Sonar / DI question

This past weekend, my new Lowrance Elite 7 Chirp started showing a really snowy picture on both the sonar and DI. I haven't added anything new or changed settings from 2 weeks ago when it was crystal clear. I was however trolling in <8' of water most of the time. I tried adjusting sensitivity setting and it got a little better but it still had snowy vertical lines, making it hard to see some of the fish I was marking. Any idea if the shallow water with all the pollen could be the problem? My new helix 5 on the front of the boat was crystal clear. I don't recall seeing this issue when we were shrimping in 4-5' of water last fall.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Your Lowrance may have been picking up electrical noise from the trolling motor, or a pump motor on the boat. I would make sure the Lowrance was not connected to the same battery as the trolling motor. Good luck.

Gunwale, I was hoping that was the case too but I have a separate 24 volt system for the trolling motor. I turned everything off on the 12 volt battery other than the Lowrance but that didn't help either. I may try hooking up the lowrance to a totally separate battery by itself to see if that would help. If not, I may just have to send the unit and transducer back for repair.

I had the same issue with mine on friday and I am pretty convinced it was the pollen in the water, in 10 ft or less it was real snowy. The week before in the same water it was crystal clear. the lake had a nice yellow film on the water. I could be completely wrong but thats what i was thinking. I have not changed anything on the boat.

I hope you're right Hydrasport. I can't think of anything else that it could be other than the finder itself or transducer. I would sure hate the downtime of sending it back in for repairs when the fish are biting so good.:banghead

My Helix unit was doing the same thing and I thought something may be wrong with although I did suspect the pollen as you could just see it in the water. After the rain Saturday night I was loading the boat on Sunday and noticed it was back to being clear so your problem may be gone now.

If the pollen is so thick you can see it on your depth finder, you might live in South Carolina. :Rofl

Does anybody know if you can clean the transducer like with soap and water. I have a helix 7 and out of box I had that Smokey look. I installed it on the same bracket that my 798 was on.

A ground wire ran from the skag fin on the trolling motor to the negative side of the battery will also take away "noise" from your graph. Test the situation by turning off the trolling motor and sitting still, see if the static goes away. Radios, two way radios, pumps, and even other graphs, are sometimes picked up as static or noise on your screen.

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Originally Posted by SeaRay

If the pollen is so thick you can see it on your depth finder, you might live in South Carolina. :Rofl

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LOL Searay. So thick you almost need an icebreaker to troll.

Thanks guys for the responses. Since others are seeing the same issue, I have to assume it's the pollen and will clear up soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CrappieKidd

Does anybody know if you can clean the transducer like with soap and water. I have a helix 7 and out of box I had that Smokey look. I installed it on the same bracket that my 798 was on.

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CK, I use a soapy rag to clean mine periodically, especially after coming from the coast...