Leveling Transducer?

[Guest]

Which way to level your transducer works better, the white self leveler that comes with the unit or the Genz blue box style. I saw that vexilar has a new type of box for the FL-18. At times last year, I could get a better read on the jig in a hole that was two feet over vs. the hole the transucer was in.

[Guest]

I use the white float level with my transducer. It works well when directly over the hole or in a hole just adjacent to the hole you are fishing. I'll sometimes punch two holes a few inches away and drop the transducer down one and fish the other. But most of the time I just use the same hole I fish out of. I haven't had too much trouble with getting a signal in the actual hole that I'm fishing. Might want to try adjusting the gain. Sometimes if the transducer is close to the side of the hole and doesn't clear the ice you can have a mixed signal as well. Another possiblity is that there was a slight current under the ice. I know it sounds wierd but its possible. That could have been why the signal showed up better when the transducer was dropped down a hole two feet away from the hole you were fishing. The current possibilty is probably the lesser of the answers but it can happen.

Last year up on LOW we rented a 10 hole house and could place the transducer in just about any hole and get a read on a jig that was down every other hole. 28 feet of water but still pretty cool. Kinda tough at times to know whos jig the walleyes were going after. Every once in a while we would have two guys going after the same fish on the flasher even though they were 15 feet away from each other. We got a few laughs out of it and even placed a few fake bets to see whos jig the walleye was actually looking at.

Good Fishin,
Matt

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[united jigsticker]

The white foam floats do not affect how level the transducer is on the self leveling systems, but instead, how on center the coax cable is at the point of where it enters the actual transducer body itself is what will affect this.

It's based on balance.

The self leveler is convienent for hole hopping, however, in deeper water situations when not being as mobile, I sometimes would like to have the arm and bubble style set-up.

Also, as MJ said, there can be current under the ice, and it will cause your jig to do a pendulum type thing under the ice, pushing your jig from the center of your hole and out of or near the edge of the cone angle. If this is the case, I'd go with the arm and bubble style, that way you can tilt the ducer angle side to side allowing you to "aim" at your jig. Of course, the optimum angle in which you have the ducer aimed will change if you're doing alot of vertical depth changing with your lure in high current situations, this because the cross angles will change and not line up, so keep that in mind as well.

One other cool thing is with the ducer on a arm and swivel set-up, with the ability to aim side to side, if your fish disapear and theres another school in a relatively close vicinity, you can aim the ducer in different directions and know which way to go to drill a hole.

Of course, you can do that with the self leveler, however you have to stick your hand down the hole in the cold water and manually aim it...And who wants to do that.

((Don't forget: When the ice is clear (free of air bubbles) and there is no snow on it, you can read through the ice with any 'ducer by pouring some liquid on the ice and setting the ducer in the puddle. (kinda makes them guys with the "depth guns" feel sorta bad. )))

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Good fishing,
UJ
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[This message has been edited by united jigsticker (edited 10-17-2003).]