there wern't any fuel, battery, radio or oil dramas

thats all sorted now :D now its work out these bl0ody charts, im planning to go to bcf with a notepad and copy down gps marks from the chartplotters in store... they should have cool stuff to fish pretty obvious hey? like i wanna fish the bombies and holes- i know everyone says they are hammered, but i dont have any other spots.. i think the sounders pretty shit, or else im just over crap ground 99% of the time... :P back to my story.. i want gps co-ords of stuff that sticks up and holes /caves - will i be able to see this stuff on a plotter in bcf?

might be a silly solution but it only took me 1 year of having my boat til Brody from fishing shop told me that i can zoom in on my sounder haha. Makes a huge difference when fishing 30m+. Yesterday helped me heaps nd could see a massive difference from when it was zoomed in to when it wasnt. Keep trying and you will find something soon:)

yer, got the zoom on im pretty sure... but i still havent seen a "bait school"- once or twice a day i will see some blotches.. i cant b that shit at finding fish can i? all the shit reef fish i catch dont show up it just looks like broken ground.. they still sell the soudner at bcf - its pretty shit furuno ls 4100 or something black and white.. it confuses the heck outta me... i guess if i want somethign easy to use its gonna cost $$$$ .. :(

Dwyane,

Fishing is like any other sport or for that matter life in general. The more you put in the more you will get out of it.

You need to use the best tools you can afford, If I had a boat I would make sure that it had the best Sounder and GPS for the job.

Look forward to more of your postings

Keep trying it will all fall into place .takes some years to get into fish.

Hi Hekser

I read your report and can understand your frustration- it takes time to learn to interpret what the sounder is showing. I have copied this article from Furuno - although its talking about colour sounders the idea in tuning your sounder is ultimately the same. Hope it helps- hang in there the greater your experience the easier to interpret. It does talk about the grey scale sounders - your dealing with a quality product from Furuno don't worry about that!

