Just wondering what most of you run and why. Also is anyone running the quad beam from Humminbird? Thinking about going with a 787c2 for my next finder trying to decide on a transducer. Will my navionics chip for my lowrance work in the 787c2? Thanks. Mike
If you cruise fast, fish deep water, troll with downriggers, or just want a tight look at whats under the boat the dual is the way to go. You can mark contours and hold a depth reading at higher speeds and deeper water and if trolling you can mark the exact downrigger depths. My transducer is a transom mount, but getting the through hull can increase the performance. Color can make bottom seperation clearer and thermoclines show up cleaner.
Quote:
My transducer is a transom mount, but getting the through hull can increase the performance. Color can make bottom seperation clearer and thermoclines show up cleaner.
Out of curiousity, how is that if the transducer is in the water, or is it because of possible turbulance at the transom? I didn’t know if it made a difference if the transducer was in the hull or at the transom.
I’ve also heard that if you have a dual frequency that running it in the lower frequency will give you less detail. Lets use Lowrance for example.
LMS 332c, 2400 watts peak to peak, 300 watts rms to 900′ 200kHZ
LMS 337c DF, 4000 watts peak to peak, 500 watts rms to 2500′ 50kHz
So if I’m fishing in 60′ or less of water with more power off the 337c DF at 50 kHz, how would that make a difference compared to the 332c at 200 kHz?
Reason for asking, I have a LMS 332c, thinking about adding an additional locator. I’m guessing I should be using a dual frequency to avoid interference. One transducer at the transom, the other at the trolling motor, used both at the same time, distance between each transducer would be 17′
Quote:
Just wondering what most of you run and why. Also is anyone running the quad beam from Humminbird? Thinking about going with a 787c2 for my next finder trying to decide on a transducer. Will my navionics chip for my lowrance work in the 787c2? Thanks. Mike
Mike,
Different manufacturers have different specs for their transducers.
For Humminbird, the dual beam ducer works well in fresh water, due to the way they have designed it.
For Lowrance, the single beam 200khz ducer is the best one for fresh water applications.
In the class of fishfinder/GPS you mention, I would say the Humminbird 787C2 or the Lowrance LMS-520C would be the top two choices in combo units.
I don’t know which Navionics chip you have but if it is a Hotmaps Premium chip in SD format it will work on both the Humminbird 787C2 and the Lowrance LMS-520C.
I answer a coupe of those,
First off I believe he is talking about a through the hull transducer, meaing you cut a hole in the boat, and mount the transducer in the hull, not a shoot though the hull transducer mounting. They are expensive transducers and I’m sure you’d want someone to professionally install it.
The detail in the 50 hz mode plain stinks in shallower fresh water in 60 foot or less I highly doubt you’d find it useful at all for anything more than depth, unless you were wanting to see you downrigger depth like he mentioned before.
The benefit of the dual freq transducer may actully be the narrower beam angle (in the 200k mode), which is 12 degrees versus the single which runs 20 degrees, that may help you avoid some interference, but the narrower beam on the transducer also makes the fish arch a little harder to get and read.
Personally I bought a 337, against a lot of advice saying the 332 is really all I need, and now I really tend to agree with the advice at the time to buy the 332, where as the choice if I ever wanted to use the 50hz mode is nice, realistically I’ve never run downriggers (yet) a the 50hz mode has pretty much proven to be worthless from what I’ve seen, though I’ll have to say I haven’t played with it a whole lot. Really I have to test out my single 200k transducer and see how it runs on my boat, I expect it to give me a little better performance that my dual.
Quote:
First off I believe he is talking about a through the hull transducer, meaing you cut a hole in the boat, and mount the transducer in the hull, not a shoot though the hull transducer mounting.
Nick, I understood that, maybe I need to rephrase my question. What is the benefit of through the hull transducers over transom mount when I’m looking at the display of my fishfinder?
Also, if I have an LMS 332c at the transom, can I mount another 332 at the bow and use the transducer on the trolling motor and not get any interference while both are running?
Probably just the option to put the transducer in a perfect place under the boat, where it’ll always be underwater with the least turbulance available. Similar to a shoot through the hull, without any signal loss due to expoxy/fiberglass/aluminum. Just my guess.
Not sure if you’ll get interference, I’m sure someone with more experince running these 2 together can speak up, really I only used my 111 and the 337 together once now, and I was using an ice ducer on the 337 since I didn’t have universal sonar connector at the time, I did get a little interference here and there nothing I couldn’t work with at the time, my transducer are probably around 19 feet apart too, I also stayed fairy shallow, I also have the dual beam on the back of the boat, so my setup isn’t ideal to give you solid advice.
I suppose you could start a new thread, I’m sure you’d get some good answers pretty quick.
Quote:
if I have an LMS 332c at the transom, can I mount another 332 at the bow and use the transducer on the trolling motor and not get any interference while both are running?
You’ll get some interference when you get in water over 25 feet, but it should be tolerable. You can also adjust the ping rate on one unit to reduce the interference. You can also turn down the sensitivity a little bit, so the interference won’t show up as bad. This type of interference is generally pretty tolerable, and shouldn’t be much of a problem until you get in to quite a bit deeper water.
So I would not benefit from a dual frequency machine, correct?
So I should get a LMS 520c without GPS and without a transducer and run it off my Minnkota transducer.
