Eagle 480 for Hardwater

[AaronM]

Anyone ever use their open water units for the hard water season? How do you rig the transducer, and any problems with the unit getting too cold? Thanks for any help!

[BIG DS]

Lowrance does offer ice kits for most of their graphs which icludes the Eagle graphs. I don't remember if the Eagle 480 has a flash graph on it or not. If it does, that will be the closest to realtime that that graph will get. If not you will have to get used to reading the narrow bar graph on the right side of the screen as that is the only realtime part of the graph.

[fishermn]

I've set up my Garmin 240 that way, and it does work reasonably well. I had no problems with the cold, but I have heard of LCD's failing in cold weather.

I made a small box to hold the battery and the unit then made a swing down arm to hold the transducer. You may have to bend the end of the arm slightly to get the correct angle on the transducer if you do it this way. I used this setup for about 5 years before getting myself a Marcum.

[PerchJerker]

Quote:

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I don't remember if the Eagle 480 has a flash graph on it or not. If it does, that will be the closest to realtime that that graph will get. If not you will have to get used to reading the narrow bar graph on the right side of the screen as that is the only realtime part of the graph

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Just to make sure everyone is clear about this ---- using graphs vs. flashers, whether through the ice or on open water ......

1. The far right edge of the display on any graph is the real-time info on the graph, everything to the left of the far right edge is history

2. The far right edge of any graph today will read and display info in just as fast of "real time" as any flasher. To put it another way, a flasher is not any faster or any more real-time than a graph. A flasher like a Marcum or Vex, and a flash graph option on a graph, and a graph will give you the same realtime readings at the same time, it's just what you prefer to see.

[eurolarva]

I used my Eagle 2 from my boat for about 7 years. Used a vex battery in a collapsble cooler with hand warmers. Put the ducer in the water and adjust till the graph shows the shallowest reading. What you will notice when fish are there is that the depth will come up about .1 ft and you will see ripples on the bottom. Some times you will get a fish Icon but usually it will look like the structure changed on the bottom. If you have the ducer set right and you jig your lure you will see a fish icon.