Vexilar FL-8 Question - Cant see the lures/bait

[duck2]

I am experiencing a problem with my FL-8 that I have never seen in the 10 years I have owned it. I am fishing in a shack located in about 10 feet of water with a fairy weedy bottom. The Vex does not record and trace of my baits or jigs decending or ascending in the water column. In addition, I find that I have to keep the gain down very low or else the whole screen fills up with multicolored clutter. Could this be due to the weeds and/or bottom content? My friend's FL-8 is doing the samne thing.

Any idea what might be going on?

Thanks

[EBass]

Strange - could be low battery. Have you gone out deep and drilled and tested your jig w/o weeds around? Something to try.

1 - gain?

2 - battery?

3 - bad ducer?

I own a FL-18, but it has a low power mode for shallow water. It clears out the weed clutter to see true bottom. Otherwise to see my jig I have to turn up the gain and then I see all the weeds again and hard to see my jig with all the echoes off of the weeds.

Try it out in deep water and see how it is. Cheapest and easiest I think. Then cross what ever bridge from there.

[eyebjim]

It is most likely the weeds. There is too much reflection of the sonor so it can not pick out your bait from the weeds. When you turn it down so you can see without seeing the weeds it is not sensative enough to see your bait. You can get a low power transducer adapter taht will help on this. The newer fl20 has this a a standard feature. I use it any time I am in less than 20 feet.

[polarsusd81]

I would keep fishing in those weeds. Sounds like a good spot to be, from what I learned the other night at Thorne, the reason the weeds are showing up so bright on your vex is because they are lively and producing plenty of oxygen. Green weeds attract the fish. At the point you are at right now, in 10 fow, I would pay attention to how much line comes off each ring of the spool, turn the gain down a bit so you can note when the fish come in, and attempt to coax them into biting without seeing your jig on the vex. Anything over 10, and it will become a bit more difficult to judge where you are at in the water column.