom out, then lock to the bottom. It gives a really good picture so you don't have to squint to see grass/rocks, etc when you're in 170 feet of water. That feature goes a long way on such a small screen.

[ProfessorLongArms]

Also Roman Castro just posted this and there’s a great section where the captain is showing good sonar readings. https://youtu.be/_ZThckj2TIM