Lowrance Sonar

[steelfire]

Looking for a little advice. I currently have a Lowrance lcx112 80/200 transducer. It works great. I can watch all 4 of my down rigger weights on the screen and see fish shoot up thru them while trolling.  My question is, does anyone run the newer Lowrance units, like the HDS Gen3?? Are you able to track your down rigger weights down deep during summer salmon season? I'm trying to decide if its worth updating to the newer HDS units or not. I know the newer lake maps are suppose to be spectacular on the newer HDS units . Any info is greatly appreciated!!

[Sk8man]

I don't have the HDS new gen units but I can offer a little advice regarding the sonar functioning. I believe that the lower range of your transducer is 83 khz rather than 80. I have the Elite7 HDI (Down imaging unit 83/200) with mapping. If you are marking all your downriggers  fine as well as fish you are already a step ahead of a lot of folks . My hunch is that you are running the unit at 83 khz when that happens too. There is a different cone angle associated with each of those frequencies with the narrower being the 200 khz which is best generally for shallower water situations. While the 83 khz may mark the downriggers OK at some depths often they go out of the cone when speed is increased above a certain level and/or if say on the 200 khz setting they will go outside the cone more quickly the higher up the riggers are set. Many factors affect the display of riggers, boat speed, underwater currents, the weight of the downrigger weight and "blow back" etc. For deeper water situations high quality 50 khz transducers (e.g. Airmar model matched to your unit) can be superior marking both fish and the riggers. Recently  CHIRP transducers/units have come to the fore as they combine a series or increased range frequencies which basically enhances the detail and vertical cone coverage of the signal giving "clearer" returning information such as separation of fish from bait etc. This is where the new units excel.  The mapping programs are especially good for unfamiliar bodies of water but for regularly fished familiar places I rely more on my own cognitive maps after years of fishing the spots .  Depth finders aren't magical devices... they are primarily "tools" for assessing relationships between bottom structure, the water column features and presence or absence  of bait and/or fish. Learning to use them properly takes time and experience once they are properly set up on the boat. Whether an "enhanced" mapping program added to your unit is worth the financial investment when you already are apparently able to display the most critical data elements seems a matter of choice as it is regarding the issue of the enhanced data from a new CHIRP unit and may also depend on your usual fishing situations (e.g. do you routinely fish unfamiliar lakes or spots or not). I realize you may already know these things but I was taking the opportunity to give folks new to this something to think about before either selecting a unit or upgrading.

Edited January 1, 2016 by Sk8man

[Andre wallyandre]

YSk8man has done a excellent post. With the new Lowrance Generation you have the CHIRP function that is a major improvement for detecting fish and baitfish. If you don't need to network multiple unit you can get the new Elite 7Ti with the HDI transducer or if you think you can use the structure and sidescan you then choose the new Totalscan transducer. The Elite run for around 600-700$ so if you think the 7 is to small you can get 2. You are getting touch screen,2D, downscan with the HDI ducer,2D,CHIRP and if you choose the Totalscan you got all this + sidescan, WIFI, Bluetooth,NMEA2000 and you can also buy the bundle that include a Navionics+ for about $50 more on a card that is selling $200. 

 

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Products/elite-ti/

 

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Search/?query=totalscan

Edited January 1, 2016 by wallyandre

[steelfire]

Thanks for all the great info guys. Its greatly appreciated. SK8MAN, my transducer is 50/200 kHz. You are correct that I can only see my down rigger weights when I am running the 50 kHz transducer. the 200 is for shallow water. I usually only run the 50khz transducer when trolling for salmon. I have been reading up on the chirp technology and I think for right now, I'm getting the same sonar returns as I would with a newer HD unit. I see the fish and I even catch some of them so why change whats  been working for me.  thanks again for the info guys.

[steelfire]

My sonar while fishing for Browns this spring on Lake Ontario.

Edited January 2, 2016 by steelfire

[Sk8man]

You're very welcome steelfire. Best of luck during the upcoming season.

[BAITNH]

Sk8man  is right on  with his post    I am running gen2 touch that is quite satisfactory for me  I did  add the  autopilot   and sure am glad that I did that. just like  another guy  in the boat.. You know  2015 summer  was tough  fishing I didn't get a chance  to come back in the fall from what I hear im glad that I didn't.  I choose to chase  Bluefin  instead  with my son  who  is addicted   to it and managed   to go enough times  to be on board  for  5 of the 6 fish he  got.

[steelfire]

You made the right choice to go after Tuna.  We did great the two weeks we were up out of Fairhaven in July.  I fished a week straight the last week of August out in front of Oswego and it SUCKED!!  I think we landed 6 fish all week. The Charter fleet was struggling as well.

 What auto pilot did you buy to hook up with your Lawrence?? How much was it?. I have been looking for an auto pilot.

[Andre wallyandre]

The LCX series and specially those big units were and still excellent unit.

[BAITNH]

I got  the lowrance unit that just came out last spring  995.00   I really like it so far  it  helped  us  get quite a few fish  in July  the zig zag  trolling  pattern   @75 ft   worked great for us  It was easy to install  and commission once they got  the  touch  software. 

