Sounders - Minimum Depth

[cehart]

A while ago I was looking at buying a LS 410 mono sounder only to find that the specs had a minimum depth of 2m. Did speak to the agent who confirmed that signal degrades significantly in depths under 2m.

Given that the majority of fishing that I do is under 10m and a lot in under 2m which of the current crop of sounders would give a decent image at under this depth.

Most give a maximum depth but not minimum.

[Moonlighter]

I've used Lowrance and Eagle sounders for years, currently have a HDS5. In shallow water I find with the HDS that I need to turn the sensitivity well down in very shallow water, when I do that. the picture is fine.

I would think that a HDS or one of the Lowrance Elite range would so the job for you fine. I'm pretty sure there is a monochrome unit in the Elite range. But the colour version may not be much more, and is much much nicer!

Cheers

ML

[leelee]

What type of structure are you trying to sound in <2m? Would you not be able to see it in clear/clearish water?

Cheers

Lee

[cehart]

What type of structure are you trying to sound in <2m? Would you not be able to see it in clear/clearish water?

Cheers

Lee

The original was a general question given that I did not want to buy a unit and have it not work under 2.0m but in answer to yours, I fish the Port River and at times you can't see anything just below and no hope at 2.0 m.

Cheers

[leelee]

Thats cool, was just after a reasoning as its not a common question and can certainly see why you need it.

Most will read below 2m but you will need to manually switch the sensitivity to be really low which may defeat the purpose to begin with, because the lower sensitivity may not pick up what you are looking for.

Cheers

Lee

[oldboot]

It occurs to me that there are practical limits, and accuracy issues with all sounders when the water gets realy shallow.


The beam will start to get realy narrow,

there will be stutter with the sound waves bouncing between the bottom and the bottom of the boat.

and there will be issues with not seeing things you think you should.

Both sounders I have used..garmin and eagle.......both had serious accuracy problems under 2 meters.

Get down to 1 meter and I doubt can not rely on any sounnder......better with a stick.

Maybe this supplier is being honest in its specification.

cheers

[davo]

I asked similar questions about shallow performance but was met with a blank stare. Fact is try navigating in shallow water in a narrow gutter at night. The Furuno's were not reknown for shallow work due to their high power but last year I barra fished with a mate who ran a FCV620. He used it on his big boat and also had a spare transducer setup for the punt. It worked a treat. The unit ran up to 1 foot and back without an issue.