Conference wahoo::fishing

    
    I can't help with your question, but would like to add another.
    
    How about a crawdad?  (BOB?)
    
    TBDW
    

    There are a number of notes that cover this topic, 88 is probably
    a good place to start...            don mac

    	I have a 8 degree transducer for my Eagle 6000 mounted inside 
    of my deep v Aquasport and it works just fine. I can consistantly 
    keep locked onto a 400' - 500' deep bottom up to 30 mph. Above 30 
    mph it will occationally loose bottom but have managed to keep it 
    locked up to 40 mph on occation. Even at these speeds, I can pick 
    out individual fish down around 200' deep. (I really haven't been 
    looking for fish beyond 200' so I don't know the limit in that 
    regard.)
    	I had the transducer mounted by the boatyard where I bought
    my boat. They built a small fiberglass box on the hull with a floor 
    which is slanted to compensate for the deadrise angle of the hull.
    They put the xducer into the box and filled the box with oil. This
    arrangement allows for a low loss coupling of the xducer to the
    hull while still preserving the ability to remove it without major
    surgery.
    	One negative experience that I had with the internal mount was
    late last season. The fish finder would occationally loose bottom. 
    This only occurred in shallow water, which I can't really explain
    but I do attribute the problem to the fact that my hull had become
    badly fouled. I guess the fouling was filtering the signal somewhat.
    	All in all I highly recommend mounting the xducer inside
    fiberglass hulls. Any loss in sensitivity which might occur seems
    to be negligable and the protection afforded the unit is highly
    desireable.
    Regards,
    Paul 
                                                                     

    The operation of the transducer is based upon sending a sonar pluse
    thru a medium of known viscosity (water). When the signal meets
    with another form of resistance weather it be a fish, Rocks, a thermal
    layer or fiberglass. It will be reflected at a Known speed back
    to the tranducer. 
    
    The entire operation is based upon timing!! The best application
    is to use a thru hull transducer of proper degree for your purpose
    Use a wide angle for shallow water (20 deg) and a narrow deg trans,
    for deep water.
    
    I have a bronze tru hull on the stbd 3/4 back and a high speed on
    the transom. Having compared both I have found (with a eagle 6100)
    that the thru hull out performes the transom mount in every use
    fom trolling up to 45 kts.
    
    The boat is a 16ft step lift with 115hp. and is trailered.
     
    Point: If you spend the money for a good sonar - set it up right
           I have experance with Many differant types of Sonar having
    been qualified sonar on SSBN 630 and SSBN 634 fleet ballistic
    submarines, So I know from where I speak.
    
                                                  Good luck
                                                  Walt
    

    Yes many a time we would surface to find trawlers that you could
    not hear. If they were not operating they make no noise.
    Boats unlike ships do not run active sonar,only one reason to do
    that.If you hear a ping look out *****>.
    
    I've heard pinging from ships in sherwood forest too. What boat
    were you on? When? 
    
    Regarding swapping transducers. Only do it if they both operate
    on the same frequency. Otherwise the information you get will be
    useless. Also make sure that the transducer can handle th power
    output from the sonar, Check for proper inpedance matching and all
    will be fine.
                                                 Walt

    	Well, I'm still looking at mounting a LCG or pinger on the
    belly-boat.  I still have a few unanswered questions.  Specifically,
    what is the current draw average from the 12 volt source for a 500
    watt unit?  What is the amount of peak current needed for one of
    these units?
    	Now for the $50,000.00 question.  Since almost all of my fishing
    is in less than 100 feet of water and I am looking for bottom contour
    and structure rather than actual fish, which would be better, a
    LCG or a pinger?  Right now, I use the very scientific method of
    finding bottom contour by bouncing a pig-n-jig on the bottom.  Works
    great.  It even catches a few fish if I'm lucky!  :-)

re .8 

	I have an Eagle Z6000 which is advertised at 600 watts peak to peak,
and there is a disclaimer of sorts which says 75 watts RMS.  The RMS figure is
the one we should be concerned with and the math dictates 7 amps at 12 volts
would deliver 84 watts.  If I could extrapolate from those numbers, figure your
500 watt unit should draw between 5 and 6 amps (rough guess). 

	I have both the Z6000 and a flasher.  If I had to have one or the other
I'd take the LCG anyday.  A clear picture of the bottom requires less attention
on your part because of the memory in the unit.  However, if you are not moving
around much, the memory feature may not be as useful, because the contour
picture requires relative motion between the unit and something in the water.
If you aren't moving with respect to what's in the cone of the transducer, all
you'll see is a flat line.

	You pays your money and you takes your choice.  If you're sure it will
only be used on the belly-boat, then save yourself the $100 or so difference in
price.  If you have a canoe, jon-boat, or friends with boats, I'd spend the 
extra money and get the LCG.

		Good luck with your new toy no matter which you choose,

						Al

    paul,
    you said your bottom fouled. was it bottom painted? do you leave
    it in the water or trailer it? what was the bottom fouled with and
    did it clear up after un-fouling the bottom
    
    tony.

Re -1>
	I had been mooring my boat all Summer. My hull was painted but the 
green slime still managed to build up on the surface. I don't know what kind 
of bottom paint it was, it was provided as part of the fit up at the boat yard.
	Anyway, my conclusion jumping last year may have been wrong. I am 
trailering the boat this year. I removed the bottom paint and keep the 
hull totally clean now and the the fish finder still gets confused occasionally.
I am begining to think its a signal processing problem with the unit itself. 
It occurs when there is an abrupt change in water depth, with the bottom coming,
up fast (not the time you want to loose track of it :^)). The unit has auto
sensitivity adjustment which seems to overshoot when reducing the sensitivity
in the situation I just described. I can manually override and lock back
up on bottom. Unfortunately I haven't spent enough time on the boat yet this 
year to go through any kind of a troubleshooting exercise. Maybe someone else 
out there may have had similar experiences with the Eagle 6000. Any
    comments.
    
    Paul

Paul,

I too have the Eagle 6000 with that GOSH DARN beeper.  It can lose the
botom over very abrupt changes in depth, changes in botom composition
and very shallow water.  When I really want to know the depth I turn
off Auto sensitivity, Digital and Auto Ranging and use it in strictly
manual mode.

If it is in "Eagle Search Mode" you can do a "SECOND FUNCTION", "CLEAR"
and go directly to manual mode.

keith

    Keith,
    	Thanks for the confirmation. I guess its just one of those
    "software bugs". We should all be familiar with those things. :^)
    
    Paul

	I too have a Z6000 and I lose bottom lock in shallow water or, as you
stated, when the bottom changes rapidly.  I talked to the rep from Lowrance at
the Fishing Show at the Centrum in Worcester, Ma 18 months ago and his response
was there was a problem with the 'bandwidth'.  You can send the unit back
to Eagle and they can do a mod on it that will give you less problem in the
shallows, but reduces the max depth from 1000' down to about 100'. 

	The recommended solution is to get the darn thing out of DIGITAL mode.
If you set the top limit at 0' and the bottom limit at 100', then each 
graduation is worth 10', similarly if you're in shallow water set upper limit
at 0' (I use 2' to get rid of the clutter at the top) and the bottom at 10' -
12' again you read your depth by looking at the graduations.  The guy told
me to use the hi-speed option (2nd - 4 I think).  Since making the transition
from automatic mode to manual mode, I'm much happier with the unit.

				AL