Identifying Structure...

Doug Vahrenberg · Post by **Doug Vahrenberg** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 7:55 am

Here's an image with lots of neat structure can you identify the different types of structure in this images lets see if we can guess what's all in this image that could hold fish....

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:59 am

rock pile middle on screen with some stumps lower screen all located on the right hand of the picture. I'm not sure what is in the middle of the screen, maybe the shore?

I'd fish this with a jig or a California rig.... go on ask me what a California rig is.

Doug Vahrenberg · Post by **Doug Vahrenberg** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:06 pm

What's a California Rig?

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:30 pm

I'm glad you asked! Carolina rig but California style. I place a brass weight 1/8oz to 3/8oz on my line first then i place a glass bead on my line. I slide a bobber stopper on next and with a mojo tool i peg my glass bead with a small peace of spinnerbait rubber. Then I tie on the appropriate size hook i'll use for the plastic bait.

i have a question about my Hummingbird units. I have a 998c si on my bow and a 1198c si on my drivers console. Both units have problems when i use my trolling motor. Motorguide 109 36 volt digital. The units will show noise when i have my trolling motor on. I have both units attached to my cranking battery via my master switch. I have both units noise adjustment at 3 which is the highest.

The noise only shows on the down and side imaging and not on the 2D. I snapped this shot with my bow 998c si unit.

Here is a picture of the issue. I was turning on and off my trolling motor when i took this snap shot.

thanks!!

Doug Vahrenberg · Post by **Doug Vahrenberg** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:09 pm

here is my image marked with what is happening in the image.

Doug Vahrenberg · Post by **Doug Vahrenberg** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:17 pm

basstrophy wrote: i have a question about my Hummingbird units. I have a 998c si on my bow and a 1198c si on my drivers console. Both units have problems when i use my trolling motor. Motorguide 109 36 volt digital. The units will show noise when i have my trolling motor on. I have both units attached to my cranking battery via my master switch. I have both units noise adjustment at 3 which is the highest.

The noise only shows on the down and side imaging and not on the 2D. I snapped this shot with my bow 998c si unit.

Here is a picture of the issue. I was turning on and off my trolling motor when i took this snap shot.

thanks!!

That is Radio Frequency - Electrical Noise. Try adjusting the Noise Filter in the Sonar Master Menu. If that doesn't help Humminbird has been proactive with reducing and eliminating RF/Electrical Noise and have steps to help resolve. Call HB Customer Service and they can help 800-633-1468

htimsdet · Post by **htimsdet** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 1:03 pm

Great question on the bow 997 interference. I bought a 998 two weeks ago and mounted it on the bow and your pictures look just like my unit. Interference with SI and DI, not 2D. I have a 798 on the console which does not pick up any interference. I bought the unit at Phil's Propeller and they were great in swapping out my puck style transducer for a high speed skimmer. I haven't been able to give it a fair on-the-water test, but would love to hear what HB support told you about you interference.

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:46 pm

I emailed Hummingbird and received a responce today. They suggest a double ground or a choke.

"The first thing we would recommend is a double grounding where you would connect a wire to the negative side of the battery that the unit is connected to then to any metal part of the trolling motor shaft."

" If you continue to have an issue after the double ground we have a
trolling motor choke that can be purchased to help eliminate interference and the part number for it is TMC 1 and the cost of it is $59.99."

I am going to install the double ground first as they suggested. I am going to run a wire from my trolling motor shaft to the ground where my unit connects to my boats wiring. If this don't work i'm going to purchase the choke.

I'll let you know what happens after Saturday when i go fishing with the double ground. BTW fishing is off the hook right now.

htimsdet · Post by **htimsdet** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:21 am

Thanks BASSTROPHY for your reply. I hope the double ground works and will be interested to see if it clears up the interference. If it works, would you tell me where you connected to ground wire on the trolling motor shaft?

Replacing my transducer helped, but still have interference with down imaging and side imaging. Please keep me posted.

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:56 pm

htimsdet,

It's pretty simple to double ground your Hummingbird unit.

* purchased black 16 or 18 gage wire and small black wire ties

*placed a wire connector on the wire

* used a hose clamp to attach the wire connector to the bottom of the shaft.

* ran the wire along the transducer wire attached with small wire ties. I started the wire almost to the bottom of my trolling motor shaft next to the lower unit (next to no moving parts of the shaft)

*connected the other side of the wire to my negitive side of my unit (wire from my master switch where I connected my power to my unit)

The hardest part was cutting off all the wire tie ends, the rest was easy.I could have put the hose clamp anywhere along the shaft but I wanted to get away from any moving parts of the trolling motor shaft.

