humminbird Side imaging

[kerryd15]

Hi I have a 798C SI. I read that upgrading the tranducer from the compact to a HDSI Transducer will make for sharper images. Wondering if anyone has done it and if they noticed a difference. I am wondering if the difference is in the 800hz frequency that my 798 will not use anyway.

I can see structure, I just haven't seen the suspended fish with the shadows like I have seen in some pictures. I am running 65 feet to both sides to make the images larger on my screen. I fish mostly 12 feet and less. Any suggestions or setting changes to try?

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Maybe the fish just are not there? Have you seen bait balls or anything suspended? Pics used in advertisements are made by guys who are pros with the units, lots of times they have scanning distances less than your 65' and Ive got to believe they are touched up a little after capture. Not saying you cant get good images but it will take time and the fish have to be there in the first place.

Try fishing a river. I was fishing the st. croix and I was marking baitfish and larger fish suspended in deep water. Lots of rough fish Id imagine.

[reddog]

Its not the 800 Khz, its a longer crystal..

Ive messed with 800 a little... not enough to tell you anything earth shattering..

How fast can you go and still maintain bottom reading with your 798 Kerry?

What do you have for a scroll speed and what speed are you running when scanning?

I can readily see fish at 10 mph with my SI.

But, I am very particular about how my transducer is set and how fast it is capable of reading..

heres 25 mph SI with a single transducer on the right side..

You wont get high performance images at speed on the left, because of a number of things.. But... With a left and a right.....

Heres 37 mph.

To get high performance imaging, you need to start with a high performance installation..

I'm not a pro, and dont know how to retouch images..

and I'm not sponsored by Humminbird or anybody else..

Everything you see is just the way it came off my SD card ..

Heres a SI shot from today from my 997..

Do you think the fish know the "sweet spot" in the fast water? Note the interference (air bubbles) to the left of the screen and how it clears up when you move into less turbulent water and how the fish are congregated in the slack water..

I am experimenting with twin transducers right now..

[CAMAN]

Holy cow Reddog! Can you say STACKED?! Great shots. Can you explain more on how you tweaked you ducer and your "high performance installation "?

[kerryd15]

I can get SI images to the right up to 20mph approx. I did quite a bit of research when i was going to install the ducer. I get depth to wide open 30 to 32mph, which it sounded like a lot of people had problems with. Maybe I should narrow up the side image some more. I saw your scans were around 65 to 70ft. With my small screen i would need to be 20 to 25 ft. I was on another forum searching on this topic and on my small screen the difference in image quality would probably not be noticable. I do not expect to get the image quality that a 998 or 1198 get, but man yours look awesome. I have seen suspended crappie off to the side and turned and fished them. They just don't look anything like what your screen does. The fish you are marking are closer to the bottem though. I will have to see if I can find a Hd ducer to try out next yr. I have been running the scroll speed faster than actual to make things look bigger than they are. This should make a log or fish look longer that it is, not take the shadows away. I will have to do some experimenting with the ducer height again. Thank you for sharime the images. I have learned a lot about why we have caught fish in certain areas and didn't know why before. Like "caman" if you have any tips on ducer install, we are all ears.

[kerryd15]

Going back to your images, when running 10mph are you running 10 scroll speed? I can guarantee that I have not seen a fish on SI at 10mph. The longer crystal should take a snap shot of a wider

"slice" of water which should show more? And a stronger crystal should give better images. I am alittle slow, sometimes. Hmmm instead of buying a ducer that could make a 998 cheaper if you look at it right!!

[reddog]

Kerry/CAMAN,

Most of what I have learned about transducers, I have done on my own.. Rigging my new boat this summer, I learned alot more. I knew I could get high speed performance from the right side of my Crestliner, but getting high speed performance out of my new Skeeter has been a long lesson.. I think I have patched 16 holes in my hull already, but I think I am finally where I want to be..almost, not quite, but almost. I am very happy now, after being disappointed several times..

The bulk of my screencaptures have been done with a single transducer on a Crestliner 1750 TS hull, which is my old boat.

When I first got my 997 in 08, I started out with the transducer mounted according to the manual, which worked pretty well...

I did alot of experimentation with my xducer, trying to find the "sweetspot".. and I mean alot... More than the average person wouldve done.

