Riveted hulls and H'bird fish finding ability on plane

I have my second riveted hull Lund and am running a Humminbird 958 HD at the helm.

I have the same problem with this boat as with my last. It will not show fish arches when on plane, at any planning speed. It never looses the bottom signal but to see arches you have to be going slower than 2000 rpm.

I have moved the transducer left. right, up , down, changed the angle, rerouted the cable, installed a ring ferrite, etc. and nothing makes any difference.

Years ago with Lowrance on my Ranger, I could get arches even at high speeds. Although it had a thru hull transducer.

Does anyone get good fish arches with riveted hulls at planning speeds?

I don't want to waste any more time if it's not doable. http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums.../deadhorse.gif

Thanks

If the 2d is keeping good bottom detection and bubbles from the rivets are not causing problems...then there are a few things that can help with arches at faster speeds...(tho still not guaranteed..)

Use the wider 60° 83kHz beam or the 83/200kHz beam...to keep the fish in the larger cone longer...

Go under the "Sonar" tab and adjust the "standalone" 83kHz sensitivity up...

Set Switchfire to "Max" mode and then adjust the sensitivity to where the screen clutter is tolerable...(maybe even a little more clutter than you would normally run)...

Turn the chart speed up to the max setting...

You might even turn the RTS sonar window to "Wide"... where you can see the fish echoes in the RTS..if a fish "blips" in the RTS window...there should be an arch in the 2d immediately...

Rickie

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rnvinc

If the 2d is keeping good bottom detection and bubbles from the rivets are not causing problems...then there are a few things that can help with arches at faster speeds...(tho still not guaranteed..)

Use the wider 60° 83kHz beam or the 83/200kHz beam...to keep the fish in the larger cone longer...

Go under the "Sonar" tab and adjust the "standalone" 83kHz sensitivity up...

Set Switchfire to "Max" mode and then adjust the sensitivity to where the screen clutter is tolerable...(maybe even a little more clutter than you would normally run)...

Turn the chart speed up to the max setting...

You might even turn the RTS sonar window to "Wide"... where you can see the fish echoes in the RTS..if a fish "blips" in the RTS window...there should be an arch in the 2d immediately...

Rickie

---

I usually have it set on 83/200. However the 83 sensitivity is set at 5.

Switchfire is normally on Max and sensitivity is set on the high side, around 15 if possible.

The chart speed is always on 5. I will try increasing it.

I never use the RTS window, would this actually help?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trout Bum

I usually have it set on 83/200. However the 83 sensitivity is set at 5.

Switchfire is normally on Max and sensitivity is set on the high side, around 15 if possible.

The chart speed is always on 5. I will try increasing it.

I never use the RTS window, would this actually help?

---

The RTS window will not affect the arch in the 2d ...but it will tell if, in fact, there are fish that are entering the sonar cone...

The RTS is a "vertical flasher" with little to no filtering or processing of the sonar echoes...

If there are no "blips" showing in the RTS window ... Then you are just not running over fish...

Rickie

Also try maxing the "standalone" 83kHz setting under the Sonar tab...and then adjust the "Main Sensitivity" setting in the Xpress window to an acceptable clutter level ...

This will make the 60° 83kHz cone "hotter" than the default "blend" of the 83/200kHz ...

Rickie

Exactly how fast are you going while on plane while trying to scan for fish?

I don't even have to be on plane. When I hit about 2000 rpm the screen gets a lot of interference on it (a lot of small dots) along with the bottom contour, which actually appears as a weaker signal than at less rpm.

Have you tried adjusting your noise filter in the settings? Only other thing would be to try to add rf chokes and/or reroute the transducer cable.

Have you tried the menu settings that Rickie suggested?
Do you have a screen snapshot of what fish do look like when you are at planning speeds?
Is there another sonar unit on at the same time as your 958c HD unit?

Make sure that this is not some sort of electrical interference by taking your motor out of gear and revving it up past 2,000 RPMs (where the dots and all start to show up). If you start seeing the same dots and all your problem may be interference from the motor.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Humminbird_Greg

Have you tried the menu settings that Rickie suggested?
Do you have a screen snapshot of what fish do look like when you are at planning speeds?
Is there another sonar unit on at the same time as your 958c HD unit?

Make sure that this is not some sort of electrical interference by taking your motor out of gear and revving it up past 2,000 RPMs (where the dots and all start to show up). If you start seeing the same dots and all your problem may be interference from the motor.

---

I always run with the 83/200 transducer beam setting.
I increased the 83 sensitivity to 8. Then I set the max mode (which is what I use most of the time) and adjusted the blend sensitivity until there is as reasonable amount of clutter on the screen.
I have tried medium and fast chart speeds with little to no effect.
I have not tried the RTS window.
I have run over fish a trolling speeds and then went back over them at 2500 rpm (not on a plain yet) and saw no fish. It is basically the same result as if I was on a plain at minimum planing speed (about 20 mph). Nothing on the graph looks any different from about 2500 rpm to max speed which is about 34 mph.
I think the basic problem is clutter. I can decrease the clutter with higher filter settings; like medium or high 1. I usually run in the low setting because it shows more returns, especially my cannon ball when trolling.
I tried running a direct wire from the battery to graph, relocated the transducer wiring away from engine wiring and installed a ferrite ring. Non of it made any difference.
Two things I noticed today are when I key my marine radio the graph screen goes almost black and when I trim the engine the screen gets clutter.
I can run the engine in neutral up to 3000 rpm with no screen clutter.
I am thinking of trying to run the graph from the trolling motor battery just to see what happens.
Next time I am on the water I will try to get some snap shots.