2D sonar bottom view when there is chop on the water

[woppercatcher]

Probably wishful thinking but when I'm out in any kind of chop the bottom view on my 2D sonar is so wavy you can hardly use it. I honestly don't remember having this before unless the bow of the boat was really going up and down. This happens even in very light movement. Is there a setting or settings that can help with this?

[csurp]

I assume you are talking about your front unit. You have probably already done this, but make sure the transducer is shooting straight down and has not been knocked out of alignment.

[woppercatcher]

I assume you are talking about your front unit. You have probably already done this, but make sure the transducer is shooting straight down and has not been knocked out of alignment.

Yes, it's the one on the trolling motor. I'll check the alignment but when the water is calm the bottom view is fine. One thing to note is I'm using the XTM 9 WIDE DI 20 T transducer. I have the transducer setting for 83/200 not the DI setting and I use chirp setting of around 175-225, not sure what the actual setting is in the unit which is not a Mega unit. Just a Helix 12 G2N DI Chirp unit. This could be normal but I just don't seem to remember having this with other units or transducers when there is just a slight chop on the water.

[Wayne P.]

All sonar units do that. Sonar measures the depth, if the depth changes it records that. Bouncing in waves and wakes changes the depth--the larger the waves are, the more depth change there is.
How that depth change is recorded depends on the screen scroll speed. A slow scroll speed would have the depth changes closer together than a fast scroll speed.

[bobcoy]

The better the sonar is, the more you will notice it. I first noticed that in the 1980's with my first chart unit. Bob

[woppercatcher]

Thanks.

[granite]

Use "bottom lock" setting maybe? It's designed to "flatten out" the bottom on your screen when you're traveling over different depths. Might work for this situation, too.

[woppercatcher]

Use "bottom lock" setting maybe? It's designed to "flatten out" the bottom on your screen when you're traveling over different depths. Might work for this situation, too.

Ah, that's an idea. I do have the manual depth set to 50 with the 2D settings and "auto" from the sonar settings. I'll try that and see if that makes any difference. Right now even when the boat is only moving up and down say inches the bottom is very wavy. It makes it hard to see fish on the bottom when that happens and I rely very much on seeing fish on the bottom.