weekend with Humminbird (long!)
Got to do something this weekend that doesn't happen too often -
fished the better part of two whole days back to back.
Most of ya'll have seen the discussions that've been going on about
our GPS issues, so I won't re-hash the whole deal, just wanted to
report on what I learned out of two days with my nose glued to the
screens :) about both the GPS and the sonar on my 787,797.
Had very little wind both days, even dead calm at times.
Tightlined minnows in brush on a couple of drops that I know well,
so got to give everthing a good workout.
First, the GPS: I tried several different suggestions I read about over on the
Yahoo group, turned OFF the course projection line, and tried watching
the bearing readout, totally ignoring which way the little boat icon
was pointing. Surprise, it works pretty well. I always keep my screen
set "North up", and if a waypoint was at 9 o'clock on the screen, I could
go 270 degrees and make a decent showing of going straight to it.
I'm pretty used to this anyhow, because my old Lowrance did not even
have a direction-showing icon - just little blinking blip center of screen
that showed where you were. I think the little spinning boat icon is neat, but maybe more of
a distraction than help at low speeds??? Anyway, I was fogged in Sunday
morning with about 50' visiblity, and I managed to come in and stop right
on my drop strictly "flying by instrument".
Where the fun came in, is when I got up into my "gaggle" of waypoints
and up on 50' and 20' zoom ranges... I learned how to "sort" of work with it,
I had to SLOW DOWN and give the screen time to catch up.
If I wanted to stop on top of a mark, I had to let off the TM and wait for
a screen update to see how close I really was, then give it another little
bump, etc. Actually put the circle dead on a waypoint a few times on 20'
range - but it ain't easy. ANYWAY, what I cleared up to my satisfaction
is that the screen updates about every 4 seconds - no stopwatch, but
four "mississippis" ;) This is with the trackpoints set at 1' and 1 second,
I am of the belief that this 4 second setting is NOT adjustable, at least
by the user. 4 seconds may not sound like much, but at slow trolling
speeds (.5-.7 mph) and high zoom ranges, each update moves the icon
a BUNCH, like PAST the waypoint you were going to stop and dwell over.
Oh well, that's just my observation. I think the capacity to do better
(update faster) is there, but that's getting into stuff beyond my control
or expertise. I'm hoping it's something that they can fiddle with the software
a bit, and it will all come together. The new gps "puck" - it'd be nice, but I
don't think that's the problem, the existing one works as good as what I've been used to, accuracy is fine - it's USING the accuracy with the hinky
plotter performance that's the trick.
And while I'm on this, briefly, the 2D sonar - I've been hearing/reading
some negative comment on the sonar performance, most of it specifically
comparing it to Lowrance. Well, I set out to see just how good it really
was. I don't have a Lowrance sonar, but I do have a Vexilar Edge 3, which
supposedly is about as good as it comes sonar-wise...
I know I've been really impressed with it.
In short, I'm satisfied with Humminbird's 2D sonar performance.
I tweaked it in so I could see my drop-shot weight in 25', actually could
make it look big as a bowling ball with a touch more sensitivity.
Maybe a little more "trash" on the screen than the Vex, but not bad at all.
This is through the universal sonar 2 on a Terrova, so I'm evaluating the
system as a whole, can't say if maybe the us2 is the source of the extra
trash or not. Anyway, good enough for me since the Vex ain't compatible
with universal sonar. Observations: Mine seems to like a whole bunch
of filter AND a whole bunch of sensitivity - I'm running sens. at 15+,
and filter on High 3, surface clutter on 1 - Is it just me, or does the
surface clutter work backwards from what I'm used to? It seems like 1 is
actually the more aggressive setting as opposed to 10.
As for the SI on the 797, I like - but I played with a couple of 997's,
and it ain't the same animule - I be trading up when lotto hits :D
I'm suspicious the 4000 watts versus 8000 might be playing into this?
The 797 is GREAT in shallow water or
hard bottom, but get down much past 30' or real soft bottom, it seems like
it's lacking for power, IMHO. Anyway, sorry so long :o Jeff
