How do you change the color on the Lowrance HDS units and why does it matter? Would changing the Lowrance HDS unit’s color help me catch more fish?

Doctor Sonar: The Lowrance HDS Unit has different palette choices which change the color of the screen.

Sonar sends sound from the transducer and after the sound bounces off a target (bottom or a fish) it returns to the transducer. The returning sound has different signal strength depending on how well the sound bounces off the target. For example, a minnow will have weaker signal strength than a large fish and soft bottom will have weaker signal strength than a rocky bottom. The colors indicate different signal strength.  Each palette will use different colors for signal strength to give the display a different view.

I prefer palette 1 because I like to know different bottom hardness detail. Palette 13 has been the default palette for the HDS in all software versions thus far.

Palette 1 uses yellow as the strongest signal strength and blue the weakest with the background white.

Palette 2 uses green as the strongest signal strength but also paints brown only as the bottom. This allows the user to see fish close to the bottom as a different color than the bottom. This will help you catch more fish if you miss these fish on a different palette choice.

Palette 1 is much better for bottom hardness but if you look closely at the images, the fish and bottom hardness differences are seen on both palettes.

Some people are color blind so they may use a different palette based on what they see.

There 14 palette choices but the important things to remember is they all show the same information, but display it in different colors.

For more information on using your sonar, GPS unit, Lowrance Structure Scan or to purchase instructional videos by Doctor Bruce Samson aka Doctor Sonar go to www.hightechfishing.com.