I am new at fishfinders...never had one. Wife got me the above for CHRISTmas. My questions are: My bow is facing toward the shoreline and the stern toward the middle. Standing at bow & looking aft the transducer is on the left. The backend of the transducer faces forward,the face of the transducer faces aft.Fish are being seen on the screen. The image moves from right to left.How can you tell which direction the fish are moving? Where do I drop my bait/lure since they are showing up at various depths? For approx. 2 hrs fish were running 3'-12' and I was using different size minnows. CAUGHT NOTHING.

 AND FINALLY: when trolling/drifting, you come across fish on the screen,do you go over them and fish back or what?

  I know this is elementary to most of you, but I want to make sure I am doing this right.

  Everything else on the FF I understand with no problems.

Thank you in advance and May God Bless You,John Cammer

read here for starters

http://www.fishfinder-store.com/howfifiwo.html

the same kind of thing

http://www.bystore.org/how-fish-finders-work.html

Thank you so much for your quick reply and the informative websites. I learned a lot about how a FF works but honestly the websites didnt answer my questions. I still dont know which direction the fish are swimming,where to drop my bait/lure,etc.

  I dont mean to be a bother, but it is really frustrating to see all those fish pass under the boat and not catch a one of them.

  Again I thank you for the information. May God Bless Your Day, Bass Meister

The fish are located under the transducer.    if a fish show up on the screen it is somewhere within the cone. It is really hard to tell exactly with a 2d fish finder. If you look at those sites they tell you have big of an area  of the bottom you are looking.

If you are in 20 feet of water with a 20 degree cone your depth finder is looking at a circle  6' in diameter. the fish you can see are in the cone. if the fish is at the bottom it is within that 6' circle. if it is in the middle, 10', it is within a 3' circle. all from the center of the transducer.

Another thought,

The right of the fish finder screen is what is under the transducer at that second. as it moves to the left that is what was under the transducer. the slower the scroll speed the farther back what you are looking at is.

If you are sitting still you are always looking at the same spot on the bottom. If you are moving, at all, you are looking at what you past over. A combination of scroll speed and boat speed will dictate how far back you are looking.

Paul,

  Wow!! That was great info. Now I understand what I have been doing wrong. But it still doesnt make sense,as long as I sat there in that one spot,fishing at least in the different ranges that were showing up,offering 2 different size minnows,why at least one of the many fish that passed by,didnt bite. I know that the FF doesnt catch the fish,but obviously, neither does my minnows,lol.

 Anyway, hopefully the FF side of the thing will pay off. As a depth finder,temp,etc. it has proven beneficial.

 Thank you for time. I'm very grateful, John

Just because your fish finder shows fish doesn't mean you will catch them  .  I use my Fish Finder to show me where the fish are hanging out. Then I try fishing those depths.

I usually fish in the local river that averages around 5'. my Fish Finder has a 20 degree cone so I am usually looking at a 1.5' diameter circle. Not much. So I rarely use it to look down in the river. but it does have another transducer that shoots parallel to the water surface. So I use it to look towards the bank as I work the shoreline.