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  1. #1
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    Ps30 marking small lures

    Have posted about this before. Have tried a couple things now so wanted to post back. I have my ps30 and ps21 mounted to a stick mount up front right by me. The whole idea of this was to be able to jig straight down by it and see my jig. I still have trouble seeing a small crappie jig (3/32 with 2” plastic) unless conditions are perfectly still. I notice that the ps30 marks my jig better if I hold it still but gets faint when jigging it. This winter I tried my ps30 through the ice and was able to easily mark a medium ice jig but it was only 10ft deep and a “flat sided diamond” jig.

    I also did a factory reset on my graph and ps30.

    wondering if the ps30 moving around some at the bow and stick wiggling some is part of my issues? Does everybody have theirs transom mounted?

    how small of a jig can you easily mark at say 20ft?

  2. Member
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    #2
    I tried this same thing on my dads 73dv with a ps22. Similar issues. Won’t mark a small jig very well. This was under ideal conditions in the boat. Dead calm fishing straight down by the transducer.

    maybe my expectations are too high after using a vexilar ice fishing but I expected similar results. And ice jigs are really tiny.

  3. Member
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    Aug 2012
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    #3
    On a PS22 when I have it pointed just right I can often see a 1/16 oz crappie jig 30-40 ft away in 20-30FOW. I can see a 16" walleye 160 ft away in 250 FOW. My PS30 is on the transom and I use it more for searching than fishing. For fishing I use the PS22 and 2d primarily.

    Yes, you are right. Small lures are more difficult to see. And the faster it is moving the more difficult it gets. But casting, I rarely am looking at the screen after I cast. I'm watching my line.
    Last edited by LWINCHESTER2; 05-06-2018 at 11:10 PM.
    My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.

  4. Member
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    #4
    I guess my hopes with the ps30 was to use it like a flasher so I could see how the fish react to the lure. Frankly I think my 2d does a better job of finding fish under the boat especially close to the bottom.

    running in live down I use a pretty wide cone so my jig stays in the beam cone if the boat moves some. This leaves a big dead zone at the bottom unless your fishing where it’s flat.

    I wish Garmin hadn’t buried the cone angle adjustment 4 menus deep.

    Yeah my ps21 probably marks my jig better but you have to get out away from it. Maybe I could mount that in the rear and point it up by me see how that works.

  5. Member
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    #5
    puhlw am experiencing a bit different. With the PS-30 I can see a small swivel used above a jigging rapala for example. Agree cone angles are important and yes they are buried for sure.

  6. Member
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    #6
    Was out today and adjusted the “color gain” from default to about 85 and things got quite a bit better. A little noisey at the surface but at least I can see my jig well. Adjusting the “gain” up didn’t seem to help as much or made way to much noise. Garmins auto or default settings are usually very good so I usually don’t mess with them.

    how does color gain differ from gain?

    i wish Garmin would add a zoom feature or similar for the ps30 to cut off all that noise at the surface. Who really needs to see the first 5 feet down anyhow.

    also would be nice if autorange didn’t show me 5 feet below the bottom in 15 feet of water eating up valuable screen space.

  7. Member
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    #7
    Raising the color gain makes it easier to see smaller targets in the water column. It makes weaker signals look stronger. So yes, you'll pick up more noise. Since it blends weak and strong signals to strong, adjust it lower to see fish close to the bottom.
    My wife asks if I'm going to fish every day. I can't fish every day. Some days I might be sick.