HDS Carbon 16 not reading depth accurately in about 5 feet or less

[toddmote]

Good evening,

I recently purchased a used rig and it has a Lowrance HDS Carbon 16 at the helm. The unit reads depth fine via the thru-hull transducer till I start moving into water that is 5 feet or less. Basically it will read accurately then once I get into that 5 feet or less range it starts reading 12-13 feet which is obviously incorrect. I can overlay my structure depth and it reads correctly in shallow water, and as I ease back into deeper water the two depth readings marry back up and will be within a few .10ths of each other until I move back into shallow water. Any ideas on what is causing the thru-hull to read incorrectly in shallow water? Thanks in advance for your time and input.

Thanks, Todd

[z520brewer]

2D transducer issue maybe?

[b_cdot]

I've had similar issues. I don't think it is abnormal. Are you running through areas with lots of grass/vegetation when this is happening? How long have you had the transducer? I just replaced my shoot thru after only 4 years, they will lose performance over time and you losing your depth more and more often might be a symptom of that. Even with my new shoot thru it can sometimes have trouble in shallow water with vegetation. I replaced mine when I noticed it losing bottom more and more often and when the "noise" filled up the whole water column. I'm curious if this is when youre in areas with soft bottom or hard bottom that you're losing depth?

[toddmote]

Thanks guys for the input. B_cdot, my rig is a 2019 Ranger z521L Intracoastal thus I use it for both bass fishing and chasing speckled trout and redfish. Yesterday we were on a grass/sand flat catching specs and redfish when I noticed the inaccurate depth reading. We were on a 2-3’ flat that was a mix of grass and hard sand bottom. Anytime we were up on the flat the thru-hull transducer would read 12-13’. Then when we would move spots and get in deeper water (above 5’) it seemed to correct itself and read the correct depth. It’s not that big of a deal since I can overlay the depth from my structure scan transducer but it loses its reading once on plane and then I have to rely on the thru-hull reading and it would be nice to have better confidence in that reading especially when running in shallow water. I am wondering if I can adjust the settings to clear this up or should I just have the through-hull transducer replaced. Again thanks for the input.

Thanks, Todd

[Basshopper]

Make sure fishing Mode is set to shallow. And Make sure the correct model transducer is selected in Transducer type under installation. If all that is correct and the transducer is older than 10yrs then replace it.

[b_cdot]

Basshopper kind of beat me to it with double checking those settings. My trolling motor transducer will do the same sometimes in shallow water on soft bottom. Ill be in 2 feet but its getting the return saying im in 10 or 12. I'll pop the trolling motor out for a second and drop it back in and itll refind the bottom. Maybe stop sonar for a bit and restart it and see if itll relock on bottom. Otherwise it might just be a glitch you have to tolerate or try a new transducer

[toddmote]

Thanks guys for the input. I am going to try these settings the next time out and hopefully it will get me fixed up. If not I’ll go down the road of having the transducer replaced.

Thanks, Todd