 Not a lot to do this winter  without snow and ice , already got the  tuna gear all gone through and just   ordered a couple  80/130  trident  rods  from Reel Easy   ,now    just figured out tonite  first trip to Fair Haven  will be April  16th  to 30th  also going  to do the last 2 weeks of July  again and then all tuna  from there on my kid is building quite a boat fund with some help from last winters snow.  Lets  hope 2016  is better  than 15 , although a bad year on the big O  is better  that  a great year  on any water  we have   here  in NH

[steelfire]

Very true. You can't beat lady O. We will be up the last two weeks of July again. I'm sure we will run into each other again. Thanks for the info.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Xxx]

Les is right on track with his info. I would like to add on the Elite units with down scan, I have the 83/200 but the down scan is 455/800 which I find myself using, I mainly fish for eyes therefore I can see the bottom "rocky bottom or drop offs" it also shows my rigger weights but not my baits as I run to long of leads for any sonar to pick up. I just thought I'd throw that out there also. Good luck with your decision. PAP

[alex1young]

I just bought an HDS 7 G2 Touch and am tempted to buy the structure scan transducer. Anyone use this setup for trolling and what are your thoughts?

[CaptDennis]

I run the hds gen3 and love it. I had the structure scan but took it off not much structure where I fish on lake o. I use a thru hull 50/200 and run another hds of a 50/200 off the transom keeping both set on different frequencies. The one on 50 gives great detail while the 200 lets me track my downrigger weights. I'm thinking about changing to one of the lowrance chirp transducer. Has anyone tried them? Is there an advantage to using their chirp transducer vs just chirping with a normal 50/200 transducer?

[Sk8man]

I don't have one of those units but I believe the Gen 3 unit is capable of CHIRP So if you add the CHIRP transducer you should get increased detail regarding target identification and separation because of the enhanced extended frequencies. My understanding is that you have to have the CHIRP transducer to be able to do it vs. the standard transducer which just has the two frequencies and not the extended ones and that you can't get CHIRP by just adding that CHIRP transducer to a non-CHIRP unit. I'm a little surprised that you report better detail on the 50 khz vs. the 200 khz although transducer type and specific placement differences may be a factor. The 50/200 khz transducer is actually supposedly optimized for deep sea/coastal salt water applications while the 83/200 khz transducers are the freshwater optimized ones.

Edited January 3, 2016 by Sk8man

[Andre wallyandre]

Even the regular Lowrance transducer can be use on CHIRP and it gives excellent result. The specific transducer for CHIRP is the TM150 and he is superior. Last season I use CHIRP all the time and on most of the case I use the Medium frquency; I was using the regular 83/200 HST-WSBL.

Next season I will be using the TM150 with my Gen3.

For those that want to get everything without the networking high end of the HDS you can get the new Elite7 Ti Touch screen with the new Totalscan transducer: CHIRP, Structurescan,wifi,bluetooth and more at a very affordable price (around $750)

[CaptDennis]

I went with the 50/200 because once I would get over 300ft I would lose track of bottom. I use the same unit with 83/200 kHz and it is more detailed and gives me wider image but on Lake Ontario I spend a lot of time over 300ft. Thanks for the advice I'm going to switch to a TM 150 I heard the chirp is great for identifying fish in real tight to bait schools

[bigwalleye]

I thought I'd bring this topic/post back to life since there's so much good information here, and to post my own question about dialing in my Lowrance HDS Gen 2.

 

So far I've been able to catch a few fish, but I haven't marked a lot of fish, or bait, for that matter.  I honestly can't recall my Lowrance settings as I type this, but I can say that I have been able to mark my downrigger down to about 65 feet, but at 100 feet down I did not mark them, which makes sense based on that depth, cone angle, blow back (which was significant).

 

Last trip out I felt it was dialed in a bit better, but if anyone had their general settings for a Lowrance HDS Gen 2 I'd appreciate it.  I do have the 12'' long transducer, whichever one that is! This is first time I've had any of these fancy touch screen Lowrance units on this my new to me (used) boat.

[finn]

I have a couple 7 inch newer tripleshot units and they are junk,on my 3rd transducer now,at 140 bucks a pop,ill never buy Lowrance again.try going with the 200 hertz tranducer setting and bump the gain up to 3/4 or more and turn up the noise control to clean up the screen,sometimes going to 2x zoom will help also.

 

[Fishmaster 196]

I can take a look when I get home and let you know my settings although I dont have the totalscan transducer. I have a gen 2 with the. 83/200 transducer.

Sent from my LM-G820 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Fishmaster 196]

There are my settings

Sent from my LM-G820 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[bigwalleye]

hey, thanks a bunch for that Fishmaster 196, I'll give them a try! I've got a date with a king outta the Oak not this weekend but the weekend after (7/17-7/19)

[finn]

that looks good,try  boosting the sensitivity up to 4 and put the surface clearity up to max clear.if too much clutter put the noise rejection on high also.using the 2x zoom helps also when the fish are deep.

[dbitting]

I use the HDS 9 Dual screen with an 83/200HD  and a total scan transducer.My setup y has the capability to connect up 4 transducers, however currently i only use two and mosty this year the side and downscan 455KHZ I can say when you learn how to set up the SS/DS and get to know how to use it. fish finding has a whole new meaning. as mentioned th 50,83 and 200 have a cone that projects out and gets larger as you get deeper, however the 455/800 SS and DI create a SLICE behind your boat  to the left and right of the stern creating a picture of the water column and the bottom. When ou find something  like bate or marks you simply touch it press the flag and create WP. for me i then create a rout and use my autopilot to troll wher i think the fish are. Lowrance has a new LIVE IMAGE transducer but it is pricey $999 i think it is.