Garmin Striker 7sv very poor sideview results

I just purchased a Garmin Striker 7sv as an upgrade to the Garmin Striker4 plus I had been using for the last couple years. I was hoping to use the new side scanning feature to map out brush piles on the waters I fish in, especially for crappie hunting.

Well, I'm really disappointed with the results after two fishing trips and probably 6 hours of trying out different settings while passing back and forth by known structure. It looks to me like the sideview feature is going to be useless for locating crappie structure. It's barely possible to make out a stone wall in 10 feet of water with this depth finder's sideview, after tuning to the best possible settings for it. This is sideview in name only.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who uses one what their experience is. Really sorry I dropped the money on this unit so far.

I had a lot of the same trouble but did eventually get it to work halfway decent. I still didn't really have a lot of luck finding brushpiles with it though, that is still true with the 93SV I have now.

Firstly your scroll speed should roughly match the boat speed. 3-5mph is about right for SI.

Second, I always had better luck with 455khz than 800.

Lastly check your trasducer location. I had mine on the transom just off center beside the outboard for a long time. When I moved it to the outside corner, images improved quite a bit. I'm not sure if the motor was obscuring the image, or if it was caused by turbulence, but it worked way better.

I have the 7sv and my son has the 7sv plus. Never a problem except transducer cable would work loose sometimes. So I put silicone chalk on it. without seeing your screen, I'm guessing. Make sure about transducer placement, then make sure brightness and contrast are not to high. Start will 455 until you dial in a clear picture. Stay in water 15 to 30 feet to make adjustments. Stay with about 40 feet sideview until you get dialed in. If that fails, I'd return it.

Thanks Atimm693. I am using it on my rowing boat, so no there is no outboard or trolling motor to block or interfere with the transducer. Transducer is mounted near the stern directly on the bottom of the boat, ahead of the rear fin and right on the centerline. The bottom is flat. The transducer has a completely open view all around, and no turbulence is generated at these speeds and this location.

Boat speed is right at 3.2 mph, under oars, for my cruising speed, and these tests.

I've tried both 455 and 800 kHz, and I think I also agree that 455 is better, but I need to check that and write down my actual settings for what I got as best imaging before I forget or change them. Unfortunately the transducer seems to need to be hooked up (and therefore the boat in water) for the SideVu settings menu to come up so I can copy them. I'll put them up here as well.

What transducer does your 93SV have? Mine has a gt52.

Do you find the side image is better with the 93SV than it was with Striker 7sv?

I will try to get some pix of the display next time I'm out on the water, and post them here.

Thanks Jay, also. You don't happen to have any pix of your sideview in action, so I could compare what a known good unit shows?

I'll post mine when I get back in the water. Maybe I can do that today..... depends on weather this afternoon.

I'm in the same boat, very disappointed with my side image. I have mine mounted on my trolling motor and get a so so image when I shut the trolling motor off. I placed a piece of 1/4" rubber in between the tmotor head and the transducer and still get interference, my problem seams to come from the transducer cable being to close to wires for the tmoter. I don't know but plan on keeping up with this thread to maby try something someone else suggest.

Hi Skippa Chippa, sorry to hear about the problems. They do seem to be from a different cause than mine -- I'm sure you can reduce or minimize trolling motor interference with some effort. But happy if others chime in here with suggestions for you. For me the big problem has just been that the image presented has minimal detail, so it's difficult to make out even prominent structures. I think I've managed to get a noticeably better image than I first got using Garmin's factory default settings. Here's an example of the kind of thing I got first day out with the defaults on a "Vivid" Striker 7sv (I didn't order the Vivid model btw, but one was sent anyway).

I'll put up the worst depth sounder screens first, and in subsequent posts show what I eventually arrived at to get the best images I can (so far) with this unit after many hours of experimentation. Literally!

Notice the default vivid color scheme called "Rusted Iron" it seems nonsensical to me, being orange and blue -- what the colors indicate individually I have no idea. Nothing really useful, at least in the waters where I'm using the unit.

Picked up in this screenshot (barely) is a stone wall in the lower portion crossing the screen. In reality that stone wall is at least 4' wide.

And nothing else in that image that I can decipher. If I didn't know that was a stone wall (plainly visible over the side of the boat) I'd have a hard time guessing just what it was.

Shown first is the land end of the stone wall on shore at about the same distance away from the boat that the Garmin screen shot is portraying.

Attachment 406178 Attachment 406177

Notice also that the boat speed in the abve shot is only 1.55 mph. Any faster and the stone wall would have been even narrower. This is at Garmin's "Fast" chart speed -- which should widen the image of the stone wall itself, making it more visible, but keeping it on screen for a shorter time before scrolling off.

