question regarding my fishfinder

[huzzsaba]

I bought a used fishfinder a few years ago. Honestly I haven't used it much.  I used it twice this year however for ice fishing.  The fishfinder is a low end Lowrance X4.  Bought it just to play around with to get a feel of what a fishfinder does.

It seems to work fine but I noticed that there may be some lag, and near the end of the ice fishing day, I was able to jig up and down but it never showed anything on the screen. By then I had packed it away thinking maybe the the boat transducer was not meant for the cold waters of ice fishing.

Anyways, I am planning to go for Laker fishing next week with Bear Point Ice huts, and was hoping to use it, but feel it may not be useful.  maybe its due to the fact that it is a low end unit, or maybe something to do with the setting.  Depth and temps it shows fine.  I have been using it on the 200 khz setting, and kept the transducer pretty much in the correct position about a foot below the ice.

 

Here is a link to the fishfinder

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/lowrance-x-4-pro-fish-finder-0793989p.html

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Edited February 3, 2018 by huzzsaba

[Fisherman]

Big thing is to start with a good fully charged battery, make sure all connectors are clean and tight. Make sure the power/transducer cables are not corroded and fully inserted.   There are currents in the water and sometimes your jig or whatever you use may not show because it's outside the zone. 

[huzzsaba]

6 minutes ago, Fisherman said:

Big thing is to start with a good fully charged battery, make sure all connectors are clean and tight. Make sure the power/transducer cables are not corroded and fully inserted.   There are currents in the water and sometimes your jig or whatever you use may not show because it's outside the zone. 

Thanks for your reply Fisherman.  The battery was fully charged and I am sure the connections are all good.  I will double check though.

Last I used it , was in 15 feet of water and I could see my lure on the bottom, so it was well within the zone.  Again it may be user error on my part. 

[kickingfrog]

The water temp isn't a problem. As mentioned a battery getting low on charge might be. If you are pulling it out of the hole a lot you could have some ice forming on the 'ducer but that should melt. Definitely bring it. adjust the settings to increase the sensitivity and yes there is a lot of current areas where sometimes your presentation isn't "in the cone".

[OhioFisherman]

Since you mentioned near the end of the day? Maybe the cold was affecting the battery?

[kickingfrog]

My understanding is that some of the earlier generations of LCD's had problems below zero. Not sure if this would explain your problems though.

[huzzsaba]

Thanks for all the replies. It's possible it's the battery, however I doubt it is due to the cold since it was nice and toasty in the hut, and the fish finder and battery was sitting on the bench away from the ice 

Quick question, for laker fishing, should I keep it at 200 kHz or switch it to 83 khz? This is on simcoe btw so I guess the depth is 100 ft plus.

First time trying this laker thing lol.

Thanks again!

Edited February 4, 2018 by huzzsaba

[Fisherman]

I can only say on my old one it had a 200 kHz transducer and I could mark a 1/4 ounce jig in 100 FOW.  same with any of the small williams spoons, etc.

[huzzsaba]

I will give it a try at 200 kHz. Thanks 

[chris.brock]

Do you have an ice transducer or are you trying to aim a regular transducer straight down in a vertical position? 

[huzzsaba]

3 minutes ago, chris.brock said:

Do you have an ice transducer or are you trying to aim a regular transducer straight down in a vertical position? 

Chris, I am using the regular transducer. 

Best way to explain how it sits in the water is like the blade of a hockey stick. 

I will try to get a photo of it.

[chris.brock]

I do that too. If it gets a little off kilter it can't mark your bait.

Nothing wrong with a cheaper unit Huzz, just less definition and less fancy colors. Are you zooming in on bottom when you're down 100'?

[huzzsaba]

1 hour ago, chris.brock said:

I do that too. If it gets a little off kilter it can't mark your bait.

Nothing wrong with a cheaper unit Huzz, just less definition and less fancy colors. Are you zooming in on bottom when you're down 100'?

I haven't tried it yet a in anything more than 15 feet. 

I will be perch fishing this friday so I will play around with it some more to get a better feel for it. 

 

Btw the battery charger you gave me is coming to good use ?

Edited February 4, 2018 by huzzsaba

[chris.brock]

like I said before, I have a bunch of chargers, I'm glad you could use it, very classy but not necessary or expected giving me a timmies card in return

[drwxr]

it's too weak to mark small jigs in deep water, get something that has 500 RMS 

[Woodsman]

Make sure you transducer is hanging level in the water. If not the beam will be concentrated off to the side. Also increase your ping speed to the maximum speed.

[Big Cliff]

Ice fishing is the perfect opportunity to learn how to use your fish finder, nice stable platform to work from!

As for your transducer unless it's a dual frequency then set your unit to whatever the transducer frequency is (there should be a little tag on the cable that tells you what it is (probably 200 khz)

Start off with something larger like a pop can filled with water and tied to a line so you have a good solid target to work with then play with your settings, I like a very high scroll speed because the screen refreshes quickly. Then play with your sensitivity settings and gain settings, when you can see the pop can at whatever depth try something smaller and adjust for that but only adjust one setting at a time until you figure out what works best for each setting then what combination. I would leave the zoom until the very last, I don't use mine a lot because I find it limits the detail on the rest of the water column (although there are times when it is really helpful).

