Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

Hey guys I wanted to share something that happened to me. I bought a new Elite 5 DSI on July 4th. I installed it on my trolling motor and went fishing. I fish almost exclusively shallow weedy water and weed edges for Bass. From the first moment I began fishing I noticed that the sonar could not locate bottom. In other words the depth indicator was just blinking. This continued despite my attempts to correct it using forum information etc. I called Lowrance yesterday and discussed this problem with tech support. They told me that because of the angle of dispersion from the DSI transducer (more like a wedge not a cone) that the DSI would not be suitable for shallow weedy water. They said that for this type of fishing a standard sonar was desirable. They gave me an incident number and said to give the unit back to the store I got it from for a credit. Has anyone else had issues in shallow weedy water? I am talking two feet to 6 feet of depth. Even at 6 feet the weed cover comes almost to the surface. I fish the holes in the weeds with plastics.

I agree with Lowrance. The 455 and 800 kHz signals of the downscan will read the matted weeds as solid bottom in that shallow of water.

NoCAL

Unfortunately the Down Scan Image is not the best choice for your style of fishing, shallow water under 6 feet deep. This sonar image really shines in reservoirs and uses where you are looking for structure in 10 feet of water and deeper, all the way to 80 feet. An Elite 5 with the broadband sonar would be better for you application.