Can I get GPS reception from my existing LMS 332c by using the Lowrance network? So both screens show GPS?
I really do not think you would, bigger transducer, it does come with a speed wheel sensor (atleast my 337 did, not 100% about the new units), some people like so they can see currect speeds, other wise most people are using the gps for more accurate speed anyways. Even with the narrower beam on the dual I still see some interference,
BUT Yeah you can run the single 200K transducer (Or the Universal Sonar) just the same too, I suppose if you are not buying the transducer and running it off the universal sonar, the only difference than would be cost of the unit, and wither you want the ablilty down the road to run dual beam or not (downrigging), other than that I’m not sure anything else actually changes.
I’m now running mine off the minnkota’s US transducer. If you want you certainly can network the gps units. (there are a couple threads here to tell you how exatly how to do it, I believe Wade posted great instructions in atleast one of them) I actually run the gps seperate on both, mainly because I have 2 gps sensors.
One small thing to consider if the gps reciver’s location and the transducer location. If the gps recieve is in the back of the boat you are going to be off around 17′ evertime you mark a spot with your unit on the bow wither that matters or not.
-Nick
That is one thing I haven’t paid attention to is speed. So whether its a wheel or the GPS telling me, I haven’t paid attention.
I see you run two GPS. Yes you are right about being 17 feet off. Man you guys are technical. I’m still learning how to use this thing.
You are getting the speed from the gps on your 332, the wheel is an add on basically, I’d venture a guess that most people don’t use them at all, the gps is way more accurate, the only case I’ve heard where some people like them is to judge current speed in an instance where water below you is moving but you holding are holding the boat in the current and not actually moving up or down stream., I pretty much decided it meant nothing to me, so my speed sensor sits on a shelf in the garage, not to mention more holes to drill for the speed sensor.
I just like the tech end of this stuff, my on gps reciever is actually in the middle of the boat 10 feet or so away from the transducer, it’s close enough for me. 
Quote:
I just like the tech end of this stuff
Nothing wrong with that Nick. I just would like to understand all this stuff better.
I agree with Nick. I don’t use a separate speed sensor either. GPS gives me what I want.
As for the 520C, that’d work. And you can hard wire them together to share one GPS antenna. You don’t even have to buy the extra network cables. You can use the NMEA 0183 port to wire the two units. You can also use your Minn Kota universal sonar with it. You’ll need the MKR-US-5 sonar cable to connect the 520C to the motor (unless you have a brand new 2007 motor, V2. Then you will need the MKR-US2-10 sonar cable). If you plan to order from Jolly Ann Marine, I would encourage you to get an order in pretty soon so you can get in line for the next shipment. Don’t wait until the last minute. I can help you with that if that’s the route you plan to go.
No I wouldn’t bother with the speed sensor.
I’d get a LMS 520c with no GPS and no transducer. Along with that I’d replace my Powerdrive with a new Terrova and wireless Co-pilot and whatever it takes to wire them all together. However, I’d like to see more of the Humminbird side imaging sonar. Too much to choose from makes this difficult. 
Wade, I’ll let you know when I’m ready to do this stuff. I just want to do it right the first time.
Thanks for all your help everyone.
Quote:
Wade, I’ll let you know when I’m ready to do this stuff. I just want to do it right the first time.
That’ll work!
I think Cabelas had a side imaging unit on display if you want to take a look at one. Although, given that you have a Lowrance on the boat already, it might make more sense to stick with a Lowrance for your second unit. It’ll give you redundancy in the event that one of your units malfunction on the water. Something to consider…
Did I mention I love my new terrova/ap/us2 
Haven’t sprung for the new co-pilot yet, though I missed out on the promotion that gave me an extra remote for free if I bought the co-pilot at the same time with the terrova, There has to be some limits to my “tech” budget monthly, 
or I’m going to need the full cabin and a pillow on the boat too 
I think the new hummingbird products are very interesting, adding the 3d power may prove to a vaulable resource. For now I’m going with the proven lowrance units, but trust me I’ll be keeping a better eye on the new hummingbird units. Side scan is kind of cool, I think the 3d imaging may be more useful for my types of fishing.
Trust me Wade/jollyann is the way to go, I had to go with another route, which worked, but I’m sure it would’ve been a much easier and faster process to go through wade.
Quote:
Side scan is kind of cool, I think the 3d imaging may be more useful for my types of fishing.
Yes that 3-D imaging and side scan is the ticket. I saw it at Cabellas. I’d like to know when Lowrance is going to do this? Who knows, maybe I’ll wait another season. Too many goodies to pick from. I guess its like a home computer, they keep upgrading, so you might as well purchase one and get it over with.
A quick reply. The thru hull causes less turbulance and stability, I’m running a 32 footer with inboards,with the roll, and prop wash the interference can be improved with the thru hull. It does add cost, but I fish alot. I would not recomend it on a 17′ boat. As for two transduces out the back for me having them 2 feet about still caused interference. As for the speed wheel, I found it bounces around to much and the gps does a good job. Downside is most temp. gages are included in that trans. upgrade and that for me is a must have. Back to having the dual freq. if your not running in deeper water the cone angle may not benifit you. On my 20 footer I have the dual to hold a depth reading at speeds over 40 mph. Hope that helps.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
