Fine Tuning the Fish Finder / GPS (Lowrance)

[N/R Salmon slayer]

Before I throw my Lowrance GPS #537 (I think thats the Product code) I figured there has to be some one out there that could help in fine tuning it?

The fish finder is 2 years old and I really think the problem is called human ignorance and lack of training so lets start there.

It works great for depth and GPS, but for the life of me I can't pick up fish on it. I can be anchored in the Columbia catching salmon and other people are marking fish and I see nothing? I have tried adjusting the ping speed and chart speed, as directed by the electronics guru as Fishermens in Delta Park but it didn't help?

Could it have been my great engineering freind who spent a couple of hours playing with it "fine tuning" as he put it when it was new? My other thought would be to see if I could set it back to the factory settings and leaving it alone. I have used cheaper fish finders and they have all worked better then my Lowrance for marking fish.

Any help or direction would be appreciated. Or if someone out there would like to make a sturgeon trip in the near future in the Willamette that would be an option.

Thanks,

[Pirate]

N/R
I'm no expert as you will see, but I have an older Lowrance and we experienced the same thing. Nothing on the graph but the bottom, but we'd catch fish as regularly as you would expect. We would talk to other fishermen that said they were marking fish when we weren't. Finally before we chucked it in the river, we started playing around with the sensitivity and cranked it up to where the screen was filled with clutter, then backed it off just to where the clutter went away. Now we are getting suspended blobs on the screen from time to time. They are not arches like you would expect just blobs. Are they fish.....who knows.:anyone: When there are a bunch of blobs, we don't seem to catch any more fish than when there are no blobs on the screen. At least from time to time it gives us something to look at and the hope we are fishing over suspended fish.
Play with the sensitivity and see what happens....:cheers:

[Jsteel]

Pay a lot of attention to your transducer mounting. I have a Lowrance -- mounted it on my boat, thought it was mounted well -- could see bottom, but very few fish. Finally figured out that my transducer was level to the ground -- when the boat was on the trailer. But on the water, the boat floats at a slightly different angle, and I wasn't getting a good return. Adjusted the angle just a touch -- suddenly I can see much more than before.

[StickFish]

Turn off Fish ID
Turn off Fish ID depth
Turn off Auto Sensitivity
Turn off auto range

When in the water set the depth range more than double what your depth is. For instance in 60 feet of water set the depth range to 150 feet.

Turn up manual sensitivity until you get a double bottom return. One at 60 feet, the other at 120 feet.

You should be good to go.

Turn auto depth range back on.

Play with ping speed and chart speed depending on speed of water, current and boat speed - faster those are going, faster you want chart speed. I max my ping speed I think

[N/R Salmon slayer]

I will do as stickfish suggested and follow his steps.

As well, I had the opportunity to fish with Gary Geis with Double G Guide Service yesterday and asked him some questions about my problems. Notice I didn't mention the fishing in Tilly... I have to be honest and commend Gary on the day. He is a top notch guide and very pleasant guy to fish with. His deck hand Pat was just as nice. I will be back with him again when the opportunity arrises! I asked him the same question about my GPS / Fish Finder and he had some suggestions as well. Since my fish finder operates on both 50 megahertz and 200 megahertz due to having the capability to do depths up to 2,000ft. he said to go back to the auto settings take off all the auto fish allerts and make sure the setting is on 200 megahertz. He had similar problems some time back and as he switched between the 50 and 200 he could immediately see a difference. He did say to keep the ping speed up and to play with the sensitivity just as Stickfish suggested.

If you read this far down I have to say fishing was fishing (not catching with the exception of the one chum salmon), but we had a great first time experience in Tilly bay. And seriously if you know someone looking for a great guide give Gary a call.

Jim

[Randy]

Jim:

Before I would start anything with these units back up all waypoints, trails and routes.

1. Do you have the correct amps available for unit and correct wire sizes for positive and negitive wires. If not this will affect how the unit works by not having enough amps to run the unit.

2. Is the unit version of software up to date? New version is 2.4.0 as of 9/30/08. This is for unit LMS-527C DF iGPS (http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products/Marine/Full-Size-SonarGPS-Chartplotter-Combos/LMS-527C-DF-iGPS/Downloads/LMS-527C-DF-iGPS-Software-Update/). You will need to verify your machine. I could not find a 537.

http://www.lowrance.com/en/Downloads/Product-Software-Updates/

To see what version press menu button twice, select system setup, slect software information. if your version is the same there is no need to update.

3. From here you have a choice, to make changes as some have suggested or you can do:

A. Soft Reset, all features, options and setting to ther default settings -press menu button twice, select system setup, reset options. This option will not erase your waypoints, trails or routes.

B. Hard Reset, erases all that anybody has helped you with and waypoints, routes and tracks. Will reset unit to factory default setting. You will be ok if you backed up your waypoints, routes and trails to a memory card.

4. Transducer mounted correctly. 1/8 to 1/4 inch center line of the transducer below the hull and angled forward slightly.
Unit should show the bottom while under speed. If not adjust transducer. Better defination of bottom when the boat slows down and transducer power settings.

Lots of good information in your manual. If you don't have one you can down load this also at there web site.

Hope this helps. If you are not comfortable doing changes or resets don't. Give someone a call or you are more than welcome to e-mail or call me.

Randy
Dundee, OR
Boat: Her Money

[N/R Salmon slayer]

Thanks Randy,

Since I live in McMinnville and work in Washington one of these evenings if you have some time I would like to stop by and go over it with you.

Your comment about soft reset and hard just saved my Waypoints. I hadn't thought that far into it it. That would have been a nightmare going out fishing and punching in WP and finding it blank!

I will send you a PM to see when is a good time to catch-up with you. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I need to get the boat up to Charboneau N/R service department for winterizing, possible coordinate it around that.

Talk to you soon.

Thanks,

Jim

[Road Rage]

In the recent past years, Lowrance has sponsored the "Lowrance University" at the sportsmen's shows. I assume they'll be doing it again this year. I learned a lot of valuable info in this class. It's about 1.5 hrs long and teaches you how to get the most out of your ff by adjusting the sensitivity, color line, etc. Might be something to check into. I had to sign-up for the class at the Lowrance booth at the show the seating was limited.