Lowrance Gen2 on the River

I was lucky enough to hop in the boat with Chris Meyer today from Isle, MN and Kirt Headquist aka Moreyes.

When I met Chris this morning he was taking a new HDS 8 and 10 out of the box and popping them into his boat. Looked like two HDS units to me.

Launched the boat…and immediately they looked different!

Now I don’t run Structure Scan on my HSD 8. With the type of fishing I do, really haven’t seen the cost/benefit work out for me.

I’m going two switch gears right here for a moment. The faster processor in the New Gen2 makes upgrading worth while for the way I fish alone. It’s twice as fast! Flipping to another page is lightening fast and the GPS screen keeps up better.

Back to the Structure Scan. I didn’t really understand what the new map overlay hype was all about. After seeing it first hand, it’s very easy to see with the proper transparency setting. The images of the bottom are over laid right on your mapping chip showing the contours.

At one point we spotted an area that was about 2 feet deeper than the area around it. That depression wasn’t showing on the mapping chip at all.

Another feature is the Structure Scan Mapping feature. This allows the angler to take a “video” of an area then turn off the real time Structure Scan and fish the “image”. How does this help catch fish? Well, with all scanning units the boat needs to be moving to show the bottom images. With Structure Scan Mapping, I might find some structure and anchor just above it…the structure will still be showing in relation to your boat whether your moving or not. The error of accuracy will be as accurate as your gps. Today on a log it was 17′

Another unique feature is this unit allows the operator to actually measure the size of objects in the water whether it’s a log or fish!

Chris will be sending some screen shot to me later and I’ll post them.

Bottom line, these units are going to be making a lot of noise in the sonar, gps and imaging arena!

I’m looking forward to seeing the screen shots!

For what it’s worth, Brian, my best cat spot in 2010 was a place I would have never known about but for my humminbird side scan: two log jams with a sandy “alley” between them. I never would have known it was there. Between that spot and a few others I’ve found the side finder feature incredibly useful for cat fishing simply because it shows wood/trees so well.

Shhhh! John! LOL!

Taking a photo with a cell just doesn’t do these justice.

In the second photo the transparency was turned up for the camera.

This isn’t very good. I’ll have the screen shots later.

Almost forgot!

The HSD units self adjust the ping speed for Structure Scan.

In other words, there isn’t any adjustments to make to get the Structure Scan to work, just drive your boat!

Here’s a shot from Kirt’s camera phone.

Jesse, this was right where River Dan was fishing.

Brian,

If a person had two units could he share the overlayed data?

i.e., I have one unit at the console, generate a structure scan map that I want to fish, send it to the bow unit and fish it on my trolling motor?

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Brian,

If a person had two units could he share the overlayed data?

i.e., I have one unit at the console, generate a structure scan map that I want to fish, send it to the bow unit and fish it on my trolling motor?

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They would have to be Gen 2 units..

Thanks Kirt.

From Chris,

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Structuremap will only work on GEN2…. The SMF file wont transfer via enet or nmea but you can save to a sd card and load it on from there….. Structuremap in the saved mode will work with out LSS but need lss for the live version

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You have good memory!

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Brian,

If a person had two units could he share the overlayed data?

i.e., I have one unit at the console, generate a structure scan map that I want to fish, send it to the bow unit and fish it on my trolling motor?

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They would have to be Gen 2 units..

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Sweet!

Any word on prices?

Prices?

The word is the Gen2’s are holding the same price as the current HDS unit.

>>No price increase.

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Prices?

The word is the Gen2’s are holding the same price as the current HDS unit.

>>No price increase.

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An upgrade program sure would be nice.

1- Log with fish in the darker area. Shore line rocks on left side of screen.

2- Rocks scattered on bottom on both sides of construction piling.

3- All screen shots were captured on an HSD-8

4- Logs and fish in the Over Map view.

5- This is a saved Map View. Notice the boat isn’t in the center of the Structure Scanned image? New construction riprap on right side of Structure Scanned image.

6- 3-D view clipping along at 7 mph without making ping adjustments.

7- Measuring a log. By drawing the white line next tot the object, you’ll see the length. This one is 8.7 feet long.

8- LOTS of fish in this shot!

Dan, they’ve created two web sites for up grading!

It’s called Craigslist or eBay.

‘Course nothing ever rock solid, but I can’t see Lowrance going into the used sonar biz.

Both my units are @ Navico for confirmed backlighting issues.

They told me they are replacing both the 8 and the 10 but they’re currently out of stock on the 10’s.

Wouldn’t now be a great time to offer an upgrade on the 10??

Just thinking out loud.

BK- I’m very impressed with LSS. And eBay is a very efficient means of trading up. a very hot market there.

My first experience with side scan was in ’83ish when i took an X-15 PAPER graph and turned the transducer to the side and went WTFIT on the paper… Had to call Lowrance to help figure out what i was looking at!!! It really helped to tell us of upcoming strikes on our double boards.

This application has huge potential also. Looking forward to the day I can afford the jing…

I thought cat fishermen used the force to decide where to fish…

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I thought cat fishermen used the force to decide where to fish…

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They use the “Farce”

Gen2 at the Hasting MN bridge.

New bridge pilings showing.

~Photo Courtesy of Chris Meyer

BK, i am also going to send this question to Chris and see if he repsonds, but do you know, will our existing structure scan work with the gen2 units or is this a complete change over, meaning one would have to remove existing structure scan and install new?
Sure make the decission to upgrade alot easier!
Thanks in advance
Mike

Hello Mike you do not need to replace your Structure Scan unit that you are using on the first generation HDS machine should you go for one of the HDS generation 2 just plug and play.

Scoobymac

Mike,

The SScan hasn’t changed. It works with both 1 and 2.

Well, I am not happy about this. I just upgraded to HDS 8 and 7 this past year. Wished I would have waited or that this was a software update.

Looks good, though.

Thanks ScoobyMac & Dandorn.
I also confirmed this with Chris Meyers and Cabelas yesterday. I won’t be changing all 3 HDS units, but guessing one of the 10’s is going to have to go and be replaced.
Mike