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

Fishin' Magician · 08-12-2015, 03:28 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, 03:45 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, 05:58 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, 07:25 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, 02:42 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, 07:59 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, 01:02 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!

chris138 · 08-13-2015, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbsurf

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!

Bull kelp most likely... In 80'-100' depth and lines stacked over each-other like that. Looks like bull kelp with scattered bait on the bottom. But you need to have the 83 and 200 khz split screen to really differentiate between hard and soft returns.

HobieScot · 08-13-2015, 02:22 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

08-12-2015, 03:28 PM	#1
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, 07:59 AM	#6
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!