Fish Finders ?????

[georged2]

No idea if its a wide angle. It's the standard skimmer that you get when you ask for a 50/200

[frozenpod]

The only reason I ask is the wide angles can have issues if they are too close to the motor.

[georged2]

Tested the new transom mount today, only lost the bottom once and that was when I was doing above 30 knots. So I assume it's installed correct.

At say 15 knots, will the transducer still pick up fish as archers with of course the sensitivity adjusted

[frozenpod]

Due to loosing bottom once I would lower the transducer a touch if you can.

At 15 knots you will still pick up fish but it depends on the fish size is it a single fish or a school ect.

Arches is dependent on the transducers, good sounders and transducers will show most fish as blobs not arches.

You should also see bottom structures ie thickness of the bottom on the sounder well at speed.

[georged2]

Thanks frozenpod. good advise.

[Bartnmax]

A thru-hull transducer will allow you to generally use a higher power (wattage) transducer than is usually possible with a transom mount (higher power usually means larger transponder & you can only hang so much tranducer weight on a transom mount).
Having said that a properly set up HDS should still allow you to sound successfully at speed.
I have a HDS7 with 600 watt 50/200Hz transom mount & I can sound clearly when travelling at 20 knots no worries.
There is a 1KW transom mount transucer available for the HDS but they are a bit pricey.

A lot of the success in using your sounder is in setting it up properly & learning to interpret what your seeing.
Many people just want to stick it on auto & expect it to show you how many scales the fish has on each side.
It don't work that way.
Settings need to be changed to optimise readings under certain conditions.
The setting I use for sounding at 20 knots are very different to what I'll use when sounding at say 2-5 knots.
Calm, clear water - diff'rent to choppy, murky water, etc.
Even from person to person ypou may have to change the settings to suit.
I like a certain colour pattern on my HDS7 but a mate of mine uses his HDS10 with a completely diff'rent colour scheme coz he finds it easier to see.

You need to learn to adjust the settings for the various conditions under which yer using your sounder.
You also need to remember that sounders of various makes don't necessarilly show things the same way.
Some show great arches, some show various coloured blobs.
Don't expect to see tha same picture on a HDS as you may see on a Furuno.
You need to learn to read & adjust your HDS.

The HDS also has the advantage of being able to use side/down scan which is basically a mush higher frequency B&W singal.
Normal shallow water transponder signal (say for PPB) would be 200 Hz. Side/down scan uses (I think froim memory) around 800 hz, but only B&W.

One thing I would think very seriously about is getting in touch with either Matt Cini, Charlie Micallef, or Gawaine Blake to arrange a guided fishing charter out in your own boat.
These guys can show you how to best setup, use & read your sounder when fishing.

One very helpful exercise is to try the ol' '2 pound tennis ball' trick.
Drop a line with weight at bottom & loops at 1 meter intervals over the side.
Attach a tennis ball to the loops & drive over it watching your sounder.
The tennis ball will simulate a typical 2 pound fish so you'll get a good idea of what it looks like on yer sounder.
Try it with the ball at different depths to get a better understanding of what yer looking at.

[georged2]

I've got the sounder working a treat now, I'm always adjusting the sensitivity to get the best picture.

I do like the idea of the tennis ball trick, I may try that

[Bartnmax]

I've got the sounder working a treat now, I'm always adjusting the sensitivity to get the best picture.

I do like the idea of the tennis ball trick, I may try that

One thing you want to get used to IMO is tuning the sounder to the depth your fishing.
Many people leave it on auto & waste much of their screen space looking at interference within the first meter or two of the surface plus a couple of meters of bottom.

One way of getting a better picture is to just zoom in, but what then happens is that any objects also get distorted and can be hard to read.

A much better method is to tune the scope to the depth your actually trying to sound.
If your looking for say snapper in 20 meters of water then that top 5 meters below the surface aint gonna show you nothing. Snapper aren't generally found near the surface. They're generally on the bottom, often within the bottom 5-10 meters. So what ya really want to do is use the whole of the screen looking at that bottom 10 or so meters rather than only having 1/2 the screen to see it. So, if I were sounding for snapper in say 20 meters I'd have the range set from say 8 or 9 meters to 21 meters. The whole screen is then just looking at the bottom 10-13 meters & you'll find you'll get a lot better resolution & find it much easier to read.
There have been times when I've even gone further & set the limits from 15 meterds to 21 meters so I was usiung the entire screen to look at just that bottom 6 meters. Really shows the snapper up briliantly.

To do that with a HDS, with thre sounde page selected you need to then select 'menu' & then go to 'range'.
Scroll down through the various ranges that are available until you get to the bottom. Then select 'custom'.
From here a window will open where you can plug in the top & bottom limits to fine tune your sounder between whatever depth you want.

Just remember to get out of it when moving off.
I came back in to port one day having forgotten to do so & wondered why my sounder wouldn't show me the 1-4 meters of water in the channel near the boat ramp - top limit had been set on 10+ meters - Doh!.

[frozenpod]

Bottom lock showing the bottom 5-10m is very handy when looking at bottom fish.

I normally use the split screen with 50/200Hz showing the full range in less than 20m then switch over to bottom lock and single frequency in deeper water.

You should be able to see baits being dropped down on your sounder, pending on the wind and current the anchor as well.

[Bartnmax]

Top tip mate.
Forgot that one