Okay moving on to the next image, improved over the last one (Garmin's Striker 7sv default). This new image is after two days of fiddling with settings over the same stone wall. They are as follows:

Range 40ft
Contrast 40%
No Zoom
Brightness Auto High
Frequency Chirp 800 kHz
View Selection L+R

Sonar Setup:
Depth Line Hide
Color Scheme Amber
Noise Rejection:
Interference Medium
TVG High
Scroll Speed Ultra
Flip Left/Right ON (my boat is a rowboat, so I face the stern)
Transducer type GT52HW

It is possible to make out the stone wall more clearly with only one color. And the rest of the image is more intuitively interpretable. The settings also reduce contrast quite a bit and increase brightness.

Attachment 406179

Finally today I tested with a 455 kHz frequency instead of 800, switched brightness to Auto Medium, Range 30 ft, Noise rejection: Interference to Low and TVG to Medium. Results are more in line with what I would expect a stone wall to look like. Notice the speed is only .51 mph. This seems to match the rock size and shape better to the image at this "Fast" scroll speed. The stone wall finally looks to be about in proportion.

Attachment 406180

I'm sure you've watched a bunch of youtube vids of how to set up the side view and tweeks to use, right? Does your unit have the ability to record as you go along, so you can replay it when home and play with the settings? That may help, too. Helped me a ton when I got started. In my opinion, 455 is for finding, 800 is for detailing at closer range after finding it with 455.
In my limited experience, you're trying to capture great images in a difficult setting. Looks like there is a ton of weeds and plant life in your 2nd picture and that is really tough to get good images in. I think you need to cut your sensitivity back some more. Another thing is your distance out from depth; rule of thumb is 3x your depth to either side so your 40' in 7' of water is kinda iffy.
While I have a HB unit, friend of mine got a new Garmin and I've been watching video's like this one. I think this guy does a very good job presenting settings and what to look for. I realize your unit might not have exactly what he's showing but it might help you get a bit more on the right track. He discusses brightness, TVG, contrast, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Eqq6mdwA7w

Another thing to try is to get out into some deeper water and get away from that weed growth a bit so you're not so cluttered with returns. For instance, if the weed edge stops at the drop off where it drops down at the 12' depth, move over another15-20 feet so the edge shows on the one side but not the other. Then fuss some with the settings and see if it's a bit easier to see without all the clutter of the weed returns.
I'm betting you will find good results with some more playing around with it.

I had a striker 9sv and never could get side images that I was happy with. It did help me catch some fish, you could see that there was some kind of structure but definitely couldn’t tell what it was, I ended up selling it and buying a humminbird helix 10.. world of difference in side imaging quality. Hopefully you’ll get your unit dialed in better then I was able to


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Thanks 6poundtest. That video was good, and I wish I had found it earlier. I did search for Garmin sideimaging, but only got videos of un-boxings and a few on-water mentions of how useful side imaging was. Nothing about actual settings.

That said, the settings I have worked out the hard way so far are similar to the above video host's settings but they also differ because the Garmin units and transducers are different. I think it's funny that with all of the possible color schemes, we both hit on the same amber one as best compared to the 30 or so other ones.

I don't have a sensitivity control, and don't have memory capability, so I can't recall scenes.

I will be taking it out on the Connecticut River again today (vs the weedy pond with the stone wall) and the bottom should be quite different and varied. We'll see what kind of performance we get there. Might actually even fish!

Thanks so much for your help and suggestions, and the video is definitely a good one.

Thanks Tex-79!

Spent a couple hours on the CT River and Retreat Meadows setback with the Garmin Striker 7sv, and I'm going to rate the sideview capability as acceptable at this point. Not as good as the demo or other videos, but useful enough for me. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm going to keep the unit.

No new striking discoveries re. settings. Definitely the 455 kHz setting is preferred. Switching back and forth to 800 kHz showed that the latter merely increased graininess and contrast. Tests were over relatively weed-free sand bottoms with occasional objects like logs and boulders. Maybe other brands or models of depthsounder get improved detail in sideview with higher frequencies, but this one does not.

Unlike some other Garmin models (like the one in the video linked earlier in the thread), the Striker 7sv display also does not need a high contrast setting. Best setting for 455 kHz (for me) was 40%, and for the granier and higher contrast 800 kHz mode, 24%. This was in the waters I was using it on ranging from 10-20' deep.

I also don't like the auto-range function, it jumps around too much in a river situation because of bars and holes....it seems to be easiest to read if the range is set manually to 30' to 40' at the depth range I'm using it in.

Amber, a single color display, is a must.

