Simrad Active Imaging 3 in 1 help needed for inshore.

[FROZEN]

Guys,

I recently upgraded to a Simrad EVO 3 with the new the new Active Imaging 3 in 1 sonar transducer (CHIRP, Downscan, Side Scan). I had no choice as that is now the standard offering from Simrad. (Or I wasn’t smart enough to get a different transducer)

I fish in 3 to 30 feet, vast majority in 3 to 15 feet. I’ve got everything set to the default settings as it came out of the box. Simrad instructions/explanations are poor for average guys like me. Everything works and the images are crisp, clear, and impressive.

Generally speaking, I’m not sure what I’m looking at, or more importantly, how I derive maximum benefit out of this setup. Are there there specific settings for shallow, inshore fishing? Any tips or tricks? I’ve got everything set to auto and or default. I’ve got 800 GPS spots on the machine now and fish those known keeper spots, over and over. I am hoping the new gear will allow me to do some new exploring.

Any expert advice on fine tuning would be greatly appreciated!

 

[imsnookyrd]

I am not sure about Simrad but the Lowrance site has some good videos, should be useful as they are similar units.

[FROZEN]

29 minutes ago, imsnookyrd said:

I am not sure about Simrad but the Lowrance site has some good videos, should be useful as they are similar units.

They are good and they do use the same transducer. My impression is most of their information is all deep water stuff. I went to 50 feet, and everything looked great. In the shallows however, the side scan seems to me to be useless. Do I have the settings wrong? I don’t know. Is CHIRP on auto right for the inshore areas, etc. 

I had a dolphin swim around and under the boat the other day while I was playing with the unit, and I couldn’t tell by the screen if he was there or not! I primarily look for structure, holes, etc. to check out, and I’m having trouble knowing what I’m looking at. 

Maybe I have too much information!

[SSN651]

I don't think you can run chirp and sidescan at the same time. At least, that's the story on my G07 3-1. Also, make sure that the outboard lower unit isn't blocking it. Tilt it out of the way and see if that helps.

Chuck

[Big Dave]

3 hours ago, FROZEN said:

Guys,

I recently upgraded to a Simrad EVO 3 with the new the new Active Imaging 3 in 1 sonar transducer (CHIRP, Downscan, Side Scan). I had no choice as that is now the standard offering from Simrad. (Or I wasn’t smart enough to get a different transducer)

I fish in 3 to 30 feet, vast majority in 3 to 15 feet. I’ve got everything set to the default settings as it came out of the box. Simrad instructions/explanations are poor for average guys like me. Everything works and the images are crisp, clear, and impressive.

Generally speaking, I’m not sure what I’m looking at, or more importantly, how I derive maximum benefit out of this setup. Are there there specific settings for shallow, inshore fishing? Any tips or tricks? I’ve got everything set to auto and or default. I’ve got 800 GPS spots on the machine now and fish those known keeper spots, over and over. I am hoping the new gear will allow me to do some new exploring.

Any expert advice on fine tuning would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Great timing. I too have a EVO3 9".   I ran into a Regional VP at the BWI Airport on Saturday afternoon.  He was doing his expense account.  I saw his business card on his briefcase, and asked if he worked for the company that makes Simrad.  He said yes, and then I said, "well, I have a Simrad NSS EVO3 9"..." and he stood up like he was going to walk away!  Anyway, I pretty much told him the same thing, and suggested they have a great opportunity to do a better job of educating consumers--whether videos, seminars, etc.  He did say that a tackle shop in the Annapolis area does regular seminars that are very well attended.  Seems like a great opportunity for an enterprising person.  

[Coto]

6 hours ago, imsnookyrd said:

I am not sure about Simrad but the Lowrance site has some good videos, should be useful as they are similar units.

This...I have a Lowrance and went to there website which have video describing the different sonar features. It helped me. Simrad should be the same for the most part.

[Coto]

The videos also helped me sync my powerpole and phone.

[SSN651]

One other thing, make sure depth is set to AUTO.

Chuck  😁

[hurricane]

Search on youtube for videos. There are a lot for the Lowrance units, should be close enough to the Simrad.

