Recording and Sharing Sonar Screenshots

Sonar screenshots are some of the most useful — and most underused — features on modern fish finders. A quick screenshot captures a moment of sonar data that you can study later at home, share with a fishing buddy for advice on interpretation, post to forums or social media, or simply archive as a record of structure and fish marks you want to revisit.

Every major fish finder brand supports some form of screen capture, though the method varies. This guide covers how to capture screenshots on Garmin, Lowrance, and Humminbird units, how to manage and share the saved files, and why building a library of sonar captures makes you a better angler over time.

Why Save Sonar Screenshots

On the water, you're processing information in real time — steering the boat, managing your line, interpreting the display. It's easy to miss details that become obvious when you study the same sonar image later, at home, without the time pressure of active fishing.

Saved screenshots let you review fish marks and structure at your own pace. You might notice baitfish clouds you didn't register during the trip, identify the exact depth where fish were stacking, or spot a subtle contour change that explains why one spot produced and another didn't. Over seasons, a library of screenshots from the same lake builds a visual history of how fish positioning changes with water temperature, time of year, and water level.

Screenshots are also invaluable for getting help with interpretation. If you're not sure what you're seeing on your display, a screenshot posted to a fishing forum or shared with an experienced angler gets you a specific answer based on your actual sonar data — far more useful than a verbal description.

How to Capture Screenshots by Brand

Garmin

On ECHOMAP and GPSMAP series units, press the HOME button and the POWER button simultaneously. The screen briefly flashes, confirming the capture. Screenshots save to the microSD card in .png format, organized in a screenshots folder. If no microSD card is installed, the screenshot saves to internal memory on units that support it — but internal storage is limited, so using an SD card is recommended for regular screenshot use.

On Garmin Striker series (which lack expandable storage on some models), screenshot capability is more limited. Check your specific model's documentation for supported methods.

Lowrance

On HDS and Elite series, press the POWER/LIGHT button once to bring up the power menu, then select the screenshot option (camera icon). The screenshot saves to the microSD card. On touchscreen models, you can also access the screenshot function through the Settings menu. HDS Pro models support higher-resolution screen captures than older units.

Lowrance also offers sonar recording — the unit saves raw sonar data (not just a static image) that can be played back later on the unit itself or in Lowrance's desktop software. This is more data-intensive than a simple screenshot but captures the full sonar log for a period, allowing you to scroll through it as if you were back on the water.

Humminbird

On HELIX, SOLIX, APEX, and XPLORE units, press the MARK button (or designated capture button) to save a screenshot. The image saves to the microSD card. Humminbird also supports sonar recording for later playback — similar to Lowrance's recording feature — which saves the raw sonar data log to the SD card.

Humminbird's Autochart and Autochart Pro features also record sonar data for map creation, so if you're running Autochart, your sonar data is being logged continuously. Screenshots supplement this by capturing specific moments for visual reference.

Managing Your Screenshot Library

After a fishing trip, remove the microSD card and copy the screenshot files to your computer, phone, or cloud storage. Rename files with the date, lake name, and a brief description — a folder full of files named "screenshot_001.png" through "screenshot_247.png" becomes useless quickly. A naming convention like "2026-07-04_Lake-Erie_thermocline-18ft.png" makes each image findable later.

Organize by lake, season, and year. A folder structure like "Lake Erie / Summer 2026" keeps your library manageable as it grows. Over time, you'll build a visual atlas of your home waters that reveals patterns invisible during individual trips.

Sharing Sonar Data

For forum posts and social media, standard .png screenshots work perfectly. Crop the image to highlight the relevant sonar feature and add brief annotation (depth, location, what you were targeting) so viewers have context.

For sharing with a guide, tournament partner, or mentor who wants to review your actual sonar recordings, the raw sonar log files can be transferred via SD card or cloud storage. Lowrance's sonar recording files are playable in their desktop software; Humminbird's recordings play back on the unit or in HumminbirdPC. Garmin's Quickdraw data can be shared through the Quickdraw Community for mapping purposes.