universal trolling motor sonar

[FishFondler]

Hello, What do you all think the pros and cons are of the universal sonar in the MinnKota trollers? Seems like a great way to get rid of extra brackets and cables on the motor. Still have the unit sonar for the back of the boat or other uses. Not sure there is a down side but wondering what you all think.

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Crappie are more than just panfish!!

[leechlake]

I have one and have had no problems, pro's are as you said, con's were none for me last year. I'd get it, I guess the con would be you have to match the sonar with the correct motor, has that changed?

[FishFondler]

Leechlake,

Thanks for the reply. I did not understand your comment "the con would be you have to match the sonar with the correct motor"? As I understand it the transducer in the troller is universal and good with any locator. Just have to get the correct cable to hook your locator to the cable on the troller.

[NotoriousBLM]

What if the sonar goes out?

[wounded minnow]

The transducer is actually mounted on the motor. I have one and it works great. Much easier than trying to secure the cable with zip ties. I have mine plugged into my FL-18.

[leechlake]

Fondler, I got mine new last year and I had to buy the correct motor from Minnkota to match my Lowrance X-87, I see they fixed that by having as you said "universal". The way it used to be if I wanted to change sonars I'd have to either change something in the motor or buy a new motor to match the sonar. If I'm wrong on that I'll happily be corrected but in looking at my old Cabelas catalog from last year it is correct, I just looked on line and it has changed, universal sonars. I assume though there is some connection to the motor you need to have that is sonar specific???

[Dennis Steele]

The only thing you need to match is the cable that goes to your sonar.The transducer works with most any sonar.When you buy the trolling motor,they include this cable,so you are ordering the motor with the right cable.If you want to change your sonar at any time all you need to do is buy a differnt cable.I think they run around 20 bucks.
I have tow differnt cables and can use which ever sonar I want on my trolling motor.

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Minnesota River Guided Fishing
www.mnriverguidedfishing.com
[email protected]
NPAA #863

[leechlake]

Thanks for the clarification Dennis. Unfortunately, It will probably cost me more than $20 because I should get a new depth finder too right? The great thing is there is so much gear in my boat my wife has no clue what's new and what's not. Thanks again.

[Try Too Fish]

Leechlake
You are one lucky man! I have 5000 pieces of tackle and yet my wife knows if i buy new hooks!

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Try Too Fish
Forced Too Work!!

[Lip RIPPER!]

Have any of you had problems with yor depth finder reading correctly? I have both the same finders on my boat and the one through the trolling motor doesn't appear to give me the same kind of bottom reading as the one on the console. I think it is harder to distinguish bewteen soft and hard bottom than the one that is mounted on the back. A buddy of mine hs noticed the same thing on his boat too. Is it just mine or do they not read as clearly through the trolliing motor?

[ccarlson]

Guys, one more thing that I did that I really like is I mounted the graph up in the bow that goes with the universal sonar on my bow mount minn kota but then I also ran a transducer and cable back to the transom. That way I can either use the locator with the Minn kota universal, or if I don't want the bow mount down in the water, I can use the other transducer that runs to the back.

The reason being that I do more backtrolling for walleye and when I have a guest in the boat, I simply switch the transducer cable on the bow mount locator to the transducer cable running to the transom and the guest has their own electronics to watch even though the bow mount troller isn't down.

I got tired of my buddies constantly saying, "how deep are we now?"

Of course I have another locator in the back for me when backtrolling.

I also used a quick release plate on the bow mount motor so most of the time I don't even have it on the boat but can still use the front sonar.

ccarlson

[robby]

cccarlson,
I'm thinking about a new bow mount,and was wondering if it would make sense to skip the universal sonar for the bow mount motor.It sounds like you proably don't need the universal sonar and a transom mounted sonar for the bow.

[leechlake]

try too fish: this is off the topic however... Back when I was first married I lobbied my wife to buy a 15 horse 4 stroke for one of our boats we leave at my folks' house west of Leech Lake. It took a while to get the okay, we didn't have a lot of dough then so it was a big deal. Two years later I bought an identical looking 9.9 as a kicker on my fishing boat then. I knew I'd get turned down if I asked her so I just bought it using some money she knew nothing about, that was in April of that year. As far as she knew, when she saw the motor it was the same one purchased first,the two motors were never in the same place twice. Until...we were up at my folks 4th of July and I put my boat in their lake and so the 9.9 was on one boat and the 15 on a different little fishing boat. I awoke from an afternoon nap, stumbled out of the cabin and BAM!!! "you bought a motor without telling me?" My first reaction was a lame lie, I was caught red handed. To this day it's referred to as THE unauthorized purchase. If she only knew...

[ccarlson]

Robby,

I do like the universal sonar unit up front for when I am muskie and bass fishing. Then when I am backtrolling for walleye, as I said, my guests can then use that same sonar to see what is going on for depth due to the second transducer going to the transom. They get a picture of what is happening at the transom as I approach structrue while backtrolling.

But, when I am using the bow mount, I have found that using a locator that has the transducer in the back of the boat is less than ideal. You come up on a break etc and you don't know it until the back of the boat is there. For that reason, I like having the transducer on the actual bow mount motor. Simply keeps me running straighter lines rather than constantly adjusting for the delay in the reading coming from the back of the boat.

I have two transducer cable ends coming out of my bow. One is from the universal sonar and one from the transom. I also have a sonar on the dash for when I'm driving and one in the rear where I can look straight at it while backtrolling. So, 3 sonars with 4 transducers including the universal one on the bow mount. Good system for larger boats with a console.

ccarlson

[FishFondler]

ccarlson and others,

Thanks for the tips. Good use for that extra transducer if you buy the universal sonar. I will probably do the same thing. Other advantage is if your other unit goes down, you can use the extra transducer to give you depth on the fly so you do not have travel blind untill you get repaired.

Does not seem to be any downside to the universal sonar option. I wonder what the cone angle is on the universal troller sonar and whether that is a limitation? Going to have to check into that.

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Crappie are more than just panfish!!