Trolling sonar

[traymond34]

Looking for advice on upgrading my sonar for my boat. Trolling for salmon and lakers. I have Lawrence hds7.gen 1. I’m leaning towards tamarins 3d. Any input would be helpful. Thanks

[finsntins]

All you need for trolling is a basic 50-200 khz sonar.absolutely no need for down scan side scan 3-d non-sense,all that stuff is for bass and walleye guys.make sure which ever brand you go with,you can manually adjust things like screen speed,sensitivity,gain,power,and ping speed.all these adjustments you want to be able to fine tune and not just run them in “auto tune” mode.300-600 watts of power is all you need for power,absolutely no need for 1k watts.probably most importantly,is the proper transducer,I only will run airmar transducer,so make sure you pair the correct airmar ducer to what ever sonar unit you purchase and a transom mount is all you need,don’t waste your money on a thru hull. I run all si tex sonars on both my boats,but I have been on boats that run Garmin,lowrance,and furuno and they all worked fine.just my 2 cents

[Digitroll Fishing]

I agree Jason. I still use my Gen 2 HDS 7 since 2015. 83 kHz setting. If you have the settings dialed in you can see quite a bit. Actually I have had no interest in replacing it. I have been on many other boats and the newer stuff is nice but I still like my old school 2D sonar. If it dies I will try a new HDS unit in a 7" screen and still use the 2D option. The new high frequency screens to me look like an x ray.

[finsntins]

It’s true ron,there’s lots of captains on Ontario that are still running their furuno that are 20+ years old cause they are perfect for trolling. I bought a boat years ago that came with a lowrance hook 4,100 dollar unit and it worked awesome!!!!! I forgot that lowrance runs 83 khz for low frequency,which is perfectly fine.another point I forgot to make is you want to run your sonar in high frequency,200 khz when running or trolling inside 30 fow and when trolling outside of 30 fow you want to be in low frequency 50 or 83,when running you should never lose bottom in high frequency, if you do,the angle of your ducer or the height is not right. I can read fish and bait when running at 30 mph on both my boats with a transom mount ducer.

[traymond34]

Thanks for all the advice. I always run my hds on 50khz. When I try 200KHZ it shows fish everywhere. 50 shows my downriggers weights , depending on the current and depths below 50’.

[finsntins]

If your machine has fish id make sure that is turned off,if it is showing to much clutter on 200,then you need to adjust power,sensitivity or gain ,but like I said before, should only use high frequency for when you are running or trolling inside 30 fow

[finsntins]

Also,you should never lose tracking your rigger weights,if you do that means you’re going to fast or you need to change direction to compensate for current.when you get your machine dialed in properly for your boat and gear your sonar will be more accurate than your fishhawk. Don’t even have a fishhawk on my small boat and very rarely ever turn on my fishhawk on my big boat,just use my sonar,rigger cables and diver rods to get the right speed.

[Mistress]

Totally agree Jason! I keep my fish machine dialed in to see my rigger weights and that is all I need. I do however keep my setting on fish ID so I can tell when to change from salmon lures to white perch lures. I think Matt B is still trying to figure out my means and methods

[traymond34]

I mainly fish down by Westport and we catch fish pretty consistently until mid august. We could a few really nice salmon this year. I just wanted to get a better view of fish on the bottom. My kids love catching bigger lakers dragging or trolling close to bottom. I’ll probably stick to lowrance. One other question- I swapped downriggers last year and my mag 10s have wire. I caught significantly more lakers on braid. However the braid also catches fleas. Anyone prefer braid over wire?

[finsntins]

Nothing wrong with lowrance, I have only had the hook 4,which was an awesome cheap little unit,but have no other experience with lowrance, I can’t recommend which unit to get if you are looking to buy a new unit.never ran braid,never will cause i like to hear my cables humming,tells me IM going to fast.neither will catch you more fish over the other,run what ever works best for you.if you were dragging bottom for lakers with the braid and then went to cable,chances are you weren’t catching as many with the wire cause of the blow back,you were probably to far off the bottom,just a thought?

[Mistress]

Since we are on the fish finder topic I have a question, has anyone had problems with their electronics off Split Rock between the ball grabber and the 85’ contour? I have had to restart my Lowrance at least 5 times this past year when going over that area. My screen locks up and goes partially black, some Bermuda Triangle stuff!!!

[finsntins]

Chances are pat,it’s happening from the bottom coming up to fast for the internal processor to keep up and it’s causing the machine to have a”brain fart”ive had it happen numerous times on the Adirondack lakes with steep ledges. Also happens on Ontario when going over massive bait balls that are up high,they will screw up the machine and make it look like you’re in 30 fow when you know you’re in 100.sometimes you can turn your gain/sensitivity all the way down and it will clear it up,otherwise,like you said,have to turn the machine off so it resets itself.

[Mistress]

That makes total sense Jason now that I think about it, and tid bits of info like this is why I love this forum! As I said earlier I'm a set it and forget it keep it simple electronics guy and when things go sideways all I know how to do is kill the power and restart which is why my wife won't let me anywhere near either of her computers

[traymond34]

I’m leaning towards a in hull transducer. I keep my boat in the water at a slip and I believe it will last longer. I’ve had two fall apart, I believe from being constantly in water. Any thoughts? Thanks again

[finsntins]

Absolutely do not get shoot thru transducer,you will not be happy with it,transducers are made to be in the water!!! I Keep my boat in a slip for 7 months a year and have never had one fall apart,I’ve hit things and have broken them and Ive had muskrats chew through the ducer cable,but never seen one fall apart.there must have been a reason why they fell apart,something had to hit it? You want to buy an airmar transducer,they are the best in the business,just make sure you buy the correct one to match whatever sonar unit you buy