[triplec]

That transducer is awesome! I run Lowrance but it is the same transducer, processor and functionality. I love it for shallow water. Or less than 30 feet. Granted if its so shallow the redfish are backing it won't help much but for ICW structure the sidescan is on point. When the tarpon stack up on our bridges its a beautiful thing! That dolphin should have lit up the screen. The default has to be tinkered with for shallow. Gain and range especially. The Simrad is their deep water offering and usually sends more power to the transducer. Even Lowrance has to be turned down a bit. The bass boys fish shallow and use side, down and 2d simultaneously all the time. Somewhere I have a screen shot of mine all running. Peruse the Lowrance You Tube and look at Jacob Scotts tutorials. It will help.  I like running the 2d and down scan in the center screen and split the side scan with the left on left side of screen and right side scan of course on right side if searching. Helps me make sense quicker. The left pic is everything and FMT chart running for reference. The center and right are with how I set up for searching. If your engine is interfering with it, the picture changes dramatically so its obvious. The engine creates that faint shadow you can see on side scan in the first pic. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZb7GU4O2J4

 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4kbIE7jCRk&t=131s

 

 

Also Justin Russell is a set up expert. His channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh0rZawIoN9uFklx6eLKXXQ/videos

Some of my screen shots while trying to figure it out:

 

[FINCHASER]

Not sure what aspect you are asking assistance on (2d sonar or side scan etc) but in those depths your 2d should do fine in auto mode. 

For 2D sonar-  CHIRP allows you to either run it in a "normal" mode which scans the entire frequency range the ducer is made for OR you can a specific frequency out of that same range. for example my airmar B150m works in the range of 95-155khz so it can scan that entire range and display all that info or it can be set to on single frequency.  For what I do offshore ive found setting it to 155khz gives me the results I want as Im usually focused on bottom structure or marking fish as the higher the frequency the better the detail especially on the bottom, in normal mode you'll see alot more info on the screen but it can get to cluttered (kinda like having sensitivity to high).  Other than that most of these units come with the color scale set to dark IMO on lowrance its called color line, the palette I use has red as the strongest return color... on the default setting the red is actually maroon I back it down until its more of a blood red but leaving as is is comparable to having sensitivity to high.

Structure scan-  Ive found the most useful adjustment is the range to high and it will compress the image to low and itll stretch it (distort it) either way unless the result is poor image or missing small structure.  Adjusting this is trial and error but a good thing to do is find some clear water with some type of structure that you can see from the boat (this will give you a sense of its scale and shape) make passes by it on different ranges until the shape and scale looks good on the machine.  Frequency is another key adjustment.... 30-40 ft or less run it on high (usually 800khz) deeper than that run it on low (455khz).

Some examples below.

pic 1 & 2 are the same area but to get better detail I turned off the left side beam which vasty increases the amount of pixels available to display that section of the bottom which vastly increases detail (this is where adjusting range helps).  There are 2 bull sharks in both pics but as you can see its way easier to see whats going on in the 2nd one.  The circles mark the actual shark and the arrows point to the shadow it casts on the bottom (think of your sonar beams as light instead of sound... kinda the same principal)

Pic 3- shows the difference of running CHIRP in normal or single frequency, left side is on normal right is on 155khz

Pic 4-  This shows having scale right thru the right range limit based on depth..... the "ripples" are the ridges in the sand bottom, top right shows a depression with hard pack sand (darker color) and a rock on the edge of the reef as well as the school of jacks.

Pic 5-  marking fish in shallow water... this is a spot I do well trolling for snook....when I see this I know they are there and its not long before the plug gets nailed.

 

[smilemaker]

Although  lowrance and simrad are close to the same there are small differences within each line. The Go7 will not due all that the top of the line will do but the top of the line simrad will be close to top of the line simrad with the exception of the new live options which will  require an add on module at sometime. This can be confusing so always pay attention to the model.

[FROZEN]

WOW........Great responses! I really appreciate you guys giving me a place to start, both on the internet and in the water. Like Triplec, I originally bought this setup for the FMT capabilities. I fish Homosassa and Crystal River areas, and vast areas are un-fishable for people who haven’t lived there for 20 years. FMT changed that for me!

