Doc Sonar, I just purchased a Ranger 620VS and have a Lowrance HDS 10 at the console and Lowrance HDS 5 on the bow. I am having problems with loosing bottom at speed over 10 mph. I took it back to the boat dealer and they put an external transducer mounted back by the drain plug to use instead of the thru-hull transducer. Well, my sonar unit I still have the same problem of not being able to read bottom when moving. I called the dealer and they said to turn up the ping speed as high as it goes, but that didn’t work so I called Lowrance and they told me the transducer was not mounted deep enough. Before this boat I had the same issue. Do you have any advice? Thanks, S.B.
Lowrance HDS units have difference choices of views which can be adjusted using the PAGES button. You can select the most common choice of sonar and chart or select from the many choices. The choices are different for the different screens of the Lowrance HDS 5, 7, 8, and 10 because four windows on the 5-inch screen doesn’t work well.
When you stop and think about how far Electronics have come it is just mind boggling. I was talking with my good friend Doug Vahrenberg and he asked me to do this article. He gave me some great photos of the old units of yesteryear which I have included. What in the world did we do before we had fishfinders like we have today? The Corps of Engineers started damming up large rivers creating "structure", but how did you find it out in the middle of the lake? I wanted to pass along this story Vahrenberg told me. "When I was displaying the old Humminbird graphs at a Sports show a man came up to me and told me how they found structure. They would drag an old window weight on a rope. When it would get slack in the line it was either a point or a hump. That's how they found structure in a lake. They said the slacker the line or farther it dragged behind the boat the shallower the hump. They said it made the difference as they were the first to fish offshore structure." Think how many hours or more like days, it took to learn the bottom with a window weight and string!
What transducers can/should I buy for my HDS unit?
The HDS transducer choices are the 83/200 transducers in puck and skimmer style. The pucks are easier to use for trolling motor mounts and using in the floor of the boat for through hull installations. The 83 works well in deep water and has a wider cone of 35 degrees.
Doc, I drop shot often, catching fish 40 feet deep or more at times. I was wondering if you could tell me what your recommendations would be as far as setting the ping speed, sensitivity, manual vs auto depth, etc for getting the clearest picture when drop shotting. I saw a 2½-pound Kentucky take my bait at a depth of 37 feet during my last tournament, and knew I had the fish on before I pulled into him. I still feel like I am not seeing all the fish on my display. Also is there any way to maximize the coverage my graph provides, other than purchasing one of the new Lowrance HDS models. I am currently using a Lowrance LCX-25.-Thanks, KS, Rogers, AR.
DownScan is new technology from Lowrance which gives us a different view of what is below the boat than traditional sonar view. The images are crisper and look more like what is actually being seen. The reason why DownScan can do this is the shape of the transducer cone is narrower compared to sonar. Lowrance presently has two models for the DownScan. The Lowrance Elite DSI has one transducer for DownScan. The StructureScan transducer actually has three transducers for DownScan and SideScan. The outside ones are for the SideScan and the center transducer is for the DownScan. All three transducers have narrow cones but the difference is the outside transducers are aimed to look away from the boat and the center (DownScan) is aimed to look below the boat similar to a sonar transducer.
What exactly is an emulator and how does it work? The Emulator is software that works on your computer and displays on the face of a Lowrance model. The button and menus all work and are run by your mouse. The mouse is like placing your finger on a button and left click is like pushing the button. The Emulator allows you to practice learning your Lowrance on at home. Emulators are free downloads from www.lowrance.com and only available on some models. The HDS does not have an Emulator.
What’s the purpose of the spilt screen function? The Split Screen function allows anglers to see 2 screens at the same time. The 2 most common uses for split screen are the chart/sonar screen so the sonar displays fish for anglers and depth for navigation while the other common use is split screen DownScan/sonar. This allows the user to compare the DownScan and sonar. DownScan is new technology and by using your knowledge of sonar, an angler can quickly compare the differences and understand what the DownScan is displaying much quicker than using a full screen DownScan.
What does a rock pile look like? How do you know it’s a rock you are looking at on your sonar unit? Sonar sends sound from the transducer and the reflected sound is processed by the sonar to get our sonar “pictures”. Bottom hardness (rock vs. mud) is displayed by strength of the returning sound (echo). Lowrance sonar units display echo strength in colors with yellow being the strongest and blue the weakest. The bottom is also displayed as a band; the thicker the band, the harder the bottom. Rocky bottoms will be display as yellow and have a thicker band compared to muddy bottoms.
Sonar and GPS 
Doc Sonar,
What transducers can/should I buy for my HDS unit?
