Lowrance 5X Pro

My first sonar device and my first boat. Took the Lowrance to the lake for the first time to see what I could do to find some fish and fishing spots. Not sure if I ever marked any fish at all. We had luck fishing but not because of the FF. I think I was getting a lot of clutter. The transponder is mounted on the transom according to directions(I think). I kept getting returns that looked like dark rays from bottom to top at a 20 to 30 degree angle down. When I played with settings such as sensitivity, all I got was depth. Must be a sweet spot in there somewhere. I did not expect to master it on the first trip either. The water we were in was fairly shallow, 17' at the deepest, and colored to where you could not see bottom in 2 feet of water. I am sure all this played into my issues. Those dark rays from top to bottom is what had me cornfused! Thanks for any and all help.

How was the boat moving? You could have problems with the transducer installation if you saw lines while running the outboard, and what you see when the boat isn't moving can be just blobs.

Was actually on an electric only lake. Got the vertical lines even while sitting still. Just wondering if it had to do with water quality? Gave a good pic of the bottom but lots of junk in between. Plan on going to a reservoir on Friday to see what it does in cleaner water.

The images when sitting still are not much use unless you have moving fish under you. Post a picture and somebody can probably advise you better.

Had the unit on the boat today at a nearby reservoir. I went back to factory presets and had a much better idea of what was under me. Hit a couple of sharp drop-offs and marked fish on the sides of it. Also marked fish at several other locations. Actually think I could see the thermocline at 12ft in 18ft of water. Very little junk on the screen like last time and none of the 30 degree down vertical lines like last time either. Anxious to get the unit on Brookeville Lake later this year to chase some walleye and stripers. There is where it needs to earn its keep.

Good to hear greg. Alot of folks no matter what the unit try and load other users setting or what they've seen on the net...or just start hitting buttons instead of learning the unit. I'll be the first to admitt doing the same thing at first:banghead

Glad to hear on your next trip it came through for ya alot better. Also congratz on the 1st boat:cheers2

I have this unit and and it is a very good fish finder, just put it on factory defaults and let it do it's thing. I found I really don't need to touch anything it adjusts itself for the given depth and cover automatically. For example, if I want to find the thermocline I put the boat in gear at idle speed and the unit will pick up the thermocline. If I pick up speed then the unit adjusts and only shows the "major" stuff in the water like fish. Slow down again and the thermocline reappears.

If you find you do need to adjust the sensitivity hit the Menu button and adjust it up/down one or two percent should be all you need.

Great unit I love this FF!

Thanks for the reassurance ppowell. The more I use the unit the more I like it. Fished my favorite reservoir last nite with the wife and found some very interesting structure/contours that will require some more intense scrutiny with hook and line! Was cruising the end of the reservoir that I hadn't seen and out of 20 FOW was a 16ft hump in the middle of the lake! Was getting dark so I made a mental note where it was so I can check it out properly.