Help reading Lowrance Mark 4 GPS

[dbarnett66]

Sorry for the poor photo quality. I week before I fished at Lake Sutherland and the unit performed like I thought it would. Everything was set to factory default. When I was at El Capitan Lake this last week, I was getting a lot of this:

http://dbarnett.smugmug.com/Other/Kyak-Stuff/i-rPnm7q6/0/XL/CA_04091322345460-XL.jpg

What are your opinions? I tried a factory reset and the same artifacts occurred. Do I need to adjust settings for different lakes? Thanks in advance.

Danodog

[Dannowar]

pic isnt showing up

[Drake]

Damn that's a lot of fish! :D:D:D

[salty pirate]

pic is blury. is the ff new? is this the first time it has looked like this? run the ff in the sim mode. you can adjust settings till you like how it looks. if every thing looks good there it could be the transducer. hard to tell from the pic.

here is what mine looks like.

[Southman]

Salty,
What'd you do, drop your transducer in an aquarium? My FF has never seen that many fish. I want to fish with you cowboy.

[Honcho]

Salty,
What'd you do, drop your transducer in an aquarium? My FF has never seen that many fish. I want to fish with you cowboy.

Man, what FF do you have, that is incredibly clear!

[StinkyMatt]

Dbarnett,

Those marks look like extreme snag points, rocks and underwater explosives.
Do NOT fish that area again or something bad might happen. Better yet, send me the exact location of this "dead zone" so I can warn others about it.



Seriously, those are likely fish marks you are showing. Sometimes they may look like long horizontal lines, angled lines or wiggly worms on your screen. Only under certain situations will they look like perfect little arches.

[dbarnett66]

Thanks for the replies. I tried taking the photo with my iPhone and it had a heck of a time focusing. I will try the sim mode and play with options. I temporarily used the Fish ID feature and it cleared things up tremendously. Only showed 1 or 2 small fish icons. Since I run a water pump for my bait tank, I was thinking that there might have been interference. Not sure of that theory since I thought about it after I got home.

[salty pirate]

Thanks for the replies. I tried taking the photo with my iPhone and it had a heck of a time focusing. I will try the sim mode and play with options. I temporarily used the Fish ID feature and it cleared things up tremendously. Only showed 1 or 2 small fish icons. Since I run a water pump for my bait tank, I was thinking that there might have been interference. Not sure of that theory since I thought about it after I got home.

fish id is no good.
i leave noise off on my ff. sometimes it helps to go back to the factory defaults then adjust from there.

[salty pirate]

Salty,
What'd you do, drop your transducer in an aquarium? My FF has never seen that many fish. I want to fish with you cowboy.

that would have been vail lake 2 weeks ago. it looks like that every where on that lake.


honch, its elite-7 hdi

[FishNinjaY]

honch, its elite-7 hdi

lol... :luxhello: happy birthday to me

[JrBasser]

Looks like a school of yellowtail underneath you ;) And it looks like you're about to get bit.

If it's constant, change your settings. On a lake it's easy to get closer than you would on the ocean. You may not be "too close" respect wise, but you could be picking up interference from another boat's fish finder. If your beams cross, it would show diagonal lines like yours is displaying.

The pump could also cause the disturbance but only if it's super close to the transducer. Make sure nothing is aft of the transducer. I try to keep mine mounted as far back as I can. It could also be your paddle turbulence.

[dbarnett66]

Thanks all. I will experiment some more. I have to admit that I don't know what I am looking at unless it is bottom structure. I like the look of the color unit posted. Will the spending ever stop? :eek:

[packeryakker]

fish id is no good.
i leave noise off on my ff. sometimes it helps to go back to the factory defaults then adjust from there.

I have the same FF and sometimes get some odd lines as well. I usually turn it off and back on and it clears up...or.. go in to your sonar menu and choose a preset value shallow water for instance and then switch back to your regular settings and it may help.

[Honcho]

lol... :luxhello: happy birthday to me

nice - Happy Birthday Doc.

[Honcho]

that would have been vail lake 2 weeks ago. it looks like that every where on that lake.


honch, its elite-7 hdi


Salty Pirate - I bought the unit about month ago and still playing with it. What setting do you normally have it when fishing La Jolla and/or Mission bay? The manual was saying something about fresh water setting if it is less than 1000 ft :confused: - I did buy the 50/200 ducer and really liking it...also can you tell the difference between the 80 vs 50 around the bay area?

[FishNinjaY]

Salty Pirate - I bought the unit about month ago and still playing with it. What setting do you normally have it when fishing La Jolla and/or Mission bay? The manual was saying something about fresh water setting if it is less than 1000 ft :confused: - I did buy the 50/200 ducer and really liking it...also can you tell the difference between the 80 vs 50 around the bay area?

I was wondering the same. I had read that the 50/200 is better, but looking at the specs, it sounds like the 83/200 is good out to 1,000ft, and the 50/200 is good out to 2,500 ft. So I was wondering if the image quality was somehow different between the two 'ducers at the depths we are usually kayaking (all less than 1,000ft). If the image quality is same, then I'm assuming you wouldn't see a diff between the 50 and the 83 until you get out to waters deeper than 1,000... right? Anyways, I'm excited to try my new fishfinder when I get back in town. :luxhello:

[salty pirate]

Salty Pirate - I bought the unit about month ago and still playing with it. What setting do you normally have it when fishing La Jolla and/or Mission bay? The manual was saying something about fresh water setting if it is less than 1000 ft :confused: - I did buy the 50/200 ducer and really liking it...also can you tell the difference between the 80 vs 50 around the bay area?

no issues with the 83khz. i can see my every section on my squid ganion at 120ft. crosing over the canyon the pic is very clear. 83/200 should be good to 1000ft.

yep I leave mine on the fw setting as per instruction. I just learned how to save screen shots. next time im at lj ill get some pics so you have somthing to compare.

[FishNinjaY]

Salty Pirate, Honcho,

I'm figuring out how to set up mine. I'll PM you guys so this isn't a total thread hijack! :doh:

BUT... I overheard somewhere that the HDI transducer is not going to be optimal mounting thru-hull (goop-mount).. I'm looking at either the RAM or the Mad Frog Gear Liberator Mini transducer mount arms.

Ok... thanks guys.
-J