Fish Finders and Catfish

twhusker	Do catfish show up very well on fish finders? I'm looking at the Fisheasy 2 with temperature. I just bought a boat with an Eagle Z5000. I don't know how old it is and I can't find any manuals for it. I'm new to the whole fish finder game and it might be me, but I don't see anything in mine that looks like the arches I have been reading about.	2002-05-24
crab bait	fish finders are disillusioned and really don't work at finding fish per say...especially catties ,,to close to bottom.. they show 'fish' symbols constantly but are they true ... I have a liquid graph paper fish finder that ' paints-a-picture of the bottom & structure very well.. it doesn't show 'fish symbols' at all.. all it does is show blobs, arches & half arches... only once in 3 years have I seen an arch .. fish finders are disheartening.. but once you accept what they are ,,, they're a great asset... depth , temp , bottom contour, & structure ...	2002-05-24
djohns19	twhusker, A lot goes into the interpretation of what you are seeing on the screen. I've owned several finders that I could easily "see" my lure as it went in the path of the transducer. It took a bit of interpretation to figure out that is what it was. I suggest you experiment. Find some calm water and see what you can swim past the transducer cone and see what type of image it leaves on the screen. Try running things by at different depths. Also try different size objects made out of different types of materials.	2002-05-24
J.B. Cornwell	My sonar's see and show cats as well as other fish that hang out near the bottom. You just have to know what to look for and turn off that stupid fish symbol feature. Good luck.	2002-05-24
Fishbusters	I fish A LOT for cats and they are not as easy to spot as say a school of stripers or even baitfish due to catfish hanging on bottom. I started out using my "fish" finder as a depth finder looking for depth changes and such I knew held cats. As I went I began to learn how to distinguish cats from bottom and can tell to a point whether there are any active cats in a given hole. It is something that can't be told or taught unless you are out with someone showing you what to look for.	2002-05-24

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