Now that I can get to those areas safely w/ FMT, I can make progress on the fish finder end! Can’t wait to to get it dialed in.

I’ll keep all posted!

Thanks again!

[Vaca Cut]

FROZEN, did you say the FMT chip covers the Homosassa and crystal River waters in detail? 

[FROZEN]

Vaca Cut,

The NFL chip sure does! I go fishing with a couple of guys that have been here for 20 years. They took me so many places in the last 4 years, all along telling me “ stay away from that side”, and “don’t run that on a winter low”, and so on. Scared me to death! AND I couldn’t remember any of it. However, the more I ran alone, the better I got, but no where near their level. I really believe this area is the second most challenging area to run in the state. SF Keys is no.1.

My Garmin bit the dust, so I went for Simrad and FMT, after riding with another guy who had both. For me.....game changer!

Getting to the St Martin keys, and the Chassa is (was) intimidating for me. Now I can get there, get to the end of the red tracks, put the TM down, and go to many many places. My buddies above even learned a couple short cuts they never tried.

I guess it all depends on your skill level, though. For some one who has fished there a lot for a lot of years, you won’t find many new routes. For someone who is new to the area, just visiting, and/or unsure of navigating there, it will give you a lot more confidence to explore safely.

Glen’s NEW video on his web site is very representative of what you will get. It actually two videos, and he does a tour of the CHASS, CR, and Homosassa areas at the beginning of the part 2 video. Watch it and decide for yourself. If you’ve been to, and are comfortable running, everywhere he describes/demonstrates, you probably don’t need it.

If you live in the area, PM me, and we can look at mine in the lift if you would like. I’m out of town this week, but will return next week.

Hope this helps!

[JakeK]

On 8/19/2019 at 12:31 PM, Big Dave said:

 

Great timing. I too have a EVO3 9".   I ran into a Regional VP at the BWI Airport on Saturday afternoon.  He was doing his expense account.  I saw his business card on his briefcase, and asked if he worked for the company that makes Simrad.  He said yes, and then I said, "well, I have a Simrad NSS EVO3 9"..." and he stood up like he was going to walk away!  Anyway, I pretty much told him the same thing, and suggested they have a great opportunity to do a better job of educating consumers--whether videos, seminars, etc.  He did say that a tackle shop in the Annapolis area does regular seminars that are very well attended.  Seems like a great opportunity for an enterprising person.  

 

That's no joke.  I've got a Simrad G07, am a software engineer/robotics engineer, have spent a bit of time playing and testing with the unit, and half of it is still a mystery to me.  There is so little valid operational information out there for the Simrad units.  What I've found so far:

CHIRP; useless for inshore...leave it off.  It basically turns echo locating signal from the transducer from a steady frequency to a range of frequencies that repeat from low to high.  CHIRP can cycle faster than a single frequency ping too so it eliminates a lot of noise...but is mostly useful in deep deep water.  

Bottom Scan; pretty incredible but it's an enigma to me.  While spending an afternoon dedicated to trying to learn the Simrad on my Hewes, I was watching the bottom features and looking for dock anchors in front of my sailing club and I saw a ladder on the bottom in 12' of water, about 30 feet away from shore.  The image had so much detail on it that I could see that it had three broken rungs.  I saw it clear as day.  I've been back through there five times since making multiple overlapping passes back and forth and can't find it again 😠.  I'm dumbfounded.   I've been through areas where I know there is structure and can't find it...then sometimes, BANG there it is.  There is a setting that allows the unit to plot the side scan information overlayed on the navigational screen.  If you zoom in, you can really see the detail.  Problem is, I can't find any meaningful detail...it's just shades of blue trailing out behind my path.  Cool feature though - I will experiment with it some more in the future.

[Bamaskeet]

I’ve been using a Lowrance HDS 12 for awhile.  The bottom scan becomes very useful when the fish are right on the bottom.  When I’m striped bass fishing, the bottom scan shows the difference between brush on the bottom and fish.

When I’m fishing wrecks, it does the same thing.  I can tell what is wreck and what is fish.  The side scan is useful looking under and between docks.  It also works for weed lines and tells me which side of the boat is the main body of fish.

I like to use the side scan when I’m looking for tarpon in between bridge abutments. I can run down the bridge and the side scan shows me which slot has tarpon.

