So here’s my assessment of the transom-mounted LVS 12 after a couple days of playing around on Petenwell. I found it very useful as a fish-finding tool in detecting the presence of fish in standing, submerged timber and downed timber, which Petenwell has plenty of, in cases where traditional sonar showed unidentifiable marks. The forward view showed me the submerged standing trees ahead (15 to 20 fow) while scouting, and in a case or two, fish milling around them. Caught one suspended crappie casting into the “milling” fish. In down view, it also showed fish hanging around structure, or just swimming around featureless basin bottom. It confirmed to me something that I already knew: although the fish are there, they don’t always eat.
I came across a tip that said to increase the color gain in sonar appearance to 90% to better see the jig or whatever bait you’re throwing. I did this and did see my jig a little better than before within the limited scanning angle zones of the forward and down views. But as said above, it is difficult to see your bait with the LVS12, especially when affixed to the transom, so this is not a video-game fishing transducer or set-up.
So in summary, I’m happy with the end result, since I did not want to mess around with the black box and xducer on a stick set up. While the LVS12 has significant limitations to the more deluxe tools out there, it has significantly improved my fish-finding capability. Heading back to Petenwell later in October for a one week trip to improve my skills with the new toy.
Oh, and here’s the fishing report. Went up to get some work done around my friend’s cottage, so only fished 4 to 5 hours the two days. Got lots (30 to 40) of undersize eyes each day with some legals mixed in. Also took home 6 nice crappie, a dozen perch at 10 to 12 inches, and released a dozen or so big white bass and 3 channel cats. Did the LVS12 help? I think so, since I spent more time scouting and confirming before dropping lines.