Tuning Furuno Sounders for optimal performance
Furuno sounders have been designed with the best in processing technology, meaning even the weakest signals are able to be
displayed giving users real control on the picture quality in all depths the sounder is capable of. With over 50 years experience in
building commercial grade performance and reliability into sounders and sonars, we will now show you how to make the most of it.
Firstly the sounder will have to be taken out of Auto mode, as we want to now control the gain, clutter and other processing features
available. Here is a list of the features and a short description of their purpose that will be used to provide the best picture.
     Range
•     Range and Shift are the tools required to see depths on the
screen. Essentially as depth changes the range must be
increased or decreased to suit. Shift will allow movement
within selected range scales. As with Furuno sounders
range scales are adjustable, it is preferable to change them
if necessary to suit common bottom fishing depths.
     Gain
•     This is the primary adjustment for sensitivity of the
receiver. As a general rule the greater the depth the higher
the gain setting and visa versa for shallower depths. If
gain is set too low targets will be missed; too high and
the screen will be cluttered and illegible. It is important to
note that increasing gain will not generally increase output
power to the transducer. Most sounders output the same
power regardless of depth.
     Clutter
• Found in the menu, clutter will make the most of Gain
settings by eliminating the blue/yellow interference on
the screen caused by our dense salty waters and turbid
estuaries. It allows Furuno sounders to increase gain well
past that of its competitors whilst maintaining a clean crisp
screen with the best ability to show fish. The higher the
number, the higher the degree of suppression.
     Colour    Erase
• Depending on the model this will be in the menu for
Greyscale, FCV-620 and FCV-585 models and on the
keypad for FCV-600L and FCV-582L models. Similar in
effect to clutter however it removes a level of signal from
the processor so it is not displayed. Particularly useful
for erasing weak echoes that are not required, Colour
sounders have 16 or 8 levels depending on Hue choice
whilst Greyscale have 4.
     TVG    (Time    Varied    Gain)
• In Greyscale sounders this is referred to as Deep Gain, and
is under the menu key. FCV-600L and FCV-582L sounders
have the TVG adjustment in the setup menu, whilst the
FCV-1100L has it via the rotary knob on the keypad. The
plotter/sounder combo’s have it in the sounder setup
menu’s. TVG compensates for propagation attenuation
of the sound waves reflected. Essentially it will equalize
echo presentation throughout the water column so that
targets of the same size appear in the same density in
both shallow and deep water. It also reduces the effects of
surface noise on the screen.
Tuning    Guidelines
So how do the Commercial/Charter and Sport fishing communities get the best out of their Furuno sounders, we will give up
the process involved keeping in mind it is applicable to all Furuno sounders.
1. Travel out to a common fishing ground and once drifting or anchored take the unit out of AUTO mode and have the
display in Normal mode on 200 kHz. Now adjust range scale to get the bottom echo in the lower 2/3rds of the screen. As
discussed if this is not possible due to the gap in a preset ranges adjust them to suit. Settings will more than likely be less
than appropriate so don’t worry too much about the picture quality.
2. Now bring the Clutter and Signal level/Colour Erase back to their lowest setting or OFF for the Greyscale units. Notice the
picture is still viewable on the right hand side of the screen to observe adjustments. At this point the advantages of Clutter
and Signal level/Colour Erase are not being employed and essentially the quality of picture is directly related to the Gain
level selected.
3. Adjust gain now back to its lowest setting and notice how weak the picture is (Even a powerful 600W RMS unit will
demonstrate just how much amplification is involved in producing an ideal picture)! Increase it now to the point where
clutter begins to occupy the screen. This is the point we want to focus on tuning, NOT reducing the Gain as with our
competitors. Furuno’s processing technology will now remove the unwanted interference whilst providing superior target
detection and deep water performance with the next steps.
4. Access CLUTTER through the menu and increase it incrementally observing changes in the picture on the right of screen.
For the majority of bottom fisherman the point at which to stop is when the interference is all but cleared except for a light
scattering of the weakest levels of signal.
5. Now increase the SIGNAL LEVEL/COLOUR ERASE in the same manner to clear the light scattering of interference and
produce a perfectly tuned picture for that depth. Note: Increasing signal level/Colour Erase will make detection of prawn/
cuttlefish etc difficult as they fall in the weaker signal groups.
6. So with the tuning done it is simply a case of changing range scales and increasing or decreasing gain to suit depth. Now
that fish and fish schools are easy to identify experiment with the TVG or DEEP GAIN settings increasing them to observe
changes in the upper water column on the screen.
The Furuno colour LCD sounders will respond best to tuning however good results can be achieved with the Greyscale range.
Especially when operating at the limits of their respective fish finding ranges this process will show more targets and allow
deeper performance capability.
Combined with Furuno’s SALT water designed transmit/receive circuitry and ability to sustain RMS output power in deep water
this is why Furuno have won more awards for sounders and sonar than any other company in the market place today. 
Shane    Beardmore

ta Perry, ill read all that :D

Hey Hekser what are you hauling your boat with? You should try out of ledge if you have a 4wd or Two rocks. Just a thought not as hammered.

Hey Hekser what are you hauling your boat with? You should try out of ledge if you have a 4wd or Two rocks. Just a thought not as hammered.

not the best for towing an 18ft boat but i gotta get it in teh water somehow ;L

Nothing wrong with the magna mate. My 99 magna beast lugs my 5.4m tub around no hassles. I sometimes tow it from east freo to Mindarie to launch.  No one is likely to steal the piece of crap either; lots of nice new 4X4's at the ramp for that.

 well you got the boat sorted out finally. now to find the fish. it took us ages to find some decent fish holding ground and we still struggle to get a great feed when we go out there. on occasions we fluke the bigguns but you gotta be happy just getting out there enjoying it. a few fish are just a bonus.your best bet atm would be to look for pots out there and mark the area on the gps, fish it and see what is around , just be  careful not to hook a pot rope, if you do  and your line breaks , make sure you put a tag or tie a bit of cloth onto the rope near the bouys

 Good to hear you got in and out without drama!! 
As Paul said, it will all fall into place eventually, it is an apprenticeship out here and you have to do your time. 
Keep an eye out for pro pots and fish those areas, you are bound to come across some fish eventually.