I think the manufacturer should improve the user's manual with a discussion of settings, illustrated with screen photos of the effects, and also ship these units with a usable sideview setup. The factory default sideview setting is apparently a demo of all the cool features (multi-color, 800kHz, auto everything) but to all intents and purposes, completely unusable for side imaging As such it will cause the same first day consternation that I experienced. With a poor initial setup, and no manual explanation of how to get a better result, this sonar will not get a good first user impression.

I downloaded the manual from Garmin for your unit and gave it a quick read through. Your sensitivity is called gain and is adjustable. Looks like you have to move data, like maps you might make yourself, using the Active Captain using wi-fi.
I think it has real potential to provide good results for you but that is going to take time on the water, fiddling with settings to get comfortable with it. Keeping the scroll speed on auto sounds like a good plan but I think I'd be looking at putting whatever other settings you can in to manual mode. Give yourself time to learn it. One thing I do remember reading is the side imaging is best kept closer to the boat rather than extended way out there. Something to do with both the power of the unit and the angle of the piezos in the 'ducer.
In case you haven't, you might read back on the Garmin board over on the BBC forums; lots of power users there that might be able to help as well.

I found one or two in my phone history this morning. Will try and get one of them up later today. Youtube the guy "fish the moment." His vid on settings in pretty good.
My best pics come between 1 and 4 mph. Anything over 5 has waves in it, and under 1 it starts to blurr and stretch of fuzzy. Try to learn in 15-20 fow and scan width on 40.
Use days that ain't fit to fish to cruise around adjust and learn.
I chose Garmin because of price and read it was simple to use.
Lowrance and Birds may be better, I don't know, but I'm happy with our strikers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 6poundtest

I downloaded the manual from Garmin for your unit and gave it a quick read through. Your sensitivity is called gain and is adjustable.

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Sorry 6poundtest, but this isn't true.

Unfortunately Garmin's short 20 page "user manual" is generic, supposedly covering the 4, 5, 6, and 7 models in all of their individual varieties (like the Striker 4, Striker 4 Plus, Striker 4cv, etc.). It hasn't been responsibly updated or even separated by model. so what little specific helpful information it contains is compounded by errors. It's a mix of features and photos of different model screens and layouts, and it's left up to the user to figure out what applies to what.

There is no "gain" or sensitivity setting in the Striker 7, despite what the manual says. Maybe there was in a Striker 4 of five years ago, who knows? I listed all of the settings available on my depth sounder in my earlier post, as well as what I set them to.

But I do thank you, 6PT, though for trying to help out and going to the trouble of reading the manual. I'll look into the Garmin board on the BBC forums, and thanks for that!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jay the baptist

I found one or two in my phone history this morning. Will try and get one of them up later today. Youtube the guy "fish the moment." His vid on settings in pretty good.
My best pics come between 1 and 4 mph. Anything over 5 has waves in it, and under 1 it starts to blurr and stretch of fuzzy. Try to learn in 15-20 fow and scan width on 40.
Use days that ain't fit to fish to cruise around adjust and learn.
I chose Garmin because of price and read it was simple to use.
Lowrance and Birds may be better, I don't know, but I'm happy with our strikers.

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Thanks JTB, I'll watch "Fish the moment" My settings and depths have been in line with what you suggest, and I can't row much faster than 4 mph, so that's right in line, too. :-)

I have no experience of Lowrance and HumminBirds, but have owned two other Garmins (Striker 4, and Striker 4Plus) which I was quite happy with, so I'm actually quite familiar with them.

I don't have the same problem with the Striker 7sv sideview under 1mph that you do for some reason, if you check out the 3 screen shots I showed earlier, the third one is the best and it is under 1mph.

Guys in general I want to repeat, I'm satisfied that I can use the unit now with the settings I worked out. I can see structure to enough of a degree to make it worthwhile. The quality is not as good as the simulator makes it look on this unit, the initial factory settings were problematic, and the manual is poor and in need of a rewrite, but I've stuck with it, spent enough hours dialing it in, and bottom structure is fairly legible for me. I'm looking forward to checking out possible crappie structure on my stretch of the Connecticut.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SRHacksaw

Spent a couple hours on the CT River and Retreat Meadows setback with the Garmin Striker 7sv, and I'm going to rate the sideview capability as acceptable at this point. Not as good as the demo or other videos, but useful enough for me. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm going to keep the unit.

No new striking discoveries re. settings. Definitely the 455 kHz setting is preferred. Switching back and forth to 800 kHz showed that the latter merely increased graininess and contrast. Tests were over relatively weed-free sand bottoms with occasional objects like logs and boulders. Maybe other brands or models of depthsounder get improved detail in sideview with higher frequencies, but this one does not.

