Help with Lowrance electronics

[sfdfishinfool]

I am looking for some advice on my electronics. I have a lcx15mt on the bow and a lms520 on the dash. I want to know what are good ping and sensitivity settings for the delta and foothill lakes. I feel that I have not getting the proper readings. I am just getting into the game and looking for some good advice. Thanks !

[jimmy87]

reset to the factory setting for a starting point.
the sensitivity most of the time is a bit too high for my liking.
I just nudge it down a little bit until most of the clutter is gone.

I leave the ping speed alone.

ping speed will all depend on how fast you are running the boat.

I do all of my graphing with the boat idling. if I pick up much of any speed I loose the details of the bottom. in order to get it back I need to either slow down the boat, or increase the ping speed.
I choose to always search at the same speed.

when you are looking for fish and or structure at the stern, always do this at the same speed. 2 or 3 MPH works for me.

another tip, when the boat is on a ramp, look at the graph and note what that concert looks like. that will show you what a hard bottom looks like. (bass love hard bottom)

when you KNOW you are over weeds in the delta look at the graphs and see how it looks.

same for anything else.

when searching the bottom pivot the stern of the boat left and right. by that I mean turn hard right and hard left over and over.
while just idling along nice and slow.
this will sweep the bottom with the transducer cone much better.
the area that you see on that graph of the bottom is much smaller that we would like to think.
try dropping a 1 ounce spoon under your boat and see it on the graph. vertical jig it up and down. You will be able to see it, but you will learn fast how small that area your graph sees really is. Its a PAIN to keep that spoon on the graph.
Try these things and you will have a good udnerstanding of the graph I assure you.
Before long you will be ahead of the average angler.


keep looking at that screen and in time you will know what a bass looks like by seeing the same mark when you hook up.

Just keep in mind that the factory settings of the graph are very good. you will not need to adjust it to see fish, identify hard bottom from soft, weeds, rocks, and so on.

[tunaman]

For me, on my Lowrance meters (111c, 38c, 26c) I always keep the ping and chart speeds on max, auto-sensitivity off, and set sensitivity to 70 on lakes, and have adjusted down to 60 here on the Delta and the shallower water.

You'll need to experiment to find what suits your needs and conditions best, and don't be afraid to play with the settings to find what they are... you can always performa soft-reset to get the settings all back to factory defaults, so don't worry about screwing something up.

Roger

[WELDER DUDE]

How do you soft - reset??? Is there any one in Sacramento who gives lessons on Lowrance units??? I could use some help.

[tunaman]

Depends on your unit... the instructions can be found here:

http://www.lowrance.com.au/en-au/Suppor ... rocedures/

Roger

[WELDER DUDE]

Thanks I have a 26 hd

[Ken C.]

There was an article awhile ago in Bass West that described increasing your sensitivity until you saw a "double bottom" on your display. That is - the meter is reading not only the first reflection off the bottom but also reads the second bounce which is a result of the sound waves bouncing from bottom-to-surface-to-bottom-to-transducer. Then you can really see a jig or spoon down there but as was mentioned the view area is pretty small. You have to keep it right under the puck to see it.

One other thing to keep in mind is that in deeper water if you have a front & rear graph running you will pick up pings from the other unit that will show up as vertical lines on your display.