Just spent 5 days fishing on Lake of the Woods near Kenora, ON. My target was walleye, which tend to love being in the rocks, and this large granite lined lake is full of them. There are rock piles everwhere, some are more like boulder piles. The trick to finding them is to find transitions from rock to mud, with lots of structure nearby, and the bigger fish are found on this structure, adjacent to large open water.
Given all the hoopla on the boards about what is good and what isn't, this allowed me to use my stuff all day every day for 5 days straight and make some observations.
Generally:
I am more than satisfied with my units, and find 19.1 to be really good for finding fish. My favorite is pallette 9 on the StructrueScan, and for all of these images.
Moving forward 2-3MPH gave clearer/sharper sidescan/downscan images than when holding still on the fish, this seems to make sense to me.
SS3D and 2D proved to be a great tool for finding fish in these conditions.
Setup:
HDS Carbon 12 at the Helm, Transducers Connected: TM150 on transom and HDI in hull configured as Generic 83/200 so the DS doesn't interfere with the SS3D
HDS Carbon 9 at the Bow, Transducer Connected: MinnKota US2 in my Terrova, Configured as Generic 83/200
SS3D Ethernet Connected to both Carbons
SS3D Transducer on the Transom next to the TM150
NEMA 2k interconnecting both units
Point 1, Through Hull Temp Probe
Note, I do not have a jackplate, but my TM150 and SS3D are mounted above the pad of my boat, just above the step, on the transom, so they are about a foot under water when I am at rest, or going slowly forward. They come out of the water when I am on plane.
Settings:
Settings on 2d were mostly default, did adjust the TM150 to fixed 105kHz freq, as sometimes I was in pretty shallow water.
Had units set up on Shallow Water Mode the whole trip.
Surface Clarity on DI was Medium, on SI was High, or may have been the other way around, can't remember, and not near my boat right now to check.
Contrast on SS3D bot DI and SI was adjusted about A-2 to A-4, depending on depth, sun beating on my screens, etc. Just messed with it occasionally as needed.
Ping Speed was Max
Had the 2d split zoom view on, with the bottom zoomed in, since targeting bottom fish, and you can see that in the images.
Firmware:
Carbons are at 19.1-64.1.114
SS3D is at 19.1-62.1.108
Water Conditions:
Location is Lake of the Woods, not far from Kenora, ON. Large, glacial lake, granite lined, with sand and mud, many rock piles and rock points.
Water clarity was really good, had visibility probably 8-9ft down.
Not much of the classic Lake of the Woods algea present yet.
I took a ton of screenshots, but won't post them all up here now...many are similar looking.
UPDATE: on Jul 17, 2019 I was made aware PhotoBucket had a bandwidth limit for free hosting of 25MB (lame in my opinion), and that has resulted in the inline images below being blurred and watermarked. I uploaded all of the images to iCloud and made the album public, I left all the comments and images below as well, and if I find a better hosting spot, I will fix this post, but at least wanted the forum users to be able to see the images again.you can view the full res screenshots here --> https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0fG9Gd2NGO3NGG
First, let's look at some from my helm mounted Carbon 12, while looking for a place to fish. Speed probably about 2.5-3 MPH.
This one shows me trolling through an area of softer bottom then up on to a rock hump, with walleye on the down side.
And here is another one in a similar type structure. Note the large 2d Echo on this shot.
And another one, not annotated, but still can easily see fish present.
Now, lets move up to the bow. In these pics, I am on the trolling motor, and trying to be as still as possible to vertical jig these fish up, so some of the DS/SS images are not as good, as I am moving very slowly, and/or spot locked with my Terrova. For those who don't fish walleye, usually want to be as still as possible when vertical jigging...and the bites normally come when you are moving very slowly.
Note also that on the bow unit, I am using the US2 transducer in the Terrova for 2d. Many have questioned whether this transducer is good or not. These images, in my opinion, demonstrate that it is a quality transducer. You can easily see my 1/4 oz jig in many of the images.
Also, remember, the SS3D transducer is on the transom, so the 2d and DI/SI views are separated by about 18.5 ft of boat. For this reason, i don't use fish reveal on the bow.
This first one has me dive bombing a pile of walleye. I caught a nice 17" fish on this drop.
Here is a shot of me pulling my jig up and down along the bottom, just to show everyone what you can see with a 2d. Just a small 1/4 oz lead jig with a leech on it.
I nice pile of rocks with walleye on them.
More Walleye on Rocks.
Walleye showing well on the side scan to the right as well as right below the boat and a tad to the left.
And, yes, more walleye:
Another couple Dive Bombs on the Fish, just love those. Fish caught in both cases.
So, thats what I have. Was a great trip, with lots of fish caught, quality time spent w/ some dear friends and family members, and I was away from the computer. ALL of those things make it a successful trip. My carbons were a great tool, and I thoroughly enjoyed using them.
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Originally Posted by DonnieG
