reddog wrote:

… I would find a way to modify the existing mount to bring the front of the transducer closer to the pontoon, and then set the elevation so the horizontal seam of the transducer is level with the bottom of the pontoon. Adjust elevation and attitude from there. 1/8 inch is a major change when trying to find the “sweet spot”.

Thanks red, that is helpful. From the looks of it, it looks like I could move the bracket to the bottom of the pontoon mounting surface, rather than the back (where it currently is), which would both move it lower AND closer to the toon. It looks like the bracket that came with the ducer is designed to swivel for that sort of positioning if wanted/needed. What do you think?

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reddog wrote:

https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#boating@14&key=afcqE~oawP

Lake Hamilton is High Def on the Navionics Hotmaps chip, and will run in your H7.

Thanks for looking that up! I just got home from work and was getting ready to look into what maps are available for my Helix… Look like the Navionics has it covered. Much appreciated.
I looked up the spot where I got into trouble before. That spot actually shows up as an island on the Navionics map, even though it was under water by 1-3 feet. I definitely would have avoided that spot (or slowed to a crawl) if I had that map in front of me.
Back to the transducer / depth reading at higher speeds… I naively thought that the manufacturer would not have put a mount in that spot if that was not the “best” spot to mount it. Of course, I guess every transducer / finder is different.

[edit] I suppose the reason the “shallow spot” shows up on the Navtionics map as an island is because it IS an island from late November till early March… The lake level is tightly controlled by the dams at each end… And they just raised it 5 ft from March 1 to March 10, so what “was” an island sticking up 3 feet is now a shallow spot 2 feet deep. I assume it makes more sense to show it at the low level on the maps so people won’t get into 1 foot of water when the map says 6 feet.

tangler wrote:

1. Unless you bought 5 of those Birds I’m wondering how you get to $4k with that set up since they retail at $800? I’m not trying to be rude, I’m just curious if there is other equipment that’s part of this equation?

2. Like catnip said, you don’t need to know how deep the water “is” or “was” — you want to know how deep it’s going to be in XX seconds when you blast through there at 40mph. Your chart is your best option here. You can use your bird to make different depth ranges appear different colors so it’s very easy to spot the shallow spots when you’re running.

1. Well, I was throwing in an Ulterra with I-pilot link, and some install costs… so forgive the exaggeration. Just thinking of the check I wrote. That said, I don’t care if it was free, if it is capable of reading depth at speed, then I want it to do that, and I will eventually get it to do that. That’s just how I roll.

I totally understand the depth is telling me where I was, not where I will be, but at least I would like to know if it is going from 40 to 30 to 20 to 10 to 5 ft… within 30 seconds… which should give me a clue, as opposed to thinking I am in 25 ft of water when I am actually in 2 ft, which is exactly what happened to me the other day. If I see the water getting shallower on the screen then at least I can slow down a little… And if the equipment is supposed to be able read at speed, and others have done it, then by golly that’s what I want it to do. I am simply not satisfied that I can only get depth up to 10 mph.

As for the chart, I get that, but sadly the lake I am on (Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, AR) surprisingly doesn’t get coverage from the Lakemaster maps. Given the size and massive boating traffic on that lake I was shocked to discover that fact. I imagine with a little research I can find something to tide me over till I “Autochart” the areas I intend to play in, but out of the box I get shorelines, period, no better than google maps. Of course, I am literally just learning this stuff and will probably find out that I am missing something (literally less than 8 hours on the water so far, and only part way through the bird manual), so by all means let me know if there is something I can do to get depth maps / contours for that lake. I am admittedly clueless, which is why I am here. I noticed the depth-at-speed problem on the way from the marina where I bought the boat to my dock, which is about 10 miles on the water… So I decided to start searching the Interweb, which brought me here.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

How big of a ‘toon and what’s hanging on the back? 40 in a pontoon is darn fast!

22 ft Suncatcher v322, Yamaha SHO 150
40 mph with only me in the boat and the bimini down is no problem.
I think that middle toon makes all the difference.

Thanks again. This is my first boat, first fish finder, first everything. I just bought a house on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, AR, with a dock, and now a boat in the dock (as of 3 days ago). I was disappointed to find that I was not getting depth readings above 10 mph, especially since there are shallow spots in places that don’t look like they should be shallow. Already dug a trench, luckily in relatively “soft” sand at relatively low speed. Now I am skittish about getting above 10 mph anywhere that I am not sure is nice and deep. This boat will go 40 mph no problem. I’m not a speed demon, but this is a big lake (at least 15 miles at it’s furthest two points, with lots of area to explore in between) and I don’t want to spend all day getting to and from just because I don’t know when the bottom is going to come up and grab my prop. I’m perfectly happy to stick to 20-30 mph when in unknown territory, but 10 mph is a bit slow when I’m trying to get somewhere and I have $4,000 worth of tech that “should” be telling me how deep the water is.

Thanks for the reply catnip. If I understand what you are saying… Basically get the seam of the ducer lined up with the bottom edge of the toon (so that, in theory, the bottom half of the ducer is below the bottom of the toon and the top half is above the bottom of the toon), then tilt the ducer so that it sits level (with the earth) when at scanning speed.
It is clear that you are suggesting this will give me good scanning at “scanning speed” (which I would assume is somewhere between 3-6 mph)… but are you also saying this will allow me to get accurate depth readings and maybe even scans when running above 10, 20, even 30 mph? That is really my goal. I have heard (even in this thread) that some folks are able to achieve that.
Am I following your points correctly?

Hi… First post here… Been reading this thread with great interest. I have a pontoon (tri-toon) with a Helix 7 Si mega+gps, Gen3N. The marina where I bought it installed it before delivering the boat.

The transducer is installed on the “built-in” mounting bracket on the starboard (right) toon. It loses depth and side imaging as it gets above 10 mph. At that point the depth will either disappear completely from the screen or jump to 900-1000 ft (my lake max depth is around 60 ft, average 26 ft). It was initially parallel with the boat/hull/toons.

I have adjusted the tilt up one, and then two clicks (back higher than front) with practically no difference. I have not tried tilting it down (back lower than front) yet. I was hoping not to have to start moving the actual mounting bracket around, but if that is what it comes to, so be it. I have attached a picture, taken before adjusting. The reflection in the water gives a decent “bottom view”.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will have it out of the water soon to get some unrelated modifications done, so that would probably be a good time to do whatever I intend to do.

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