Sounder Only Reads to the depth of the Downriggers?

[jspecc]

Well I have a wierd one...my sounder is acting up big time. It only reads to the depth of the downrigger...once I pull the ball and cable out of the water it reads normally. I just had radar installed, so I'm thinking something happen via a bad ground or stray voltage? I'm going to change out the cable on the Downrigger and see what happens. Anyone experience that before?

-Joe

[Nelly]

Sorry about the slow response J,
You caught me during Buoy 10 week.
I would turn up the gain or sensitivity and place the unit in manual depth mode, making sure the manual depth range you select includes the depth you're currently operating in.
Give that a try and let us know what you come up with.

[jspecc]

Thanks Nelly...I know you've been busy, and appreciate you responding. I've been working with the sensitivity a lot, and pretty much always run in manual depth mode. I think the sounder is just reading the 15lb downrigger ball with the combination of slow pink trolling speeds keeping the ball under the transducer, and weeds on the ball. I do run a rudder flasher as well. The depth readings literally follow the depth of the ball...set the ball at 30ft, it reads 30...run it down to 50ft and it follows it down to 50ft. Saturday it was acting up, but I did a better job cleaning the grass off the ball and it seemed to be better. Fished all morning Sunday with no issues at all.

I can live with it if it's just a matter of me cleaning off the gunk when it reads bad, I was just worried that there is some sort of interference or other electrical issue since it started happening after I added Radar to my package. The voltage on the wire in the water is good. We'll see how it goes from here...

-Joe

[Nelly]

Roger that J,

I noticed that sounder phenomena this morning myself!!!

First off, you're absolutely correct about the pink-salmon-slow trolling speed causing this issue due to the ball hanging right underneath the boat, compared to the more typical coho and chinook speeds.

So, here's what I did:

I left the sounder in auto depth mode, reduced the sensitivity and used the ball on the screen to attack those schools of pinks!
It took us clear 'till 0930 to limit the boat!

[ondarvr]

When I first asked about this people thought I was crazy, that is until people started trolling slower for Sockeye and Kokanee, it rarely happens for other fish, but for pinks, yes.

I have done just about every adjustment you can make, what can help is changing from 200 to 50, or 83 KHZ (depends on brand), this will work sometimes.

The more reliable method is to tilt the transducer up or down slightly so the DR ball isn't in the center of the cone, it won't read the ball as strong and lock onto it when it's closer to the edge.

If you lift it slightly it will give a better reading on the fish following your gear, that is if you have a short drop back to your bait. If you use a longer setback then tilting it forward works just as well, plus if you speed up it won't lock on the ball as it blows back .

I've had several friends experience the same issue in the last few years and this has worked for them too.