It takes a long time to really know what the machine is telling you.

[FROZEN]

8 hours ago, JakeK said:

There is a setting that allows the unit to plot the side scan information overlayed on the navigational screen.  If you zoom in, you can really see the detail.  Problem is, I can't find any meaningful detail...it's just shades of blue trailing out behind my path.  Cool feature though - I will experiment with it some more in the future.

JakeK,

I have seen that, too! Truthfully, I don’t quite know what it is, how to use it, or how to turn off or on. If you figure it out, please update us!

A side note.....great name, our first grandson, born in April, is named Jake.

M

[FROZEN]

On 9/5/2019 at 8:42 PM, FROZEN said:

I have seen that, too! Truthfully, I don’t quite know what it is, how to use it, or how to turn off or on. If you figure it out, please update us!

JakeK, did you ever find out how to disable the side scan track on the chart page? It’s starting to drive me nuts!

[RCW]

On 9/1/2019 at 2:35 PM, FROZEN said:

Vaca Cut,

The NFL chip sure does! I go fishing with a couple of guys that have been here for 20 years. They took me so many places in the last 4 years, all along telling me “ stay away from that side”, and “don’t run that on a winter low”, and so on. Scared me to death! AND I couldn’t remember any of it. However, the more I ran alone, the better I got, but no where near their level. I really believe this area is the second most challenging area to run in the state. SF Keys is no.1.

My Garmin bit the dust, so I went for Simrad and FMT, after riding with another guy who had both. For me.....game changer!

Getting to the St Martin keys, and the Chassa is (was) intimidating for me. Now I can get there, get to the end of the red tracks, put the TM down, and go to many many places. My buddies above even learned a couple short cuts they never tried.

I guess it all depends on your skill level, though. For some one who has fished there a lot for a lot of years, you won’t find many new routes. For someone who is new to the area, just visiting, and/or unsure of navigating there, it will give you a lot more confidence to explore safely.

Glen’s NEW video on his web site is very representative of what you will get. It actually two videos, and he does a tour of the CHASS, CR, and Homosassa areas at the beginning of the part 2 video. Watch it and decide for yourself. If you’ve been to, and are comfortable running, everywhere he describes/demonstrates, you probably don’t need it.

If you live in the area, PM me, and we can look at mine in the lift if you would like. I’m out of town this week, but will return next week.

Hope this helps!

I too have been using the FMT chip for running Crystal River to Chaz and it has made a big difference and saved me a lot of time getting to some prime fishing spots. Worth every penny in our area. 

[Matt23h]

On 9/1/2019 at 2:35 PM, FROZEN said:

Vaca Cut,

The NFL chip sure does! I go fishing with a couple of guys that have been here for 20 years. They took me so many places in the last 4 years, all along telling me “ stay away from that side”, and “don’t run that on a winter low”, and so on. Scared me to death! AND I couldn’t remember any of it. However, the more I ran alone, the better I got, but no where near their level. I really believe this area is the second most challenging area to run in the state. SF Keys is no.1.

My Garmin bit the dust, so I went for Simrad and FMT, after riding with another guy who had both. For me.....game changer!

Getting to the St Martin keys, and the Chassa is (was) intimidating for me. Now I can get there, get to the end of the red tracks, put the TM down, and go to many many places. My buddies above even learned a couple short cuts they never tried.

I guess it all depends on your skill level, though. For some one who has fished there a lot for a lot of years, you won’t find many new routes. For someone who is new to the area, just visiting, and/or unsure of navigating there, it will give you a lot more confidence to explore safely.

Glen’s NEW video on his web site is very representative of what you will get. It actually two videos, and he does a tour of the CHASS, CR, and Homosassa areas at the beginning of the part 2 video. Watch it and decide for yourself. If you’ve been to, and are comfortable running, everywhere he describes/demonstrates, you probably don’t need it.

If you live in the area, PM me, and we can look at mine in the lift if you would like. I’m out of town this week, but will return next week.

Hope this helps!

Hey frozen if you ever have time I live in Inverness and would love to meet and and have some help with my simrad G09 and time see what this fmt is all about I fish crystal river