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This will make it difficult or impossible to pick it up on the display. You may find it difficult to mark
your jig in shallow water, or when it is just below the ice. See the section on shallow water fishing
for more info.
The MarCum Digital Sonar has sensitivity that will enable it to display the smallest ice jigs, as
well as sinkers and swivels. The target separation of the Digital Sonar is down to 3/4". This
means that two objects that are more than 3/4" apart can show as two separate signals on your
display. If you have a strike and fail to hook the fish, you can even determine if you still have bait
on your jig, or if you have to reel up and re-bait based upon how the signal appears.
Dead Zone
– All sonar units will have a dead zone in certain circumstances. This occurs on
sharp drop-offs where the transmit beam (cone) hits the shallower edge of the drop-off and
returns before the deeper edge returns. This in effect creates an undisplayed area between the
shallower and deeper water within the transmit beam. The 8-degree transducer option on the
Digital Sonar will greatly reduce this effect.
HOW TO DECIDE WHICH CONFIGURATION TO USE
With 5 different sonar windows, along with a plethora of other settings, it can be hard to decide
on which one to display. If you have used traditional mechanical flashers in the past, you may
like the familiarity of the Digital Sonar’s flasher display. The flasher displayed with one or more of
the vertical displays is likely to be how most anglers use the Digital Sonar, at least for starters.
We get endless feedback on how well the scrolling graph display works for ice fishing, so be
sure to give it a try. Be sure to experiment with different color palettes and backgrounds, too. You
can have up to three windows displayed at once.
CIRCULAR [FLASHER] DISPLAY
— This Sonar window will read much like a traditional
Flasher-style display. You can set the range manually or allow the Auto Range or Dynamic Depth
interface to automatically lock into a RANGE that will optimize the use of the circular display.
Signals are displayed as various colored lines on the dial, and the different colors represent
different signal strengths.
VERTICAL DISPLAYS
— These Sonar windows are very easy to interpret— top is the top;
bottom is the bottom. Anything in between the top and bottom is weeds, fish, or your lure. There
are two different Vertical displays—one shows the entire water column, one shows your ZOOM
window. On each one, signals are displayed as various colored lines on the column, and the
different colors represent different signal strengths.
SCROLLING GRAPH (CHART) DISPLAYS
— These windows will show not only what is
happening below you in real time but will also enable the user to have a “history” of what has
happened. While most commonly used for open water, many anglers are discovering the
benefits of using a graph on the ice. The Marcum Digital Sonar stands apart from other graphs in
that it displays with ultra-fast “True-Time” sonar response – less than .02 seconds between the
echo reaching the transducer and when the signal appears on the LCD screen. Other graphs
experience a much longer response time. When used from a boat in open water, the user will
see signals displayed in classic “graph” fashion; the bottom will be a solid band, and fish or other
objects display as “arches”.
When used from a stationary position, such as ice fishing, the bottom will display as a solid
band, but other signals, like fish or your jig, will display as lines of varying thickness. Always
remember that the thicker the band, the stronger the signal. A large fish is likely to display as a
fairly thick band, while a small ice jig will show as a very fine line. The best way to learn how to
interpret signals on the graph is to have it displayed along with the circular or vertical display.
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