Sonar, trouble shooting.

[carl]

Hope you guys are up on your electronics. I have relatively good unit for the price, Eagle 480. Gives a good readout. Problem is the lag time between pinpointing an object and the graph displaying it. An ex-Navy sonar friend thinks without seeing the units specs. (can't find the manual) that the cold water may be having some effect. The settings are: ping rate-high, sensetivity-high, chart speed -high. When idliling over an object it doesn't show up on the desplay until I've gone 30 or 40 feet. Any suggestions on what's wrong? Is that normal? Do higher priced units have a shorter lag time? Thanks, Carl

[RNE]

That does seem a little slow for that particular unit.

How deep is the water you're reading? Deeper water will slow the return/refresh rate down quite a bit on the lower power sonars. Cold water actually increases sensitivity, it being denser, sound waves travel faster.

More info, is the transducar transom mounted?

Have you tried turning your engine and all other electrical equipment off to make sure it isn't an interferance problem?

On thing, if I remember right that unit has Auto-suppression enabled by default, in fact I'm not sure you can disable it.

All sonars lag to some extent, some more than others, depends on the electronics and how sophisticated the software is.

If you want "real-time" ... flasher, end of discussion for consumer Sonar.

My Lowrance 350, which is nearly a museum piece by todays standards, lags about 15 feet behind the transducer in 30 feet of water. Don't forget where the 'ducer is mounted.

The X-75's and 52' I install now are about three to five feet faster.

[carl]

the transducer is mounted on the transom, and I was indeed marking structure in the 30 foot range. Thanks for the info, I'm on my way out, I'll let you know. Carl

[carl]

Must have been some abnormality, or just me screwing up again. Today I was marking fish about 5 to 10 feet behind me. I worked the area for several hours finding enough fish to feed NYC, bites? 2 six inch bass. I used every suggestion on the board,zip. The 2 little bites came on a chartruse curly tail on a drop shot rig. Water still cold at 42. Bait fish and bass suspened on sharp drop offs. I'm getten real tired of not catching any of these prespawners. Carl

[RNE]

Glad the locator decided to do the right thing Carl.

Let's see, very cold water temps, suspended fish and baitfish off points. (how high in the water column?)

If they're relating closely to the bottom I have had some luck with jigging spoons and (very) slow rolled spinnerbaits, some use a "Little George" style of tail spinner with some success. I haven't had much luck with the tail spinners myself.

But when the fish suspend four of feet off the bottom? I don't have a clue.

This particular scenario gives me the willies, I've never figured out a consistant pattern with this condition. Tried all manner of presentations, with no clear winner.

In fact, often when I run into this I come back to the ramp empty handed. Or go find something else that might bite better, quite often to the dismay of the Crappie.

Richard.