Tennessee River Ledge Scanning Lowrance/Humminbird Comparison

[pfisher]

Not the 1st time I have seen posted the 3D isn't that great (being kind from the words they used....lol).

I'm not talking 3d as that isn't what was mentioned. The 3d transducer is much better with si and di than the LSS.

Actually folks that fished with me and had little to no si experience seemed to see the structure better in 3d. The biggest issue is that most folks expect to see it in 3d like a 3d drawing, which of course it doesn't. I have never seen that advertised.

I actually like many of the Lowrance features and if my installer hadn't had a demo mega unit on his boat I would still be with them. Damn him anyway! :-)

[Schins]

pfisher, sent you a pm

[bencherry121]

Mega down imaging sucks, just use 455 for down imaging. 455 si looks like sh*t on solix compared to other models such as helix gen1 and onix. Mega looks better than lowrance sidescan as far as detail. My buddies hds 12 gen2 looked really nice, about the same as my onix but the lowrance is a little too hot for my eyes. Could have probably played with settings though.

[TroyBoy30]

my mega di has been awesome. they are licensing the tech from navico now

[Royt]

My Mega DI is great as well. Much better than I had on my gen1 helix. Bencherry please post some images of what you are seeing.

[Jww]

Bencherry is not the only one. Mine is exactly as he describes. I wouldn't trade my onix for ten 15's. And for all the people that sold there onix when helix mega came out I would be really pissed.

[Wackyjig]

I had Lowrance before I swapped to helix units and I don't miss them. It took me a bit to figure out how to set the imaging up to keep the fish from blending in to the bottom on mega but now that I know what I'm doing it's all I use. I fish Chickamauga so I'm scanning ledges for months. I'll watch guys run to a spot, scan it, and take right back off. I'll roll over top of it and see fish, stop, and catch them.
Also, at least on chick, the lakemaster maps puts navionics to shame. Half the offshore spots I fish now don't even show up on navionics

[Nate4023]

I had Lowrance before I swapped to helix units and I don't miss them. It took me a bit to figure out how to set the imaging up to keep the fish from blending in to the bottom on mega but now that I know what I'm doing it's all I use. I fish Chickamauga so I'm scanning ledges for months. I'll watch guys run to a spot, scan it, and take right back off. I'll roll over top of it and see fish, stop, and catch them.
Also, at least on chick, the lakemaster maps puts navionics to shame. Half the offshore spots I fish now don't even show up on navionics

Awesome thats great to hear! What settings do you have to put mega on in order to ensure the fish aren't blending?

[Royt]

On my Mega the factory settings work real well. I also like using the blue pallet, I think it is the 1st choice on the list. I can spot crappies close to the bottom in 35+ fow. Most important thing ive found is the angle of your boat direction in relation to the ledge. For me backing off the ledge and then driving the boat straight into the ledge works best. This way I can see the fish holding tight to the side/bottom of the ledge.

[Wackyjig]

Awesome thats great to hear! What settings do you have to put mega on in order to ensure the fish aren't blending?

I run downscan at 455 most of the time for the wider cone while scanning and si is always on mega. I set the chirp ranges to the top and bottom of the adjustable values. Then the best I can remember I set the sharpness to low and back the contrast off to make the bottom not quite so hot then just adjust the sensitivity up and down for the depth and bottom comp. I may have imaging switch fire on too. I can't remember.

On my unit at least the factory settings aren't quite hot enough to get a good return off of their swim bladders when they're hugging bottom. Even if the fish are blended into the bottom you'll still get shadows off of them so you can see there's something there you just can exactly pick it out.

[bencherry121]

You can see fish returns on soft bottoms with mega si but hard bottoms is where you will not see the fish returns. You will see tiny shadows but is very hard to see even with a 15" screen. With most tn river ledges such as here on ky lake, almost all of our ledges have a hard bottom. This makes it hard to determine what specie you see since a lot of times you can't see the actual fish return. If you can only see a shadow, you don't know how far the fish is off the bottom, making it hard to determine what specie you are seeing.

[Schins]

record, then view on a pc at home where you can zoom better.
then you can mark stuff and go back to it the next time

[SethRstein]

Anyone care to post their 2D/SI/DI settings for the Helix? Im on my way to figuring things out but I struggle a little with locating fish on the side scan. Im not seeing any shadows and I think they are blending into the bottom. I can see bait fish, but not the game fish Im looking for. Thanks

[Schins]

youre gonna have to take time away from fishing to scan then pause or rewind and experiment with color palettes, sensitivity, brightness, sharpness, etc until you achieve the best image for the water youre on.

there really isnt a one-setting for all waters. it takes fine tuning any time the water is different.

Humminbird has excellent palette choices for sidescan. you should be able to see your fish with at least one of them

[StrikeBack]

I think the whole issues of settings is a little too overstated. Basically I just use defaults although I do increase chart speed significantly. I suggest the brightness of the day dictates the palettes. Blue is generally considered the best for resolution but the orange/yellow is best for very bright days, but some screens are brighter than others. The Onix is less bright Solix and Helix are excellent in the sun. When others talk about settings for different water, I consider that the water itself makes very little difference. Water itself does not change things too much but the hardness of the bottom does. With very muddy bottom you have to turn the sensitivity right up and I then change to lower frequencies.

[Royt]

I agree with what John says!

[Wayne P.]

I think the whole issues of settings is a little too overstated. Basically I just use defaults although I do increase chart speed significantly. I suggest the brightness of the day dictates the palettes. Blue is generally considered the best for resolution but the orange/yellow is best for very bright days, but some screens are brighter than others. The Onix is less bright Solix and Helix are excellent in the sun. When others talk about settings for different water, I consider that the water itself makes very little difference. Water itself does not change things too much but the hardness of the bottom does. With very muddy bottom you have to turn the sensitivity right up and I then change to lower frequencies.

When I mention waters, I mean a body of water, not the water itself. Bodies of water can be all soft mud, all sandy bottom, mostly rock, etc. and different depths. You adjust you units according to your waters.

[StrikeBack]

Hi Wayne, I didn't see a post here from you about settings for different waters.

Apart from setting range for the depth and also what targets are important to you, I find sensitivity is pretty much the only setting I mess with. I think that suggestions that we have to tweak all the settings to get a good image can be a little intimidating to some when really these things work perfectly well out of the box.

[Wayne P.]

Hi Wayne, I didn't see a post here from you about settings for different waters.

Apart from setting range for the depth and also what targets are important to you, I find sensitivity is pretty much the only setting I mess with. I think that suggestions that we have to tweak all the settings to get a good image can be a little intimidating to some when really these things work perfectly well out of the box.

I agree, Sensitivity is the main adjustment so the bottom is not so bright that it washes out the lighter returns from stuff.

[StrikeBack]

In muddy waters I have had sensitivity up at 20 max.