Trouble reading depth

I have a hook 4 that I use for ice fishing and on my John boat that seems to be having trouble registering the depth at times. Mostly when I switch holes or make a run. I also have both the ice and boat ducer and they both do it. I’ve tried adjusting the sensitivity and left it on auto but it doesn’t make a difference. If the water depth is fairly uniform I’ve been setting the depth and reading it off the graph but on the river going from 5-30ft can be frustrating. The funny thing is it picks up the depth almost immediately when first turn it on so I’ve been restarting it after I make a run. If I’m going slow it has no trouble keeping up its just when there is some sort of turbulence or its out of the water. I’ve also tried adjusting the placement on my boat but with the places I go I’m afraid af setting it below the bottom of the hual because I know it will get ripped off (jumping logs in the bacwaters).

I’ve had the unit for almost two years so I don’t think it’s under warranty anymore or if it would even be covered. My next step was to call customer service but I thought I’d ask on here first.

Any suggestions?

There are probably multiple things going on and they are different issues between the summer use and winter use.
First, on the ice, if you remove the transducer out of the hole and move to another hole, you should really “stop sonar” before removing it. If you don’t the transducer is pinging into outer space and has trouble when you put it back in the hole. This same thing would apply if you had your sonar unit connected to a trolling motor with a transducer in the head of the trolling motor and you pulled the motor out of the water.
I know it seems odd because you can pull the transducer out of the hole with various Marcum/Vexilar units and never have an issue, but trust me, try stopping the sonar on the lowrance and I bet that issue goes away.

Second, depth reading in your boat is inconsistent at higher speeds. This most likely has something to do with its mounting location. You must have rivets, rails, etc creating turbulence and that will cause issues. Also make sure the transducer isn’t mounted too low. It should be barely below the hull of the boat, maybe half the height below the hull. Much farther than that its just going to collect a ton of debris and also cause turbulence giving you poor readings.

Thanks for the tips CaptainMusky. I’ll try stopping the sonar next time I’m out and see what happens.

Well I made it out tonight without much to show for but stopping the sonar before making a run did the trick. Now I just need to remember to do so before I do anything that might goof it up.