Gone fishing

htimsdet · Post by **htimsdet** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 8:31 am

Thanks for the instructions. My club tournament at Clearlake was canceled this weekend, so I'll run the double ground and test it out on Shasta Monday. Hope you wack-um this weekend.

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:04 am

I tried the double ground at the lake yesterday and I was extremely pleased at first. It worked well, until the end of the day, but once my batteries became low the nosie showed back up. The day at the lake was windy and rainy. I was on my trolling motor all day long around 50% most of the time. The double ground worked perfect for the first 10 hours but the last hour the noise returned. I'm assuming when the batteries became low the noise returned, since this was the only change. Also when I was in 20 feet or less the nosie wouldn't show up as bad but once I placed my boat in 30 feet of water or more the noise showed up on my unit.

I'm going to purchase the choke and install it. I'll reply again once i've tested the choke.

Last weekend the fishing was awesome and yesterday with the water temps returning to 51 degs water temp dropped 3 to 4 degrees in a week sure made fishing tough. Last week we had over 16 lbs of black bass at Mc Clure and this weekend we never caught a black bass. We had all spots for around 11 lbs. Spring time when the bass want to spawn and the water temps lower a few degrees sure can make fishing tough. Text book bass fishing conditions.

htimsdet · Post by **htimsdet** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:21 pm

Basstrophy,

I tried out the double ground today on Lake Shasta. It was an improvement, but not perfect; however, it was definately worth the effort. Thanks for your instructions for the installation. I'll be looking forward to your posting on how the choke works!

Thanks again to your imformative information on the interference problem!!!

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:18 pm

I ordered the choke and it will arrive at my door on Friday by the end of day. I'm going to install the choke and fish on Saturday. I'll talk with you soon on how it works. Keeping my fingers crossed for it to arrive on time.

Thank you htimsdet.

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:21 pm

The choke came in yesterday and I installed it. Amazon.com was the best price i found, $40 delivered to my door. The choke is a part about the size of your fist looking at your fingers from your knuckles towards your tip of your fingers. Installation was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. Since the part is big and I ended up placing it under my front deck; but the installation was clean looking.

If you're wondering, as I did, just how to install the choke here's the installation directions:

*Foot Pedal Mount: for trolling motors where the power line comes out of the foot pedal(for example: Minn Kota*, motor guide*), the trolling motor choke should be mounted as close to the foot pedal as possible and located in one of the following two locations:

* select a location in the recessed foot pedal compartment so that the trolling motor choke can be tucked out of the way, or

*Select a location on the deck that is between the foot pedal and the trolling motor. ( yes between your pedal and trolling motor)

*Make sure your power is off (breaker) and unhook the positive and negative sides of the trolling motor battery. (crazy not to disconnect the power because you'll weld your tools to the wires)

*Foot pedal mount: cut the trolling motor power line approximately 4" from the foot pedal. Do NOT cut the steer cable.(Hilarious)

*Place the trolling motor choke in the selected mounting location between the cut wires. The short end of the trolling motor choke wires should be placed cloeset to the motor base or the foot pedal.

* one part of the instructions it does not say is to place some solder on the cut end of the wire before crimping together. I would recommend soldering the ends so the wires don't spread and become lose inside the connector. If you noticed your humminbird power ends were soldered from the factory. This will assure a better connection.

That was a shorter version for just the foot pedal mount. It's not word for word but very close to what the instructions states. Yes, I did add some of my own words.

I'm off to the lake tomorrow to test the choke, I'll post the results. I'd take pictures of my installation but my camera only takes pictures of beach bunnies. :>)) If someone wants to see the finished installation, I'll post some pictures.

NOTE: I have been looking at the youtube humminbird videos and they are very helpful. BUT I never found anything on installing the choke on youtube.

basstrophy · Post by **basstrophy** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:46 am

Installed the choke and went fishing on Saturday, the choke worked. I still have a little noise but the noise only shows up on the bank part of the screen.

As I stated on the earlier post the choke was a pain to install because of where I placed it. If you were to look at my trolling motor you would never know a choke was there.

Don't forget to sweat or place some soilder onto the cut wires of your trolling motor before crimping.

Beautiful weather, gone fishing!

Keep IT Wet!

htimsdet · Post by **htimsdet** » Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:42 am

Basstrophy,

Thanks again for all the good info on the choke. I am heading to Clearlake tomorrow for four days of fishing. This will give me my best shot of checking out the double ground. If is turns out the interference is something I don't want to deal with, I'll bite the bullet and order the choke.

Thanks again for you candid information on addressing the interference problem. You have been very helpful!!

htimsdet