A 25' Contender center console ûserved as our testing platform. ûTransducers were all set to a ûfrequency of 200 kHz. We compared ûeach machine's picture side-by- ûside as the boat moved over the targets below.

Modern scanning sonar equipment has lots of names and just as many uses. The names: fishfinders, bottom machines, echo sounders, depthsounders or just plain sounders. They all do the same thing - use sound waves to look through the water and paint us a picture on a display screen of what's below. The uses: navigate the depths - or the shallows - to avoid hitting rocks or the bottom, determine bottom composition and contours for anchoring, locate where the fish should be (that secret spot), or simply to find fish. …