Perfect Sounder Reading At 45km/hr

[googarra]

Hi, sorry, not meaning to hijack the original posts

pic of the transducer. The Signature has no ribs for a long way out from the keel and a nice smooth water flow around it. The trans is probably a little deeper than the books would show and the boat is bum heavy and down a long way in the water.

Hull shape plays a big part in how well/fast it will read. I think it would be difficult to get a real good reading at speed on a tinny with ribs all the way to the back.

Attachment 60188

Attachment 60189

Attachment 60190

[NormC]

Thanks for that Googarra.

[ph1]

Hi Googarra,

What model transducer is that? The 83/200 model?

regards,
PH

[Fiction]

yes this exercise is a real pain in the rear. i moved my transducer on the week end as it was mounted directly behind a rib in the hull and when moving showed schools of fish all the time when you pull up nothing i moved it to try and eliminate this i fitted it away from the rib closer to the centre of the hull and guess what yes wont hold the bottom above 15 knots. I have a 542F HAINES SIGNATURE if anyone has any great ideas or advise it would be appreciated getting sick of plugging up holes. Your adjustable bracket sounds great as for my boat the only way to adjust is jump in over the side with a screw driver. I am running a Garmin 178c with dual frequency trransducer and beleive i have mounted as per there recommendations.

[FishHunter]

Fitted a Elite5 as per instructions and I had a perfect picture at 50km/h, never got a chance to test it at higher speed yet but I will soon.
Boat is a Cruise Craft Reef Ranger

[googarra]

Hi

transducer is the standard 83/200 that came with the unit.

[honda900]

Strike it lucky with the best transducer placement and the HDS units can read depth at any speed and a good bottom clarity up to about 60kph
You can still see a reasonable sandy bottom at 72.4kph
Attachment 60101

62.8kph over a reef and it still shows a good bommie with bait fish hanging on it.

Attachment 60102

Approaching 90kph and it loses water clarity with noise but still reads hard and soft bottom

Attachment 60103

The HDS units get a fairly bad rap on the forum for not being able to work properly at speed, or next to no service from Lowrance, but I am lucky to have it set up OK with no problems. Fingers crossed for the future though

Got any photos of it running over 50 meters deep at speed?

Regards
Honda.

[googarra]

Hi

I do not often get to over 50 metres deep as most of the inner reef is around the 30 to 40 metres until about 80 kms out. I have some screen shots at speed in deeper water up to 40 metres. The next time I am out wider I will see what it does, only tried it slow out there.

This is crossing flat ground next to the reef at 64kph

Attachment 62972
Attachment 62973

One of the pictures is crossing a bommie 800 metres round at speed. You can see the blue shaded area on the map. At this speed it displays a sudden rise from 40 metres to 10 metres and back to 40 metres again.

15 kph shows plenty of definition across bommies at depths of 20 metres to 5 metres and back to 20 again.

Attachment 62974

It will hold depth at any speed, 39 metres at 55kph, note the radar showing a ship in the channel about 12 k's away, well before I can see it.

Attachment 62975

Attachment 62976

I am no expert at this, just showing what my setup does.

I just struck it lucky with the unit woking well, where I placed the transducer, and the fact that the hull sits deep in the water (bum heavy boat) and it has no ribs in this area.

I have a Humminbird matrix 97 on the dash beside the HDS and it does ok, but not at these speeds.

Cheers

[fishfeeder]

Googarra,

I have the HDS10 with an Airmar 200kw through hull trans.
Would you beable to post up your head unit setings eg. Sensitivity, Colour line. what chart settings also, as that looks better then having the chart options set to ALL like I am using at the moment (I have a Navionics Platnum+)

Cheers

[honda900]

Googarra,

Thanks, Mine in shallow / calm waters works fine as well, its deep water that breaks it.. Generally running across the bay in calm water its not a problem, offshore, at speed it falls appart.

not great footage but you will get the picture, look for the light brown colour (non existent), dark brown is the sounder filling in the gaps, only when you change over to the old lowrance colours do you get the real picture.

55mtrs, at 30kph

http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...der_issues.mp4


Same transducer, untouched with a furuno 585 v the HDS.. at speed the furuno kills it. at rest, it is a really interesting comparison. hds 50k furuno 200k.

http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...runo_V_HDS.mp4


I am yet to find one HDS owner with a single image of their boat at speed in over 50mtrs of water.

PS I have 2 transducers, both have been reviewed independently by "Quality / reputable" installers, both have come to the same conclusion, that transducer placement (both) are not an issue.

Regards
Honda.

[Captain Seaweed]

Googarra,

Thanks, Mine in shallow / calm waters works fine as well, its deep water that breaks it.. Generally running across the bay in calm water its not a problem, offshore, at speed it falls appart.

not great footage but you will get the picture, look for the light brown colour (non existent), dark brown is the sounder filling in the gaps, only when you change over to the old lowrance colours do you get the real picture.

55mtrs, at 30kph

http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...der_issues.mp4


Same transducer, untouched with a furuno 585 v the HDS.. at speed the furuno kills it. at rest, it is a really interesting comparison. hds 50k furuno 200k.

http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...runo_V_HDS.mp4


I am yet to find one HDS owner with a single image of their boat at speed in over 50mtrs of water.

PS I have 2 transducers, both have been reviewed independently by "Quality / reputable" installers, both have come to the same conclusion, that transducer placement (both) are not an issue.

Regards
Honda.

Hello Honda,
I am running a 1kw transducer and I will give it a go at high speed in deeper water. I too am interested as I havnt really taken it into consideration. However I can travel out to a mark offshore along the way see a school of fish at 30knots , pause the sounder, mark the spot turn around and find the fish there.

Marty

[googarra]

Hi,

I am planning a trip right out as soon as the wind settles so I will try it all out over 50 metres and add to this thread, I dont doubt you, my sounder will probably read the same.. I see what you mean, it breaks up badly.

If I had it over again I would not bother with all the goody bits from Lowrance and go for a quality Furuno sounder plotter, they have the name.

The radar is great because I fish mostly at night and move around a lot, but I could live without it. The side scan is great in shallow and up the rivers but of little use at the reef. Great for finding shipwrecks and pinpointing them, buts lots of money for not a lot really.

Cheers

[Captain Seaweed]

Guys,
On the HDS 10's are you running zoom x whatever or are you running custom scan depths in your close up screen?

Marty

[fishfeeder]

when traveling at speed do you guys up the Ping speed ??
Captain, I use the custom depth most of the time with no zoom and set it to about a 20-30m window . but I am really just starting to work out the settings and need more time on the water trying different setups.

Cheers

[honda900]

googarra,

I have retained the lowrance on my boat for several reasons, all of which is the extended functionality of the unit, engine interface, recording, etc etc.

My only real beef with the HDS unit is that at speed in deep water it breaks up badly.

The furuno, out of the box hooked up to the same transducer as was shown in the video footage, has just worked. at speed in deep water and shallow water.

Now what I havent told you is that the difference between the two units on a drift, are vastly different, I have been meaning to get some footage of it but the fish have been biting.. I have a personal opinion, but will let you all make your own decison on what is best..

The one thing I suggest you all do on your HDS is change the default colour scheme, change it to the old colour scheme and give it a try, as it truly shows you whats going on.

keen to see your pictures.. ps, dont forget most phones with cameras can record video.

Captain Seaweed,

I generally run in either split zoom, or split bottom lock depending on what I am doing.


Fishfeeder,

the ping speed was varied with little change, the one change that did make a difference was enabling one of the filters, however, has a detrimental effect by removing some of the detail, but it helped, hold the bottom.

Regards
Honda.