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PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:36 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:14 pm
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Location: Jupiter, Florida
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South Florida Fishing off the Tandem Island. It just doesn't get ant better than that! And Sail fish season starts next month!

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:16 pm 
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Location: Lake Macquarie NSW AUSTRALIA
There is a thread designed specificly for that photo Steve. :P

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Don't take life too seriously................it ain't permanent.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:03 am 
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Location: CT
I had asked this ? in another thread, but since you show a Lowrance Plotter sonar....

How do you like it? Im looking at buying one for my TI fishing Long Island sound and freshwater lakes. Just wondering if Down Scan Imaging worth extra $ or stick with standard sonar? Most fishing in water <100 ft and around reefs, structure etc but sometimes open water suspended fish???
Read on Cabelas guys not liking Lowrance on Yaks cause of water intrusion thru Chip slot???
Thanks for any tips!


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:53 am 
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Location: Forster, NSW, Australia
Water intrusion via micro SD slot is fixable. I cover the general area with gaffa tape. Not totally waterproof, but hugely minimises water ingress. I then had raised the unit on two RAM extensions (also brings it closer to my 67 year old eyes, and lifts the unit further towards the top of the spray) and placed the unit inside a cut-down clear plastic cannister, to cope with fire-hose type drenchings, with large drain-holes in the bottom. This one in the photo is mark i, and the new version is about 3 inches taller.
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I initially tried a cover over the unit as in this shot, but found reflections made it too difficult to see the screen in bright daylight. But you can see the double RAM extensions here.
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I am no expert on the fishfinder function except that I understand DSI is best with detailing underwater structure.

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2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:22 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:14 pm
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Location: Jupiter, Florida
FraznDaf wrote:
I had asked this ? in another thread, but since you show a Lowrance Plotter sonar....

How do you like it? Im looking at buying one for my TI fishing Long Island sound and freshwater lakes. Just wondering if Down Scan Imaging worth extra $ or stick with standard sonar? Most fishing in water <100 ft and around reefs, structure etc but sometimes open water suspended fish???
Read on Cabelas guys not liking Lowrance on Yaks cause of water intrusion thru Chip slot???
Thanks for any tips!


I can only respond with my own experiences on the HDS-5 and they are mostly favorable. I use mine in blue water ocean conditions with the dual 50/200 hz transducer mounted inside the hull with marine goop. I have used it for almost 3 years in some pretty wet and windy conditions and have never had a problem with water intrusion and it sits naked in the boat with no protection. One caviot is that the cannon plugs are the weak link. If you run the boat without the sounder the plastic caps that are suppose to seat the cannon plugs fall off and I found rather worthless. I always seal the plugs using dielectric grease.

As for the performance the sounder and gps they are excellent. The sounder I use to catch bait in 15-40 feet and I fish between 80-300 feet. The gps is good to a knot and is very useful in the gulfstream which can run as high as 5 knots. The only complaint is that my HDS-5 (Gen 1) has a terrible software interface. It takes a thousand entries to do the most simplistic task. Also, mine has developed a sticky arrow selector button which sometime sticks and I have to escape out of. I believe this was improved in Generation 2 HDS's and definatley in the touch screen HDS's.

Overall I rate it 9/10 for surviving 3 years in a very harsh saltwater environment (only problem being a stick button). 10/10 for performance. 4/10 for software interface.

Hope that helps

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