Here is my xducer on my Crestliner,

Nothing special in particular, but then again, if it reads to full speed, then that is pretty special, right?

I think the reason ( and I confirmed this on my new boat) is because of the deadrise of the hull, its not reading clear water at speed like the right half..

Most everything you read, will tell you to have the xducer up and out of harms way, whenever possible.. Ok, fine, but that severely handcuffs your units abilities...

Yes, the 10mph screen shot was with a high scroll speed. I was just messing around on a school of walleyes, and decided to run thru them at different speeds to see how fast I could go, and still see them.. I was happy to see them at 5, exstatic to see them at 7, and at 10.. well, you know.. I will do some more experimenting with this again,,, it was quite eye opening.. and no, Ive never seen a 10 mph image either, but I know it can be done, if you let your unit recieve the information.

and yes, you are exactly right, sell the 798, and get an 998..

Ill be selling at least one of my units (and my IPilot head) when the new ILink comes out. They do not have the processor speed to run the Lakemaster cards needed for the ILink..

If youre looking for structure, you can widen the range out... if your looking for fish, be narrow minded

I'm hesitant to post my new transducer pictures, mainly because I'm not done tweaking them yet.. but what you will see, is quite unconventional..

The last two picture in the above post of the stacked fish were my first screencaptures from the new boat with a dedicated L/R ducer..A few more washers to fine tune it and I should be good to go... I hope..

walleyes at 150 FoR.

Too small.

walleyes at 46 FoR

Too large

zooming out from 70 feet to 100, to see how wide the school actually is.

[reddog]

regarding your suspended Crappies, the size of the fish and the distance ooff the bottom will severely restrict the "shadow" and I depend on the shadow alot more than the actual white mark (fish)

regarding your scroll speed, if you are on a SI screen, dont speed it up...

[kerryd15]

Are you mounting that on the front side of the motor? I have thought about doing that, so when the motor is down it will clear the botom side of the hull. I think that is about the only way I could get clear images of both sides at speed. I have an aluminum riveted hull. Which is harder to find clean water. Thanks for the info.

[Kyhl]

walleyes at 150 FoR.

Too small.

walleyes at 46 FoR

Too large

I have an HDS with the DSI transducer mounted on the starboard side on an aluminum hull with rivits.

These screen grabs look similar my SI with the motor trimmed down. Trimming the motor up fixes the port side interference on the SI.

It looks like your interference is not there all the time. Seems like a silly question given all that you have mentioned about relocating but have you tried adjusting the trim when using SI?

I guess I'm lucky, my SI reads fine at WOT, 36mph.

[reddog]

Are you mounting that on the front side of the motor? I have thought about doing that, so when the motor is down it will clear the botom side of the hull. I think that is about the only way I could get clear images of both sides at speed. I have an aluminum riveted hull. Which is harder to find clean water. Thanks for the info.

My transducer is hull mounted..

I dont think you will will ever get decent SI images at speed with a single transducer, unless you have a flat bottomed boat.. Theres just too much water coming off the hull at an odd angle to see thru it. I dont necessarily need SI at top end, but I do want at least dependable depth readings at WOT.

[TruthWalleyes]

I want to see this unconventional mounting!!

[reddog]

I want to see this unconventional mounting!!

Patience Grasshopper.. Patience...

[WalleyeChaser]

WOW! Great info reddog. I have to get that "narrow minded" method fine tuned on mine. I always run at about 140 which I now know from your photo comparison is waaayyy to far out. I have seen the small fish specs. But obviously my picture is too compressed to see the traditional hook of the fish I see on yours! Time to get out in the boat and tweak some more now!!

Oh, can you give me the GPS cords for that school of walleyes so I can catch, I mean tune my SI.

[reddog]

WOW! Great info reddog. I have to get that "narrow minded" method fine tuned on mine. I always run at about 140 which I now know from your photo comparison is waaayyy to far out. I have seen the small fish specs. But obviously my picture is too compressed to see the traditional hook of the fish I see on yours! Time to get out in the boat and tweak some more now!!

Oh, can you give me the GPS cords for that school of walleyes so I can catch, I mean tune my SI.

140 is not too far out, IF you know what you are looking for..... and trust your equipment.. With that said, I never run wide... I only play with it wide on occasion