Fish finder question - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Dirty Curti · 08-11-2015, 02:45 PM

I have the Lowrance Elite-4x DSI and it, for the most part, seems like a pretty good unit. BUT... I never see the palagics on the monitor. I see the floor, I see bait fish, I see weeds but never any big fish. So my question is

WHY?

cell128 · 08-11-2015, 02:53 PM

I'm not a pro with those units but my boat came with an elite 4. I threw my dragonfly and am running both at the moment one for nav and the dragon for sonar. I tried both on sonar for the heck of it. Can't see anything on elite besides the bottom when the dragon showing structure and fish clearly. The settings need to be adjusted on the elite I'm not sure what people run them at maybe someone will chime in

chris138 · 08-11-2015, 04:25 PM

Is your transducer shooting through the hull, or is it submerged in the water?

Dirty Curti · 08-12-2015, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris138

Is your transducer shooting through the hull, or is it submerged in the water?

It's mounted inside the hull. But if it picks up bait fish why wouldn't it pick up the good ones?

surfisher · 08-12-2015, 03:58 PM

Mine took a little bit to dial in right ... although I'm still not sure it's correct. I do see solid arches and I believe they are YT or some big fish. The only time I know for sure is when I have one on the end of my line and I can see how deep it is still .... other than that it's a total guessing game for me as well.

ful-rac · 08-12-2015, 04:36 PM

Reading a fishfinder is all about interpretation...the more you go fishing and use your fishfinder, and catch what your seeing the more you should be able to discern what is what on your fishfinder. Will you be 100% correct in being able to tell what everything on your fishfinder is all the time...not likely.

chris138 · 08-13-2015, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirty Curti

It's mounted inside the hull. But if it picks up bait fish why wouldn't it pick up the good ones?

Maybe you're only marking a small percentage of whats really there. Unless you have the transducer submerged in water inside the hull, these smaller units don't have enough power to shoot through the hull very well in my experience.

chris138 · 08-13-2015, 04:16 PM

Here's a school of yellowfin on my elite 4x HDI...

Fishin' Magician · 08-12-2015, 04:28 PM

I have the Lowrance Elite 4 HDI and while I like it, I've been having trouble with it of late. I posted about it a couple of weeks ago about it having a screen freeze. I was finally able to resolve that one, but on Friday I was using it and it was working just fine (though like you, I don't ever see fish arches and have no idea why. But I do pick up bait balls, etc...). I turned it off when I hit the beach to eat lunch so as not to run down the battery and when I turned it back on, the depth reading just suddenly started flashing and nothing I did would make it stop. It wouldn't find the bottom on the regular sonar and said that I was in 60' of water when I was in about 5' of water. So as a fish finder, I'm not sold on it quite yet. I've called Lowrance Customer Service and talked to a guy who was very helpful, and they're sending me a new transducer. I'm hoping that will solve my flashing depth issue, but hopefully it will also actually show fish arches (when I'm over fish).

ful-rac · 08-12-2015, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishin' Magician

I have the Lowrance Elite 4 HDI and while I like it, I've been having trouble with it of late. I posted about it a couple of weeks ago about it having a screen freeze. I was finally able to resolve that one, but on Friday I was using it and it was working just fine (though like you, I don't ever see fish arches and have no idea why. But I do pick up bait balls, etc...). I turned it off when I hit the beach to eat lunch so as not to run down the battery and when I turned it back on, the depth reading just suddenly started flashing and nothing I did would make it stop. It wouldn't find the bottom on the regular sonar and said that I was in 60' of water when I was in about 5' of water. So as a fish finder, I'm not sold on it quite yet. I've called Lowrance Customer Service and talked to a guy who was very helpful, and they're sending me a new transducer. I'm hoping that will solve my flashing depth issue, but hopefully it will also actually show fish arches (when I'm over fish).

Your not necessarily going to see that perfect arch like you would on demo mode. There are alot of factors that determine how fish display on your unit. For example if there is a fish just hanging out underneath your kayak...it should display as a line and not an arch. If a fish quickly passes under your kayak it should display as an arch a worm a dot...a blob... It just depends on how your ff is dialed in, your speed, etc etc...

HobieScot · 08-13-2015, 06:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ful-rac

Your not necessarily going to see that perfect arch like you would on demo mode. There are alot of factors that determine how fish display on your unit. For example if there is a fish just hanging out underneath your kayak...it should display as a line and not an arch. If a fish quickly passes under your kayak it should display as an arch a worm a dot...a blob... It just depends on how your ff is dialed in, your speed, etc etc...

Exactly what ful-rac said. On my old boat we had trouble getting it dialed in to where we would see fish arches. I did a search online and found a good article on how to adjust the settings. Once I followed those instructions we finally got it dialed in and working properly.

The one thing I noticed about that Lowrance unit is that the set up and fine tuning of the unit wasn't necessarily intuitive and the instructions that came with the unit weren't as helpful as I would have liked.

ronbo613 · 08-13-2015, 08:25 AM

Quote:

So as a fish finder, I'm not sold on it quite yet. I've called Lowrance Customer Service and talked to a guy who was very helpful, and they're sending me a new transducer.

That's standard procedure for Lowrance. Odds are the transducer is not the problem. If that's the case, when you call Lowrance and ask them to replace the head unit, they will try to get you to buy a more expensive model.

Lowrance customer support sucks.

Fishin' Magician · 08-13-2015, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronbo613

That's standard procedure for Lowrance. Odds are the transducer is not the problem. If that's the case, when you call Lowrance and ask them to replace the head unit, they will try to get you to buy a more expensive model.

Lowrance customer support sucks.

