Toward the end of last summer I picked up my first saltwater fishing boat (21’ Fiberform). I spent a few weeks then working on mechanical things and fished it a few times. Overall things are going well. I’ve got it winterized now and my plans over the next while are to rewire it (typical old rat’s nest wiring job) and work through a list of little issues.
One of the relatively small issues is the sonar/GPS. The boat came with an old Garmin fishfinder and a Lowrance Elite-7 HDI. The previous owner only used the Lowrance for the GPS and the Garmin for sonar. He told me that the Lowrance didn’t work as a sonar. After a bit of investigating and messing with settings I found that the sonar did in fact work but that I couldn’t get great output on the display (best I could get was on 83 kHz frequency, as seen in photo). I traced the cable down to the hull and found a transducer mounted in epoxy there (Photo 2). Although I’m new to the saltwater game, it didn’t look right to me as a through hull transducer. I found the label on the transducer and it appears that it should be transom mounted. I’m not sure what led to it being placed where it is, but that’s where it is.
What I’m looking for is some suggestions for where to go from here. My plans are to fish local Vancouver waters most of the season, with hopefully a couple of WCVI trips over the summer. I want good, reliable sonar output in those waters, but don’t need/can’t afford the best of the best.
One of the relatively small issues is the sonar/GPS. The boat came with an old Garmin fishfinder and a Lowrance Elite-7 HDI. The previous owner only used the Lowrance for the GPS and the Garmin for sonar. He told me that the Lowrance didn’t work as a sonar. After a bit of investigating and messing with settings I found that the sonar did in fact work but that I couldn’t get great output on the display (best I could get was on 83 kHz frequency, as seen in photo). I traced the cable down to the hull and found a transducer mounted in epoxy there (Photo 2). Although I’m new to the saltwater game, it didn’t look right to me as a through hull transducer. I found the label on the transducer and it appears that it should be transom mounted. I’m not sure what led to it being placed where it is, but that’s where it is.
What I’m looking for is some suggestions for where to go from here. My plans are to fish local Vancouver waters most of the season, with hopefully a couple of WCVI trips over the summer. I want good, reliable sonar output in those waters, but don’t need/can’t afford the best of the best.