Learning how to interpret what you are seeing will really help too, I can't tell you how many guys I have watched trying to understand what they are seeing on the screen. Best thing though is fish with someone that has a unit and knows how to use it properly and will spend the time to help you, it makes the learning curve much shorter!

Edited February 4, 2018 by Big Cliff

[Garnet]

Your 2 main adjustments are ping speed and how fast your screen moves across I think it's called chart speed.

I always jack both up to max and then slowly reduce.

 

[Mister G]

The 200h kz frequency will give you approximately 20 degree cone so it's about 1/3 of the depth......for example in 100' of water the cone circle would be about 33'.

Now with the 83 hkz it will triple that area of cone circle and easier to find fish or see your jig. So a 60 degree circle. I have a excellent diagram of these cone angles and I "think" I just uploaded the pic.

[huzzsaba]

5 hours ago, drwxr said:

it's too weak to mark small jigs in deep water, get something that has 500 RMS 

 

2 hours ago, Woodsman said:

Make sure you transducer is hanging level in the water. If not the beam will be concentrated off to the side. Also increase your ping speed to the maximum speed.

 

1 hour ago, Big Cliff said:

Ice fishing is the perfect opportunity to learn how to use your fish finder, nice stable platform to work from!

As for your transducer unless it's a dual frequency then set your unit to whatever the transducer frequency is (there should be a little tag on the cable that tells you what it is (probably 200 khz)

Start off with something larger like a pop can filled with water and tied to a line so you have a good solid target to work with then play with your settings, I like a very high scroll speed because the screen refreshes quickly. Then play with your sensitivity settings and gain settings, when you can see the pop can at whatever depth try something smaller and adjust for that but only adjust one setting at a time until you figure out what works best for each setting then what combination. I would leave the zoom until the very last, I don't use mine a lot because I find it limits the detail on the rest of the water column (although there are times when it is really helpful).

Learning how to interpret what you are seeing will really help too, I can't tell you how many guys I have watched trying to understand what they are seeing on the screen. Best thing though is fish with someone that has a unit and knows how to use it properly and will spend the time to help you, it makes the learning curve much shorter!

 

1 hour ago, Garnet said:

Your 2 main adjustments are ping speed and how fast your screen moves across I think it's called chart speed.

I always jack both up to max and then slowly reduce.

 

 

48 minutes ago, Mister G said:

The 200h kz frequency will give you approximately 20 degree cone so it's about 1/3 of the depth......for example in 100' of water the cone circle would be about 33'.

Now with the 83 hkz it will triple that area of cone circle and easier to find fish or see your jig. So a 60 degree circle. I have a excellent diagram of these cone angles and I "think" I just uploaded the pic.

Thanks for all the above replies! 

Big Cliff, next trip is with the family perch fishing, and knowing too many lines in the water cause tangles, will leave the fishing duties for some time to the wife and kiddos while I play around with the settings and the angle of the transducer.

Battery in currently on the charger.  Hopefully with some tweaking and monitoring the angle of transducer will solve my issues.

 

 

[misfish]

Another thing is, is your ducer below the ice surface ? You need to be under it. I had a bit of a tracking issue yesterday. Tilting the ducer around seemed to help a bit, but not like it should be. I ended up chipping the ice away so the ducer would be under the ice surface. Worked fine after. I use a boat ducer for this unit. I have another that uses the ice ducer, but the 4" screen drives me nuts. 

 

[huzzsaba]

6 hours ago, misfish said:

Another thing is, is your ducer below the ice surface ? You need to be under it. I had a bit of a tracking issue yesterday. Tilting the ducer around seemed to help a bit, but not like it should be. I ended up chipping the ice away so the ducer would be under the ice surface. Worked fine after. I use a boat ducer for this unit. I have another that uses the ice ducer, but the 4" screen drives me nuts. 

 

Brian, thanks for the photos.  Next time you go, if you don't mind take a photo of the orientation of the transducer when in the water. I am working on making something similar to what you have made.  Simple and genius!

[Woodsman]

In the past I've used a set-up like this.

[Sinker]

The deeper you go, the more important it is to have the transducer perfectly level in the hole. Basically, the line on the transducer that sections it in half, is the line that needs to be level. If its out of level a few degrees, it makes a big difference. Not such an issue in 15ft of water, but in 100ft it is the difference between seeing your jig or not. 

S. 

[misfish]

54 minutes ago, Sinker said:

The deeper you go, the more important it is to have the transducer perfectly level in the hole. Basically, the line on the transducer that sections it in half, is the line that needs to be level. If its out of level a few degrees, it makes a big difference. Not such an issue in 15ft of water, but in 100ft it is the difference between seeing your jig or not. 

S. 

Yupper

 

I usually drop my meegs down right at the start. Let it dead stick a few turns off the bottom, then set up my ducer.