1150 + SS175 performance

I have a Furuno 1150 utilising SS175 in a 25’ alloy trailerboat.

The typical fishing style for me is trolling deep water (200fa~1500fa) yet only having the 1150 range set to the top 80fa or so—looking for bait/billfish/tuna etc.

The problem with this is I don't seem to mark much at all? Normally I see a screen of snow ALL DAY, it’s very frustrating. We have tried all manner of system tweaks/settings under advice of local techs.

Where it DOES work however is in shallow water… on the drift or travelling at trolling speed (6~8kts) it seems to mark fish PROVIDED I have the range set to something greater than the actual depth and it reading the bottom ok… However if the range is set to something less than the actual depth (thus not marking bottom) I never seem to mark much at all, why?

Is this a known issue/quirk with sounder systems in general? Do they perform differently where they clearly mark bottom vs when they are not?

Local techs suggest the problem (in deep water) relates to air or water disturbance running across the transducers which seemed to make sense… however the other day I was forced to troll into our home port across the bait grounds (due to bad conditions)— you can see from the video below I was marking bait just fine even in these crappy slop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNml2azkJy0

Therefore, I don’t believe I have a general air/water/disturbance issue. At least not something which would stop me reading bait in the top 80fa of water. Usual conditions are much much smoother than the video, sometimes glassy.

Something else is going on?

So my question is, when I have the range set to say 80fa in >200fa of water—why do I almost never seem to mark fish? It's possible I have never run over fish, but I seriously doubt it (other boats have done so in the vicinity when action is hot offshore a few times). Is it possible the system might have an issue processing signals when in this mode of use?

I would love to hear from others that have an opinion or experience either way, and/or hear about what works for them, see screen shots of people marking in the top water column if possible, thanks.

Good afternoon Bluewater,

Thank you for your inquiry. I have not heard of this particular complaint before with the FCV1150 or FCV295. I watched the video you provided a link for in your post. The sounder clearly showed a ball of bait when bottom was available for the sounder. I understand that you are fishing and certain maneuvers are not available. But for testing purposes if you find yourself over the bait grounds and you have the bottom in view, if you see a ball of bait and you are not fishing. You might adjust the sounder to a shallower depth so bottom is no longer in view and try to run back over the target to see if it shows up?

Please provide a photo or two if the sounder in operation when the bottom is not in view. We would like to take a look at the screen to see what the sounder looks like.

You can also use the post processing gain feature to your advantage. You mentioned that you have lots of clutter in when pelagic fishing and running the sounder in a pelagic mode. Please do not be afraid to turn the game up. The clutter will increase but if there are targets available they will turn a dark to a dark red and the clutter increases. You should be able to see targets inside the clutter.

You may also need to adjust your TVG levels and depths half of the depth you have the sound set to while fishing in a pelagic mode. So if you are fishing in 80fa try setting the TVG distance to 40fa.

I wanted to provide a couple photos. The first photo shows (2) bands of hake on a FCV1150 while setting the sounder up in a pelagic mode.

The second photo shows a Vx2 unit with a DFF1 sounder module. You will notice on the right side of screen (hf) it shows fish targets all through the history. The left side of screen (LF) shows fish target about 2/3, then it goes blank. You will notice when fish targets disappear the bottom return is also a bit different looking. This is do to turbulence, when transducer is experiencing turbulence the net result is diminished target returns. L F frequency is more subjective to turbulence than high frequency. If you are experiencing a lot of turbulence this could also result in poor performance of finding fish targets while fishing in a pelagic mode.










Again we thank you for your inquiry and if you can we would love to see some photos of the sounder during this type of pelagic fishing operation.

C-Bass