Fish/depth finder help

[ebennett21]

Hey y'all,

I just recently bought a little 16 ft. aluminum jon boat and my buddy gave me an old fishfinder that he had. It is a Humminbird 575. I'm not quite sure that it is working right though... The way the transducer is mounted on the transom, I believe it might be upside down. I get readings in places where I can see/touch the bottom with my rod that I know are shallow, but the depthfinder tells me I'm near 40 feet or 60 feet and it just tells me I am at super deep depths. There is a little silver circle on the actual transducer, right now It is facing up. Does it need to be mounted the other way? Could an upside-down transducer throw off the readings? PLEASE HELP!!!

Thank you,
-Ethan

 

[River_Lizard]

Re: Fish/depth finder help

Not sure what happened but I posted to this.......but guess I will try it one more time...

If you're in really shallow water the transducer signal with cause weird readings but that's usually only when you're less than a foot of water. If the mounting bracket is angled up from the transducer head than it would mean it's mounted correct because the bracket is designed to break away and swing upward if you hit something at slow speeds (note...it doesn't always work at high speeds and can cause damage to the unit or bracket). In reverse if you hit something with the transducer something will be damaged, usually it's the bracket that will break (I've broke one).
Some transducers are curved on the topside but all transducers that I've seen are flat on the bottom side. I have seen and had 1 transducer that had a cream colored circle like the silver circle you're talking about I think, on the bottom of the transducer, this is where the beam is sent out from and read. Another way to determine (without a photo) is if the cord/wire is going into the transducer either in the top front or the center top of the transducer, if the wire is coming in from the bottom then it's mounted upside down.
A photo would be worth a million right about now....we could resolve this by just seeing one clear photo of your transducer and mount.