School me on the Lowrance Structure Scan

[Jeep09]

I have the HDS10 and Structurescan. I am wondering what tricks and advice on getting the most out it you have learned.

 

[tykkyt e blue]

If you find out something useful??? pleases let me know... so far my impression of mine is semi - useless for anything deeper than 50-60 feet down and the side scan is hard to interpret.
It is cool to see the things under the dock that have been dropped over the years ( crab trap, net, BBQ?, etc )

 

[Last Chance]

I have it. great for chasing fish offshore, i find it invaluable for that. Inshore its mainly for seeing details on the bottom. I do love mine. Low contrast and 455hz when deeper then eighty feet

 

[Jeep09]

what percentage is low contrast? I have been running it very high, about 90%, generally fishing less than 100 feet. I use the down scan most of the time when trolling

 

[TenMile]

I like to use mine on the 4 screen split. I've got it set up with the top two screens as the structure scan (one side-scan and the other down scan), then the traditional Sonar at the bottom right and the chart at the bottom left.

Works great for marking fish and bait, watching the contour lines etc. I do find that you have to play around with the contrast day by day and depth by depth. Getting it to mark fish is a bit of a challenge for sure -- no problem with bait balls.

 

[Hookin'up]

you guys that say its only good for under 100 feet should talk to mike at the harbor chandler
he's has a sd card full of footage proving its good with pics of wrecks and such on the bottom up to 400' even lowrance couldnt believe it.............at first.

 

[Sculpin]

you guys that say its only good for under 100 feet should talk to mike at the harbor chandler
he's has a sd card full of footage proving its good with pics of wrecks and such on the bottom up to 400' even lowrance couldnt believe it.............at first.

He came out and showed me 3 of the wrecks around Nanaimo and I'm blown away by it. The water conditions play a big part on the clarity of the image. I used it a few times to find bait balls out to the side and it definitely works great for that. To tell you the truth I didn't play around with it much at all on the WC this year. Almost forgot I had it most of the time. I will spend some more time with it over the winter when the fishing is slow and there is nothing better to do lol. Good tips Last Chance and others. I always feel like I have only touched the tip of the iceburg with this newer technology and need to spend more time using it and finding out all the capabilities.

 

[albernifisher]

Used side scan alot for sockeye fishing, it was allmost like cheating. So clear you can actually count how many fish are in a school and target the schools of bigger ones.

 

[Jeep09]

off the Little Q tonight, played with it lots, contrast at 90's, keep it on the green colour. I am trying to dial it in for actual fish, lots of bait balls especially later in the evening.

 

[searun]

Got one this season. Takes a lot of getting used to. Can see fish off to either side of the boat, which allows you to swing back and line up on them. I can say that a few times (I mean few) it actually resulted in nailing a chinook. I generally find it more useful for seeing where the bait is. Can't say that I was very proficient at using it off shore. Might need to get LC on my boat for a lesson or two. For fun, run yours in the Alberni Harbour - man are there a lot of logs and crap that show up clear as day. LC if you can offer any tips on how to zone in for off shore, would appreciate any tips.