Find lost boat motor with sonar questions

Has anyone ever found a lost boat motor with there sonar. A friend of mine lost his brand new Evinrude 25 hp outboard motor last Wednesday morning.:banghead Bad thing is he was so upset that he really has no idea as to just where it came off the boat. I thought that it would be no problem finding it with my humminbird 899 side scan sonar but it is not showing up as I thought it would. People are telling me that it is mostly made of plastic and aluminum and it doesn't show up good on sonar. I can see other stuff like logs brush piles and even fish with my sonar. We even had another man with his Helix 7 churp side scan unit and he is unable to find it. Anyone know what I may need to try to find this motor. We have pulled a gaveling hooks with blind luck as not seeing this motor with sonar. There is a lot of deep moss in this lake and I don't think it will let the boat motor show up as well. What would you all suggest to try or settings to try on my sonar. Would DI or 2D be better as to finding this motor. I know this friend is at his wits end by now and I would really like to find his motor for him. Any help will be appreciated with thanks in advance.

I'd try and find someone with livescope. I'll bet it would show up. The moss is going to hide it pretty well though.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

Or 360, may help you also.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

May have to wait until after the moss dies back. Late fall or winter.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

If it didn't sink into the lake bottom, you should be able to see it as a "rock". You'll just see the round part of the cowl I'd guess, maybe it would look like two rocks if the prop is sticking up also. But the resin covered fiberglass shell should give a decent return, just like a boat sitting on the bottom. I'd back the sensitivity down and use the sharpness to highlight hard returns. Blue color palette should work well, the hard returns will have a white dot with them. Green/red pallet should work real well too, it was designed to show bottom type transitions.. soft marks are green and hard are red, should light up like a red light bulb if it fell off on a soft bottom area.

Hate to say this, but what if someone else already found it!!

That’s a sad story.
The larger motors can have enough torque to come off if attached with just the clamps for sure.

Man that sux! Try to find someone that dives and hire them to look.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T677A using Tapatalk

Well to add to misery.:banghead I broke my forward and reverse cable. Got one on ordered to be here next week. I sure thank everyone for the "what would you do" or "how you would find this motor" as well as sonar settings to try. Soon as I get my boat back to going I will try the things mentioned so far. Thanks again fellow CDC's.

On a HB unit - Open the SI Xpress Menu and choose "SI Enhance" ...

From the "SI Enhance" overlay Menu choose "Contour Mode" on ...

This will remove the water column from the SI image -- allowing a shorter SI Range setting that will fill the entire image with bottom detail ... (The motor ain't gonna be in the water column) ...

Rickie

No insurance I take it? Could try.....and run it through his home owners policy.

Maybe mega down image can help! I hope you find it! :popcorn

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Central Minn

No insurance I take it? Could try.....and run it through his home owners policy.

---

This thread reminds me I need to get insurance on my rig!

Good luck
Lost a merc a year ago
In river, guys dove for it, we drug for it, it’s still there or it ran up or down river ha
Ins replaced it with new one anyway


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

Sad, I am not sure if is worth saving, now!

Sorry to say he didn't have a dimes worth of insurance on it. The mechanic said that he had repaired motors that had been left in water for several months. We had a diver try yesterday to find it but he said that visibility was very limited and he was mostly just feeling around for the motor. He may have to mark that motor up as a loss.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by scrat

Sorry to say he didn't have a dimes worth of insurance on it. The mechanic said that he had repaired motors that had been left in water for several months. We had a diver try yesterday to find it but he said that visibility was very limited and he was mostly just feeling around for the motor. He may have to mark that motor up as a loss.

---

May have to,
My mistake was I kept meaning to bolt it to the transom then it was to late,
We were running lines and been bumping this submerged log all night at an idle there was no way around it
We guessed the prop just caught it just right, it flipped up hard and snapped the clamp bolts and took the gas line with it running wide open,
I was in the front of the boat in shock
Couldn’t believe it
Can laugh know but was crying then ha


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

May be able to find the log you bumped with SI .... or even dangling an anchor over the side ..... Then do a thorough searh of the area for the motor.

Several years ago in a storm, a neighbor lost a motor with the boat attached ! I found it with my old HB side scan, and the whole rig was recovered from 20 fow. I remember the motor was clearly visable, so there is hope.

More recently, a friend lost 2 fiberglass keel fins from a small sailboat while towing it across the lake. I located these in 15 fow, but they were never recovered.

No weeds were involved in either location, just soft bottom.

I wish you the best of luck.

I know it sounds stupid but if you find it stick it in a barrel of water til you get ready to fix it.

We did find it after 10 or 11 days and after retrieving it. He took it to the marine dealer he had it back and running the next day.