sonar/downriggers??

[seapro]

do most of you have your fish finder transducer ajusted to show your downrigger wt./spoons-plugs on the sonar screen??? if so ,what are the pros-cons to this? i guess this is just a change in the angle of the transducer?? i use a raymarine DS 500 X-MAG 10A cannon riggers.

[LongLine]

So I see some marks on the screen at 70 ft down & I start thinking: Are the fish directly under the boat? Hmmm…They might be at the edge of the cone and really be only at 65 Ft down. Hmmm…But I want the ball just a little higher than the fish. Should I let my weight down till the counter says 62 ft? Hmmm…But I have to let out more due to blowback….But…my cannon ball tracks deeper than my fish weight so I better bring it up a couple feet. On the other hand, I’ve only got 100 ft of cable on the rigger so with the smaller diameter spool; I better let out a couple feet more because I know my counter is going to be off. But if I’m heading East, I’m going into the general current so I may have underwater blowback that I can’t see and so I better let it down a couple feet….Hmmm…on the other hand…..

Obviously after I couple hours of this, I start thinking: If only I had changed the angle of the transducer a little so I could see the ball, I could of “bounced the ball†right off the fishes head and concentrated more on lure presentation (color, size, etc) than where I was going to set the rigger.

HIH

Welcome to the board

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[skipper19]

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13879

My post with pics shows the Raymarine you have that is on my boat. The transducer is even with the bottom of the hull...flat at the transom just off the keel...not angled at all. I have it set on 50kz and the straight line tracking at 13 ft is one of the balls running straight off the center rigger. The counter reads 13 ft on the scotty rigger. The arches at the bottom are salmon stacked outside the port breakwall. I usually can track the balls 10 lb down to 70 feet at 2.5 to 2.7 gps while in the 50 kz mode. I like the raymarine pretty good..its a new addition this past couple months

Mark

[tree top flyer]

Long line is right on the money. I have a 700 series humminbird that flush mountes would track a ball about 50 ft down. So i tilted it a little and now it always tracks them. Mabie it throws off the true depth a little more but its def a advantage