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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote winzurf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: humminbird m97 combo finder
    Posted: 15 May 2009 at 3:03pm
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Does anyone own one of these or have any experience with them
i have had one in my boat for a couple of years and came new with my buccaneer

over the 2 years i have owned it i have yet to see any sign of fish on the sounder - ie fish "arches"

it has had a stack of use,  with fishing most weekends, and have caught plenty of fish

i have assed around with the settings and sensitivity while at anchor and drifting

so if you have one of these and know any tricks or feedback would be most appreciated before i pull it out and upgrade
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote MR D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 May 2009 at 7:37pm
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First off I don't have any experience with your unit but have had a look on line and it looks like a good unit.
To get fish arches you have to a few things right.

1. use the fastest chart speed your unit has. this has no bearing on boat speed just how fast you unit up dates the screen. Slow speed= flat arches high speed=better arches.

2. Your boat will have to be moving for fish arches to form if you are anchored over a school of fish you will just get a series of lines on your screen.

3. You will have to up your gain or sensitivity manually usually quite high.

4. To get a perfect fish arch you transducer has to be level which it rarely is with the boat moving up and down on swells etc.

So to top it all off in NZ you won't get perfect fish arches very often more likely 1/2 arches or squiggles or in the case of snapper little flecks just of the bottom.

some links for you to read:-

GC-Fishing

Sonar Tutorial
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote winzurf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2009 at 7:51am
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thanks for that
already got screen speen on max and gain at max - or just under depending on interference

will keep running with it and tweaking for a bit - but have been out on a couple of bigger boats with furuno/lowrance units that seem to work a hell of a lot better than my existing
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote tobez Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 May 2009 at 4:53pm
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i have been thru about 1000 pictures trying to find the shots i took of the m97 on a bunch of school fish in the gulf..dammed if i can find it on the other 2000 pics..but sounds like you got issues amtey. ..i would suggest you do a factory reset of the unit and then start again..something just aint right
Waikato North Harbourmaster...Got a Nav Safety question for the Waikato region?...call me 021705642 or download the app Marine Mate!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Raptor 650 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 May 2009 at 11:08am
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I have one of these units for 2 years and so does my father in his boat. I have found it to be great with absolutely no problems  detecting fish. With use I can now pretty much confidently tell the difference between schools of snapper and terakihi on the bottom.A good way of testing your would be to cruise over and through a school of kahawai or trevally and you should see a series of arches  or elongated blobs (angled backwards or forwards depending on just how level your tranducer is) with red colouration( ie high density)in the center which you get with a decent sized fish.If your not getting this there may be a problem with the transducer positioning or possibly the tansducer is stuffed. . Have you got the original manual if not I can copy mine and send it on to you to.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Dead Ant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 May 2009 at 9:24pm
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or try here http://store.humminbird.com/download.ep?file=matrix97_gps_chartplotter.pdf

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Phecda Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 May 2009 at 4:50pm
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It's not quite clear to me whether you see anything at all mid-water, or do you just mean you dont see "fish arches" ?
 
"Fish arches" are a characteristic of lower sounder frequency, usually 50khz or in your case 83khz. On the 200khz setting you wouldn't see arches (or the tail ends would be severely reduced), because those arches are a characteristic of the wide beam of 50/83khz.
 
Anyway, have you tried, or can you try, setting it to the other frequency, or dual-frequency or something. On the 200khz setting you should see dots, blobs, lines or at least something representing fish. But not "fish arches".
 
I dont have a humminbird Embarrassed, though sonar is sonar Tongue.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote firecat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 May 2009 at 3:09pm
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Very interested in the info contained in this 'post' as I am struggling a bit to get a grip on the functions of the Matrix 97 combo that I've got in Firecat.
Have not been out and about much to give it a real class room type run down and this I feel is what gives me the @#$%s with it.
I've got 'Weather sense' 'Smart cast' and some other doo dats as well.
Originally had a huge transducer from my 'stolen' 900 seriesAngry (930 actually) but changed over to the supplied dual freq tranny as speed dipped out over 20kts. Now speed is fine but still waiting on a good fish show to cement my confidence in the 97.
Seen lots of fluff and high red areas that have produced fish from the bottom  so depth and actual fish find seems OK.
Just have to use it more and get used to the functions as written up as a 'Mickey Mouse' sounder combo.

Keep the info and comments coming as I too need tuition.

Regards Steve.
go the multies,twice the expence but ah thats fishing A bit of a "Rebel"
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Phecda Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 May 2009 at 6:09pm
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All I can suggest, is that it's very worthwhile to give up fishing for a few hours when out in realistic conditions, snuggle up with your manual and pretend it's an exciting book. With video LOL. Yup, go through each available setting in turn and set it to min and max to see what it actually does. This way, I found (just for example) my Furuno could go way-deeper than expected by adjusting the bottom-detection "volume". At one stage, my PC was giving interference lines on the screen, and I could eliminate that (with loss-of-depth). Anyway, things like that.
 
When all else fails, press "Factory Reset" LOL
 
Seriously, you have to play with every setting. After a few months, I can't remember what I bloody did either...
 
As far as I can tell, Matrix 97 is quite a nice unit. I had a humminbird GPS for many years, came with the boat, only gave it up coz it had some Y2K issues.
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