Recent Lowrance Hds Fish Photos

[CaptainJoe]

Attached are some photos from my Lowrance HDS units. The first and second photo show my spoon being vertically jigged through the fish school. The third photo shows a school of bait fish being pursued. I really like the last photo. It not only demonstrates the Lowrance HDS Quad screen capability, but in the down image, you can clearly see the structure of a tree. In the 2D sonar image, which demonstrates the Down Scan Overlay Feature, you can see the fish (colored arches) in the tree.

[motoman]

Thanks for the screen shots Joe, those are VERY cool! That one of the school of baitfish on the run is awesome!

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But, I have a question that might be a bit off topic. I notice on some of your screen shots, it looks like you may have a bunch of waypoints tightly clustered together in certain areas.

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How do you determine what/where you mark a waypoint?

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I get jazzed up when I catch a fish (sometimes 2) in an area, and want to mark that spot. But, unless I establish a pattern of multiple fish, I don't mark the spot. (I don't want to clutter things up with spots that have not proven to be consistent)

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Although I do return to spots I have caught fish at before, to confirm if they are worthy of a waypoint.

[CaptainJoe]

Thanks for the screen shots Joe, those are VERY cool! That one of the school of baitfish on the run is awesome!

-

But, I have a question that might be a bit off topic. I notice on some of your screen shots, it looks like you may have a bunch of waypoints tightly clustered together in certain areas.

-

How do you determine what/where you mark a waypoint?

-

I get jazzed up when I catch a fish (sometimes 2) in an area, and want to mark that spot. But, unless I establish a pattern of multiple fish, I don't mark the spot. (I don't want to clutter things up with spots that have not proven to be consistent)

-

Although I do return to spots I have caught fish at before, to confirm if they are worthy of a waypoint.

Motoman,

On that particular screen shot, the GPS screen is not zoomed in. In the lower right hand corner, you can see that is set on .1 mile. I should be zoomed in to at least half that much (200' is ok) and the waypoints, of course, would not look so cluttered.

Now, what you see on that shot is two things: The waypoints with the "TR" in front of a number are the MO Dept of Conservation planted brushpile locations I downloaded from their website and loaded into my Lowrance. All other waypoints you see are my personal locations where I have caught a decent keeper. The Red Stop sign was my old system. Below is my new system.

My Lowrance unit can store 5,000 waypoints. So, what I do is setup a file for every lake that I fish. For example, I have a Table Rock Lake file that stores my waypoints, routes, and trails for Table Rock. I have one for the other lakes as well. So, If I plan to go to Bull Shoals, I save my Table Rock Lake file to a SD/MMC card, delete the file from my unit, and then load my Bull Shoals file. Result: Instead of a limit of 5,000 waypoints, I have 5,000 waypoints PER FILE. So, I can have 5,000 Table Rock Lake waypoints and 5,000 Bull Shoals lake waypoints, 5,000 Stockton, etc. So, I have no problem with placing a waypoint where I catch a decent keeper. But, I will not put more than three waypoints on any one spot. Three tells me that it is a good spot.

That's my system.

[Bird Watcher]

Joe,

Thanks for the information and the shots.

I have a question for you...you may or may not be able to help, but I think you probably can.

When I mounted the LSS-1 tranducer, I put it right beside(about 3") from my existing BB transducer. I read in the installation manual to at max have it no more 12" away. Now, it almost seems to me like I am getting too much "feedback" on the BB, because when I overlay downscan on my 2D, the downscan data dominates my display. The only way I can get it to look right is if I set my noise rejection on high, my surface clarity on med. Is that normal? I assume from reading your previous posts that you have yours on your jackplate. Do you have any of these issues? The reason I ask is I think I might move my transducers a little further apart, maybe 5-10" and see if that helps.

[Flippin]

Motoman,

Finally, I make the waypoint on my dash unit one color and the bow unit a different color. Since my units have a GPS antenna built into them, this way I know what unit placed the waypoint. So a green plus sign is my dash unit and a red plus sign is my bow. If I navigate to a green plus sign from the bow, I will subtract about 15' since this is the distance from the bow unit to my dash unit.

That's my system.

Capt Joe,

Help me understand why you are having to subtract the 15'.

Since each unit has it's own antenna and works as an independent GPS, it should take you to the lon/lat cordinates that are marked; regardless of the where the unit is that marked the cordinate. So you should not have to subtract the 15'? In other words, if you give me the cordinates off of your unit I could take my GPS and go right to the that point even though my GPS could be miles from your unit. Since both of your units have their own antennas shouldn't they do the same?

If 2 units are sharing one antenna then that is a horse of different color.

[CaptainJoe]

Joe,

Thanks for the information and the shots.