Unlike some other Garmin models (like the one in the video linked earlier in the thread), the Striker 7sv display also does not need a high contrast setting. Best setting for 455 kHz (for me) was 40%, and for the granier and higher contrast 800 kHz mode, 24%. This was in the waters I was using it on ranging from 10-20' deep.

I also don't like the auto-range function, it jumps around too much in a river situation because of bars and holes....it seems to be easiest to read if the range is set manually to 30' to 40' at the depth range I'm using it in.

Amber, a single color display, is a must.

I think the manufacturer should improve the user's manual with a discussion of settings, illustrated with screen photos of the effects, and also ship these units with a usable sideview setup. The factory default sideview setting is apparently a demo of all the cool features (multi-color, 800kHz, auto everything) but to all intents and purposes, completely unusable for side imaging As such it will cause the same first day consternation that I experienced. With a poor initial setup, and no manual explanation of how to get a better result, this sonar will not get a good first user impression.

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My 93 has the GT52 as well. I think it does work better for whatever reason. I don't really use SI all that much, mostly in the winter looking for shad schools, because I am not all that competent with it otherwise.

They say 3x the depth is a good rule of thumb for SI range. I never use the auto range either.

My biggest gripe with the Striker series is the silly friction fit power connector. I always had trouble with them working loose while running through a heavy chop. Probably not an issue on a rowboat though.

I had a Helix 5 for a while, the SI on that kicked butt with hardly any fiddling, even though the screen was tiny.

I use a 93sv echo map UHD (54 transducer )and it does good "if " you keep the range say 60 ft. or less in the waters I fish . I also have a 74 ECHOMAP UHD on the trolling motor . the 93 does a pretty good job on sideview . but to be honest the downview is the best on these units to me . I have no problem finding structure but it requires more tinkering with the range and sensitivity than they let on . I think that taking the unit to the lake and not fishing (play with adjustments )will help learn these units on the fly . Garmin was more cost efficient than Birds when I went with them . Live scope was a big player in my choices as well . Gain settings will help on sideview and play with color pallets as well .

I've had more experience with my Garmin Striker 7sv, most recently on a small trout lake with a fairly hard clean bottom and depths to 36' with sparse weeds only in water 2' or less. It did well under those conditions, since there was little on the bottom, structure stood out well.

The screen is somewhat small at 7" so using left or right side only views (when possible) rather than both-side view helped. The targets were mostly small. I was able to make out an occasional sunken tree, and rocks of, say bowling ball size. Even individual fish (I think) as small bright pinpoints.

All of this was with the settings I've listed earlier in this thread, 455kHz and Amber hue were absolutely essential, and 40% contrast, and auto-med or auto-high for brightness were helpful.

I caught 3 rainbows, and lost or released a half dozen others, and I believe the SI did help me get in the vicinity of where fish were holding under these conditions. Of course in conjunction with the normal down imaging. In the down imaging, which was excellent, I was able to see my vertical jigging lure if the boat wasn't drifting, and could control depth, and I even saw a couple of rises to it and takes.

I'm still looking forward to trying the SI out on crappie habitat elsewhere.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SRHacksaw

I caught 3 rainbows, and lost or released a half dozen others, and I believe the SI did help me get in the vicinity of where fish were holding under these conditions. Of course in conjunction with the normal down imaging. In the down imaging, which was excellent, I was able to see my vertical jigging lure if the boat wasn't drifting, and could control depth, and I even saw a couple of rises to it and takes.

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If you like that kind of sharpshooting technique, use 2D.

Turn the sensitivity to auto high, A-scope on, scroll speed to fast. A 1/32 oz jig will show up, and you'll be able to see fish that are in the cone. It works like a flasher, poor man's livescope.

So through all of this have you confirmed your transducer is level front to back and side to side with how your boat sits at sonar speed? It will not be level with the hull of the boat, never seen one that was. You do this by using a level on the side and center deck of your boat while you are moving at the correct speed. Search on youtube "leveling side imaging transducer" and you will see the tricks on how to do it.

For side imaging you want to be at 3-5mph, any slower and your images will look fuzzy like in your pictures. Keep your speed at auto.

Garmin 800khz side imaging is phenomenal, your pictures definitely say something is wrong. way more than 9 out of 10 "my side imaging looks bad" posts are due to incorrect installation of the transducer. Did we see any pics on how its mounted to the boat?? I read most replies and didnt catch it.

Buddys of mine have the same unit and you can pick out a crappie sitting on brush 40 feet to the side with ease, looks nothing like your pics. Your pics look like my old humminbird. My garmin UHD side imaging is like looking at a picture, I can see 12" sticks laying on bottom off to the side and count the number of fish sitting in a brush pile.