Down imaging ?

[Iceman]

Has anyone marine gooped a transducer in the hull using down imaging.

[Iceman]

This is actually the same unit I am installing for a customer............apparently it does work, pretty sure Lowrance rep had told me otherwise for theirs.

http://www.stripersonline.com/t/7961...aging-in-a-yak

[blitzburgh]

Originally Posted by Iceman

pretty sure Lowrance rep had told me otherwise for theirs.

Yep. Same thing I was told by a Lowrance Rep. Theirs have to be in the water.

[roadx]

i have a humminbird 597 ci hd di and i use the grease through hall method. it hasn't been mounted any other way so i dont have a comparison.

through hall with grease seems to work fine. not big fan of goop

[coxtanker421]

i just received 898 hummingbird with side imaging from santa for Christmas . is that over kill for kayak ? or will it help in summertime when yellows are blowing up? stock transducer needs to be in water. right now it is mounted on mad frog. Do you do lessons on reading meter Iceman? thx for help . anthony.

[GregAndrew]

Just the design of the Lowrance imaging Xducer would probably require something other than in hull mount. It looks like half a hot dog, split lengthwise, mounted on a flat plate. According to the Lowrance seminar at Fred Hall, Down Imaging has a limited use. It is not a cone angle like your sonar, it is a wide beam to the sides and very narrow front to back. It is very good for showing when you are exactly passing over structure, but will not tell you if you are approaching it.

[Iceman]

. Do you do lessons on reading meter Iceman?

Most of you guys have meters I can not afford.

[RK]

Originally Posted by coxtanker421

i just received 898 hummingbird with side imaging from santa for Christmas . is that over kill for kayak ? or will it help in summertime when yellows are blowing up? stock transducer needs to be in water. right now it is mounted on mad frog. Do you do lessons on reading meter Iceman? thx for help . anthony.

When they are "blowing up" what are you gonna do throw the sonar at them?

[GregAndrew]

Originally Posted by coxtanker421

i just received 898 hummingbird with side imaging from santa for Christmas . is that over kill for kayak ? or will it help in summertime when yellows are blowing up? stock transducer needs to be in water. right now it is mounted on mad frog. Do you do lessons on reading meter Iceman? thx for help . anthony.

Side Imaging can be great for skirting the edge of kelplines and determining which direction the school of bait/fish are/went, among other things. It puts out a ton of sonar signal though.

[deepdvr]

Originally Posted by RK

When they are "blowing up" what are you gonna do throw the sonar at them?

[walrus]

Here is a link to a fellow who put a side scan/down imaging transducer inside his kayak.

Also has the follow up images to show that it does work. I hope this helps.

http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=41626

[kobra]

Originally Posted by walrus

Here is a link to a fellow who put a side scan/down imaging transducer inside his kayak.

Also has the follow up images to show that it does work. I hope this helps.

http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=41626

Good to know it will work, not that I could afford it. Thanks for posting that wally.

[dgax65]

Even though Lowrance says not to do it, I think that, if done properly, it will work. The key is to get enough adhesive/sound transmission material under it so there will be no gaps. You also need a kayak with a well-defined portion of the keel that is normally underwater. You'll lose side performance if mounted on a flat surface. I think the bow or stern would be the only real internal mounting options. I've seen external mounts using brackets to attach to the stern.

[Flatinfifth]

Andy,

Al has the DI 597 mounted with grease. Loves it.

Angel

[-scallywag-]

Originally Posted by walrus

Here is a link to a fellow who put a side scan/down imaging transducer inside his kayak.

Also has the follow up images to show that it does work. I hope this helps.

http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=41626

Just read through that thread...very cool.

***NOTE - all those screen shots where in 10-20' of water, on a lake...if you read the whole thing he mentions boat wakes and wind chop giving him significant interference....I would like to see some screenshots in 80-150' of water with light swell/chop ***

Also his system is an hds, with the dsi/side scan upgrade....it still the has regular 50-200khz sonar too so it is much more versatile than the DSI only units....the "Elite series DSI's" are DSI ONLY and IMO are not that great for the ocean.....but the system shown in that thread...the standard HDS-5, with the side/dsi is super duper rad ( been on a skiff that has it )....and expensive (1200-1500+ for both units?)....definantly makes finding bait easier when its tough.

[roadx]

here is my take on down imaging

my HB 597 CI HD DI is lower to middle end of the sonar pack . it has 455khz @16° and 200khz @25° for regular sonar and 455khz @75° and 800khz @45° in DI. yes you can use them at the same time with spit screen or split screen with the GPS. my sonar does not have side scan, wish it did.

DI is for structure, yes it does show fish but not as well as regular sonar but the cool thing with DI is with all the bait in the water lately it shows bait as individual smaller fish marks with larger marks (not bait fish) so your not just looking at a cloud like i see in 200KHZ regular sonar when the bait fish are packed up. yes it starts loosing the bottom at 250ft in salt.
DI kelp stringers look like kelp stringers, 80' to 120' you can see large bottom structure.

is it worth it for inshore? probably not for most anglers familiar with what their looking at but for me it helps me with what im seeing in regular sonar.
so for me, yes it's a cool toy.

it has some features like zoom and being able to record, take snap shots and watch/view on the computer when you get back. ok i know your next questions, wheres the records you have taken? i have some of the bay but don't have any in LJ. well i did but erased them. if you are interested in seeing what the sonar recordings at LJ looks like? i will try and take some and post them up.

heres a snaps shot and recording at SI

[roadx]

pretty boring, not a lot of structure in the bay. plus this is one of the first recordings. this is what it looked like out of the box. the verticle stripes you see in the beginning is sonar interferance from another yaks sonar

[Handymansd]

DSI transducers can be mounted using Navico's scupper mount thing-a-ma-jig-dealys. Someone that is as good as Andy at repairing and modifiyng yaks could find a cool way to make a clean install using one of these... will anxiously await the masters pics of his DSI install!