queensland Side View Sounder

[Cmaltby]

I'm looking at two sounders one side view one down view just looking at the price difference of $369 and wondering what benefits people have found and if it has helped you significantly catch more fish 

[samsteele115]

@Luvit Will be able to convince you that sideview capable sounders are worth any amount of money.  The sounders with sidescan etc generally have the downscan feature as well. I would spend an extra 500 bucks without hesitation to get a sidescan capable sounder and that's exactly what I'm going to do when I have the cash. 

[Cmaltby]

I'm looking at a $369 difference I went to the shop with cash to buy one and they pretty much sold me out of it by the time I left I questioned if I actually needed one based on their sales pitch. I'm just giving someone the chance to sell me on it who has an idea 

[Jimmyjack]

From my viewpoint, down view is ok but not much better than your normal sounder.  Certainly in my little downview sounder it doesn't help much. You see down but there's not much more information than in your sounder's normal view. But sidescan lets you see more of what is beside you as well as under you, so you can get more detail from more area.

[Samrenny]

Apologies for the crappy glare+filthy screen, but this is a photo I took of my Garmin Echomap 95sv at somerset dam a while back. If you have a look at the traditional sonar you'll see the cloud looking shape hanging just off the bottom and a darker two patches just above. In my previous experience I would have said that the more vivid shapes hanging above the cloud were fish and the cloud bait...but if you take a look at the downscan above it/sidescan to the left, you'll see that the larger cloud hanging just off the bottom is actually a school of bass, and the darker looking two shapes above are actually schools of bait, you can even see a couple of bass just above the "cloud" feeding on the bait. That is basically the difference between the two, traditional sonar will show up schools as a cloud if they are tight together, but downscan actually allows you to see individual targets/differentiate fish from structure. Side scan is an excellent tool for finding structure and schools of fish that aren't directly under your boat, as well as individual fish. Basically, it comes down to how much time and effort you're willing to put in to learning how to use your sounder. If you're willing to put in the time playing with settings and learning to interpret what you're seeing, side scan and downscan are well worth it. But if you want more of a set and forget sounder for knowing depth and having a rough idea of whats there and you probably won't spend the time, save your money and get a basic sounder with traditional sonar. Most seem to have both traditional and downscan nowerdays anyway

 

[Cmaltby]

Thanks Sam you're yhe first to explain it clearly  I am looking at the 75sv striker which has the same transducer as you're just without the mapping capability.  Looks good. 

[samsteele115]

well said @Samrenny . So to put it in a nutshell standard sonar and downscan are on different frequencies and it is handy to have both up on the screen to compare and work out whats really going on down there. And sidescan is a massive advantage. I've been on trips with @Luvit and we'd be driving along at 50km/h and see a school of fish on the sidescan 30m out to the left. Caught the fish. Would not have seen them with just sonar and downscan. MASSIVE advantage.

[Samrenny]

6 minutes ago, Cmaltby said:

Thanks Sam you're yhe first to explain it clearly  I am looking at the 75sv striker which has the same transducer as you're just without the mapping capability.  Looks good. 

No worries at all mate. For the price they are an awesome unit, you don't have some of the fancy networking capabilities that sounder that cost $1000 more do, but you're getting a much bigger screen for the money and sidescan quality is as good if not better than some of the others. The only reason i'd ever upgrade is so I could see all my outboard data as well.

1 minute ago, samsteele115 said:

well said @Samrenny . So to put it in a nutshell standard sonar and downscan are on different frequencies and it is handy to have both up on the screen to compare and work out whats really going on down there. And sidescan is a massive advantage. I've been on trips with @Luvit and we'd be driving along at 50km/h and see a school of fish on the sidescan 30m out to the left. Caught the fish. Would not have seen them with just sonar and downscan. MASSIVE advantage.

Yep 100%, my first ever jew was landed by sounding up structure out to the side on side scan in 15m of water which I would have have seen otherwise! Wish I could get my bloody sounder positioning right so it would work at that speed...

[Cmaltby]

I realise I won't get top of the line for that. I'm just working to a budget. I don't really need maps as I have navionics on my phone which I'm happy with. 

[samsteele115]

Fine if that's what you're happy with and is what you want for your budget. Good value. You do get what you pay for though with the more expensive units. For example setting waypoints and marks as you go really helps with fishing structure in the bay and setting up drifts as well as a bunch of other helpful features. I'm just saying you won't be wasting your money if you spent more. 

[Cmaltby]

Id love to spend more but I spent 14k buying the boat 4 months ago and bought an electric motor last night and still have to pay to have a mounting plate welded on and get a battery so I'm trying to keep my spending down for a couple of years 

[Luvit]

Cmaltby,

My experience with side scan has only been with the Lowrance HDS units.

Here are some situations where i have found side scan useful.

If you are fishing rivers with the side scan you can often see structure and trees lying down that are under the waterline close to the bank. To see this with only a down scan sonar unit would mean motoring over the structure and alerting the fish to find the same structure. Bearing in mind any good structure entering the water that can be seen from above the water line will have had every man and their dog casts at it. However, if you can locate structure under the water not as many people will have fished it and gives you a higher percentage chance of tempting a fish. I once nearly won a murray cod competition because of the side scan. I didn't because of angler error grrrr, but i got the hit and should have landed the fish. 

On many occasions we have seen fish out to the side of the boat with the side scan, it turned a quite day into a fantastic day and gives you new marks to fish.

A recent example how side scan helped us was the trip i have just returned from. We were fishing for Barra and casting at exposed upright tree stumps with shallow divers. When the tide and wind moved us to far away we returned back to the spot. Then we noticed 30m out in front of the exposed timber there was structure on the side scan on the bottom. We went back and positioned the boat and changed lures to deeper divers. It turned out to be the best 1.5 hrs of fishing for the trip on the barra. We ended up with 2 good barra, 7 finger mark, a grunter & bream all of the same structure. Without the side scan we would have never know the structure existed being in a mud creek.

It take s time to learn how to read it but it is worth it.

The only draw back i see is the extra outlay for it.

 

[Cmaltby]

Thanks for taking the time to write that I'm sold on them and think I'll end up getting a Garmin. 

[Luvit]

All the known brands would be similar in each price bracket I would expect.

Good luck with your choice.