I received the new transducer today, so I'm going to connect it to the unit this weekend and see if it still does the flashing thing again. If it still does it, then it's a head unit problem and not the transducer. And if that's the case, I'll try and see if I can get the same Lowrance customer service rep. Turns out he used to live in the L.A. area and fished all of the same places we do. So hopefully he'll be upfront with me about it. It's worth a shot....

Gr8fuldude · 08-13-2015, 08:59 AM

[QUOTE=HobieScot;237509]Exactly what ful-rac said. On my old boat we had trouble getting it dialed in to where we would see fish arches. I did a search online and found a good article on how to adjust the settings. Once I followed those instructions we finally got it dialed in and working properly.

I wasn't able to find a good article on adjustment settings, any chance you remember where you found the article? I'd be much obliged!

mbsurf · 08-13-2015, 02:02 PM

I have the Mark 4 shooting through the hull. I have seen the exact same "60 ft freak out" reading earlier poster mentioned numerous times. I just shut it off and turn it back on. It happens almost every trip. This is my first first finder, so for $200 with GPS I'm pretty impressed. I shot this picture the other day, which I presumed to be the fabled fish arches. Anyone with experience interpreting the greyscale please chime in. Looked promising to me!

HobieScot · 08-13-2015, 03:22 PM

[QUOTE=Gr8fuldude;237517]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HobieScot

Exactly what ful-rac said. On my old boat we had trouble getting it dialed in to where we would see fish arches. I did a search online and found a good article on how to adjust the settings. Once I followed those instructions we finally got it dialed in and working properly.

I wasn't able to find a good article on adjustment settings, any chance you remember where you found the article? I'd be much obliged!

Unfortunately that article was about ten years and I no longer have the computer that the link was saved on. It wasn't from a sponsored Lowrance site. It was from some regular guy that wrote the article to help others get their units dialed in.

I wish I could be more specific but it was awhile ago

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Fishin' Magician · 08-13-2015, 06:15 AM

Yes, that makes sense. And I've also heard that detecting fish depends on the sensitivity setting and which kHz is being used. Once I get my unit back working properly (i'm hoping that Lowrance will send my the new transducer soon), then I'll play around with it a bit more and see if I can get it dialed in.

08-11-2015, 02:45 PM	#1
Dirty Curti Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Oceanside, CA Posts: 419	Fish finder question I have the Lowrance Elite-4x DSI and it, for the most part, seems like a pretty good unit. BUT... I never see the palagics on the monitor. I see the floor, I see bait fish, I see weeds but never any big fish. So my question is WHY? __________________

08-12-2015, 04:36 PM	#6
ful-rac Emperor Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buena Park Posts: 3,649	Reading a fishfinder is all about interpretation...the more you go fishing and use your fishfinder, and catch what your seeing the more you should be able to discern what is what on your fishfinder. Will you be 100% correct in being able to tell what everything on your fishfinder is all the time...not likely. __________________ There's nothing colder than yesterday's hotdog.

08-12-2015, 04:28 PM	#9
Fishin' Magician Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Newport Beach Posts: 219	I have the Lowrance Elite 4 HDI and while I like it, I've been having trouble with it of late. I posted about it a couple of weeks ago about it having a screen freeze. I was finally able to resolve that one, but on Friday I was using it and it was working just fine (though like you, I don't ever see fish arches and have no idea why. But I do pick up bait balls, etc...). I turned it off when I hit the beach to eat lunch so as not to run down the battery and when I turned it back on, the depth reading just suddenly started flashing and nothing I did would make it stop. It wouldn't find the bottom on the regular sonar and said that I was in 60' of water when I was in about 5' of water. So as a fish finder, I'm not sold on it quite yet. I've called Lowrance Customer Service and talked to a guy who was very helpful, and they're sending me a new transducer. I'm hoping that will solve my flashing depth issue, but hopefully it will also actually show fish arches (when I'm over fish). __________________ Here fishy, fishy, fishy.....

08-13-2015, 06:15 AM	#17
Fishin' Magician Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Newport Beach Posts: 219	Yes, that makes sense. And I've also heard that detecting fish depends on the sensitivity setting and which kHz is being used. Once I get my unit back working properly (i'm hoping that Lowrance will send my the new transducer soon), then I'll play around with it a bit more and see if I can get it dialed in. __________________ Here fishy, fishy, fishy.....

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08-11-2015, 02:53 PM	#2
cell128 lizard king Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Lakewood Posts: 520	I'm not a pro with those units but my boat came with an elite 4. I threw my dragonfly and am running both at the moment one for nav and the dragon for sonar. I tried both on sonar for the heck of it. Can't see anything on elite besides the bottom when the dragon showing structure and fish clearly. The settings need to be adjusted on the elite I'm not sure what people run them at maybe someone will chime in

08-11-2015, 04:25 PM	#3
chris138 donkey roper Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pacific Beach Posts: 968	Is your transducer shooting through the hull, or is it submerged in the water?

08-12-2015, 03:58 PM	#5
surfisher Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Carlsbad Posts: 388	Mine took a little bit to dial in right ... although I'm still not sure it's correct. I do see solid arches and I believe they are YT or some big fish. The only time I know for sure is when I have one on the end of my line and I can see how deep it is still .... other than that it's a total guessing game for me as well.

08-13-2015, 04:16 PM	#8
chris138 donkey roper Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pacific Beach Posts: 968	Here's a school of yellowfin on my elite 4x HDI...

08-13-2015, 08:59 AM	#14
Gr8fuldude Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Tehachapi, CA Posts: 166	[QUOTE=HobieScot;237509]Exactly what ful-rac said. On my old boat we had trouble getting it dialed in to where we would see fish arches. I did a search online and found a good article on how to adjust the settings. Once I followed those instructions we finally got it dialed in and working properly. I wasn't able to find a good article on adjustment settings, any chance you remember where you found the article? I'd be much obliged!