Humminbird SI Max range in shallow water

As long as there’s water, you should be able to view it. The wider you set your range, the less detail you are going to be able to decipher.

Here is a screencapture from Lake Sharpe in South Dakota.

its only 2.9 deep, and my range is set to 69 feet.
Seldom is my SI range set wider than 90 feet.

I rarely run my SI range past 100-120 feet. Any farther than that, and the small deviations that you make from a straight path will start to distort the far edges of the Side Image enough to make them unusable.

Here are a few shallow water screen captures.

1. Sandy bay with scattered cabbage, early in the season as the weeds are just coming up. 4 feet deep, 120′ range.

2. Coontail clumps with isolated gravel hump. About 5 feet deep, coming up to 2+ feet, 100′ range.

3. Shoreline with timber on left, emerging weeds on the right. 4′ deep, 100′ range.

4. Weedy bay with clumps and well defined weed edges. 3+’ deep, 110′ range.

Hi,
I think what might be getting lost in all this SI range discussion is the failure to consider the platform that the SI transducer is mounted on, IE. A boat (this applies to both manufacturers “H” and “L”). You can mount your transducer as careful as you want on your boat (bow or transom or whatever), but that still does not guarantee that the SI xducer beams are parallel to the water surface when the boat is in the water. That includes from to back, and side to side. Things to consider are how many people are there in the boat (and where they are standing), fuel load, how rough the boat ride is, etc. Google “towed fish side imaging” to see examples of more serious efforts of side imaging. A SI transducer mounted on a boated on a boat is always going to be a compromise.

Am I making any sense?

Just a thought,

Roger