Fish Locator

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ajohnston

Seaman
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
71
I have a 22 foot pontoon, and i am having problems to get the fish locator to work at high speed, transducer mounted to rear of right side pontoon, works fine at slow speed, i have tried various adjustments and nothing seems to work,<br />ANY SUGGESTIONS<br /><br />THANKS
 
JB

JB

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
45,907
Re: Fish Locator

Howdy, AJohnston. Is your fish finder by any chance a Hummingbird? If so, it is behaving normally.<br /><br />If it is a Lowrance or an Eagle you may have the Xducer mounted where it has to try to see through air or bubbles when you are going fast.<br /><br />If neither of the above, please tell us what make and model finder you have.<br /><br />Red sky at night. . .<br />JB :)
 
D

DJ

Guest
Re: Fish Locator

J.B.'s right as usual. If it's a H'Bird, you'll have a tougher time getting it to read.<br /><br />Pontoons throw out alot of "dirty" water behind the logs. Make sure your transducer is lower than the lowest point of the log.
 
A

ajohnston

Seaman
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
71
Re: Fish Locator

This is a Humingbird wide 100 would at least get it to work at 10 miles per hour
 
C

Case

Cadet
Joined
Nov 17, 2001
Messages
25
Re: Fish Locator

Captain JB, ETAL, are correct. My Humminbird only works at a fast idle. Any more speed than that, and its always 246 feet deep and there are monsters down there :eek: <br /><br />Always a good idea to have a depth chart, but wouldn't stake my life on one of those either ;-P.<br /><br />Case
 
12Footer

12Footer

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
8,217
Re: Fish Locator

12Footer's 12Footer is Humminbird Wide100-equipped. It only werks at speeds less than 5MPH. And before it gets posted, I have tried moving the ducer to all points possable, and that's the best it will do in clear freshwater. Salt, it simply wont track bottom.<br />And this gives me another chance to thank JB for the Eagle. Now THAT is a fishfindin fool! Thanks, JB.
 
JB

JB

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
45,907
Re: Fish Locator

I guess that's it, AJohnston. H'birds are notorious for losing bottom as soon as you come off of idle. I don't know what to do to make them work properly, and as you can see above neither do a lot of other experienced boaters.<br /><br />Even the entry level, $99 Eagles work better.<br /><br />Sorry we don't have better news.<br /><br />Red sky at night. . .<br />JB :)
 
B

BUCK N DI

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Feb 12, 2002
Messages
43
Re: Fish Locator

JB<br />Could you give me some ideas on which Eagle to get? Also would appreciate any other info on Eagle from personal experiences.<br />Thanks, BUCK
 
JB

JB

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
45,907
Re: Fish Locator

Howdy, Buck 'n' Di.<br /><br />I have used the baseline Eagle, the FishEasy, and got good performance with a small screen and coarse resolution.<br /><br />I have also used three different versions of the Eagle Ultra. Lots of neat features, bigger screen and finer resolution. Great performance.<br /><br />I currently have a Lowrance X65 on my Montauk and an Interphase Sea Scout scanning sonar for my Outrage. I haven't used the Interphase yet.<br /><br />The X65 has a nice big screen and fine resolution, plus a lot of features.<br /><br />You can get detailed info on the Lowrance site. You can spend $100 or $2000 on a Lowrance/Eagle sonar. You will get your money worth.<br /><br />Many offshore salt water anglers swear by the expensive Furuno color units.<br /><br />Red sky at night.. .<br />JB :)
 
R

rigerman

Recruit
Joined
Nov 15, 2001
Messages
5
Re: Fish Locator

BUCK N DI, I purchased an Eagle, I believe the FishID128 about 4 years ago. Cost me less than $100. Was less expensive than a digital depth finder. I'm not a fishing person, so I use the fish finder/depth finder to give me an idea of the bottom contour. Seems to work fine from zero to 45 mph. Between 45 & 55 it's questionable. picture is a little grainy. For the price and what I use it for it works great.
 
P

Pursuit2150

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Dec 3, 2001
Messages
553
Re: Fish Locator

My 2$. relocate it so that it does not see too much turbulance,or even worse,bubbles. Even the best don't like it and will give you a false or bad reading.
 