I have a question for you...you may or may not be able to help, but I think you probably can.

When I mounted the LSS-1 tranducer, I put it right beside(about 3") from my existing BB transducer. I read in the installation manual to at max have it no more 12" away. Now, it almost seems to me like I am getting too much "feedback" on the BB, because when I overlay downscan on my 2D, the downscan data dominates my display. The only way I can get it to look right is if I set my noise rejection on high, my surface clarity on med. Is that normal? I assume from reading your previous posts that you have yours on your jackplate. Do you have any of these issues? The reason I ask is I think I might move my transducers a little further apart, maybe 5-10" and see if that helps.

Chris,

I must be tired, but what is a "BB transducer" and "feedback on the BB." What does "BB" stand for.

No, I am not having that problem. My noise rejection is off and my surface clarity is on low. I would not move the transducers further apart. I have my bow transducers mounted side-by-side on my trolling motor and I am not having any problems with that setup. Your problem is not normal and could be caused by:

1. Your 2D transducer is bad.

2. You are getting interference from some other electrical component in your boat.

If you cannot resolve the problem, you can try two things:

1. If you have a Facebook account, go to the "Lowrance HDS" Group page and post your problem there. There are a few Lowrance Tech Support guys who monitor that page and will try to help you.

2. Call Lowrance Tech Support and talk to them personally.

Here is a link to an OzarkAngelers thread showing my new jackplate installation using the Transducer Shield and Saver Bracket:

ClickHere

I also included a photo of my old jackplate installation using the bracket that came with the LSS-1 and a photo of my trolling motor instaltion using the Transducer Shield and Saver bracket.

Sorry I could not pinpoint your problem exactly.

[Bird Watcher]

Chris,

I must be tired, but what is a "BB transducer" and "feedback on the BB." What does "BB" stand for.

Broad Band. I didn't want to refer to it as "2D" because I think the downscan feature uses this transducer too? I don't know.

Maybe it is being caused by some other electrical noise. I'll try unhooking some stuff to see if it goes away.

Thanks for the input. I'll leave the transducers where they are for now.

[CaptainJoe]

Capt Joe,

Help me understand why you are having to subtract the 15'.

Since each unit has it's own antenna and works as an independent GPS, it should take you to the lon/lat cordinates that are marked; regardless of the where the unit is that marked the cordinate. So you should not have to subtract the 15'? In other words, if you give me the cordinates off of your unit I could take my GPS and go right to the that point even though my GPS could be miles from your unit. Since both of your units have their own antennas shouldn't they do the same?

If 2 units are sharing one antenna then that is a horse of different color.

I am so confused. You are absolutely correct. I stand corrected. Wow, my first mistake this year. If I look at a stored waypoint, as you say, the lon/lat is stored and will show up the same on both units.

I am going to edit my post and take that section out so others won't get confused. They will still see your post and your correction to my mistake, which is ok.

Thanks!

[CaptainJoe]

Broad Band. I didn't want to refer to it as "2D" because I think the downscan feature uses this transducer too? I don't know.

Maybe it is being caused by some other electrical noise. I'll try unhooking some stuff to see if it goes away.

Thanks for the input. I'll leave the transducers where they are for now.

Chris,

I understand. You can call it the LSS Transducer and the skimmer or pod 83/200 transducer is a 2D transducer. And, yes the downscan feature uses the LSS transducer. I had some interference from my trolling motor wires/block being too close to the transducer cables and we (Ulrich Marine) and I separated them and the interference went away. Do you have another unit running? Do you have two LSS-1 units? If you have another non-HDS unit running, it may be causing the interference. Try turning it off. If you have two LSS-1 transducers, you need to have a network cable connecting the two LSS-1 routers together. This will eliminate any interference between the two units.

Good luck

[Bird Watcher]

Chris,

I understand. You can call it the LSS Transducer. And, yes the downscan feature uses the LSS transducer. I had some interference from my trolling motor wires/block being too close to the transducer cables and we (Ulrich Marine) and I separated them and the interference went away. Do you have another unit running? Do you have two LSS-1 units? If you have another non-HDS unit running, it may be causing the interference. Try turning it off. If you have two LSS-1 transducers, you need to have a network cable connecting the two LSS-1 routers together. This will eliminate any interference between the two units.

Good luck

Joe,

I only have the one HDS unit on the transom, but the transducer cables(both of them) run to the console in the same raceway as my ignition cables and the wiring for my console. Is that the type of close proximity you are talking about? If I were to try and isolotae them, how much separation should I try to get from my other wiring? Did you wrap them in some type of insulative material or did you just separate them?

Sorry for the stacking of questions and thanks for the help.