F

Franki

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Feb 16, 2002
Messages
1,059
Re: Fish Locator

lol, I have a Wide 100 as well, and I am having the same problem,,,<br /><br />If its anywhere near an outboard or Sterndrive, move it, put it to the far outside of the pontoon,, I had mine working fine and then I decided I wanted it closer to the V, since then I have had nothing but problems.. so I am moving it back out again.<br /><br />at one stage I had it working at flatout speeds and it was fine, then I moved it, (the pickup of course) and since then I get unpredictable results, at some speeds i was finding that it only picked up if the nose was down, and others the opposite, (for example if stationary, the back needed to be down for it to read.)<br /><br />The tips in the manual for this, (I still have the box and manual) states that it should be mounted on the back, in the least turbulant area you can find, and at least 40 centermeters (about 18 inches) from any prop.<br /><br />The manual suggests getting the boat(or whatever) up to speed and look for the least turbulant area at the back.. mount it there, low as possible (it should be 3 to 6mm below the bottom of the hull) and pointing straight down.<br /><br />before you give up on the wide 100, just try moving the transducer away from turbulance and as low as you can put it.<br /><br />One other suggestion they made was to mount the transducer inside the boat (if its fiberglass) and use epoxy to glue it hard to the bottom of the hull.)<br /><br />mine was working fine at 25miles, so it can be done,, and you already have it.. so try that first.<br /><br />One last thing to mention that the manual suggests.<br />"If the unit functions well at low speeds, but begins to skip or miss the bottom at higher speeds, the transducer installation requires adjustment. It is often necessary to make several incremental transducer adjustments before optimium high-speed performance is achieved." "Align the transducer angle parallel to the boat hull and adjust the transducer body so that it is 3-6mm beneath the hull of the boat."<br /><br />hope that helps..<br /><br />good luck.<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />Frank<br /><br />PS, although I had mine working, I wish I had bought a better unit. (this was more expensive then several others that I found after buying this one.. :-( i am mostly disappointed with the resolution.
 
C

Chum Slick

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
116
Re: Fish Locator

I have a 20' SandPiper Pontoon with a 70 Johnson. I mounted my Eagle Ultra Classic on the motor mount transom and it works like a charm up to 35 mph. Don't know if will track at faster speeds mounted there; That's all I can get out of my toon. If you mount transducer to back of toons even the Eagles won't work as effeciently but better than the H'Birds. I have an Eagle mounted on my 18' Thunderbird and it will track depth up to 65 mph.
 
A

ajohnston

Seaman
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
71
Re: Fish Locator

I got disguested and sent it back to alabama with instructions to fix or refund my money since it was in under warrenty. Will keep you posted. This was the 2nd unit that i had from them.
 
M

MURX

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Messages
117
F

Forktail

Ensign
Joined
Feb 11, 2002
Messages
977
Re: Fish Locator

I've had bad luck with two different Humminturds. Same problem.<br /><br />Eagle and Lowrence work great.
 
M

mike b.

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jan 28, 2002
Messages
37
Re: Fish Locator

Nobody has seemed to noticed that this is normal for a wide 100 hummingbird.I had a wide 100 on my first boat and it stopped reading any speed past idle. It doent matter where its at on the transom or bottom.I now have another boat and I purchased a 200dx hummingbird(next model up).It reads to about 45 mph on my boat.The difference is the 200 comes with a high speed transducer which is visibly larger than the one on the 100.The 200 is $30-40 more than the 100 and has plug ins for temp,speed sensors.The Eagle 128 cost about the same as the 100 and comes with the high speed transducer.I called around alot and every dealer/store recommened the Hummingbird for reliability over Eagle.The stores did handle both brands and told me customers had to return Eagle all the time.If you want to spend less than $150 and have all the features you want get the 200dx Hummingbird.
 
P

pchieco

Recruit
Joined
Mar 3, 2002
Messages
2
Re: Fish Locator

I have a 300TX Humminbird and have had the same problem. These units are very sensitive to voltage fluctuations. I installed a SUREVOLT Marine Power Stabilizer and it solved the problem. They are on clearance from Humminbird if your interested. Regular price is 69.95 for 19.95. Good luck <br /> http://www.humminbird.com
 
A

ajohnston

Seaman
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
71
Re: Fish Locator

Up date to all that give me advice, received an email today stating that the small size transducer was hard to mount in a location to get it to work at high speed. They stated they had a larger sixe that works good and they was going to mail it too me so will let you know how it works. <br />Thanks to all who replied.
 
M

mike b.

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Jan 28, 2002
Messages
37
Re: Fish Locator

Ajohnson that was what I was saying.The the larger transducer is a high speed transducer and comes standard on all models above the 100.That will solve your problem.
 
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