Best Fish Finder for bottom clarity

Pelagic Fisher

New member
Hi All

Just wondering what Fish Finder/Transducer combo would be best for showing ledges and cracks in the sea bed for catching lobster.

I currently use an FCV-1150 on the 200kHz frequency (not sure what transducer as it is in hull). It works great, but was just wondering if there was something that would show even better clarity? Would a chirp transducer be better than a traditional 200kHz for showing the sea floor?

Thank You
 
A chirp is not better... seafloor looks different at different freq's so blending a bunch of frequencies together does not create clarity. You'll have various beamwidths as well as it chirps which does not increase clarity.

fcv-1150 and 1kw traditional 200khz is pretty good. use manual gain and set the range for >2x depth so you can see the double echo change. Thru-hull is better than in-hull. a fairing block and b260 thru-hull would be an ideal 200khz option.

A step up from that would be multibeam mapping with dff3d, scx20, and either timezero professional or TZ3, so long as depths are <600ft.
 
Hey jp498

thanks for clearing that up! I know some brands have 455kHz/800kHz transducers, wouldn't the bottom get more detailed the higher kHz you go?

I put a DFF-3D on a couple years ago and have been running it with an SC50, the results have not been to good but I put an scx20 on a couple days ago so hopefully that will improve the performance, I'll find out next trip!

Thanks again
 
Pelagic Fisher":3v7x3yqd said:
Hey jp498

thanks for clearing that up! I know some brands have 455kHz/800kHz transducers, wouldn't the bottom get more detailed the higher kHz you go?

I put a DFF-3D on a couple years ago and have been running it with an SC50, the results have not been to good but I put an scx20 on a couple days ago so hopefully that will improve the performance, I'll find out next trip!

Thanks again

Do you get clearer detail with SCX20?
 
Pelagic Fisher":1daumo0l said:
...I currently use an FCV-1150 on the 200kHz frequency (not sure what transducer as it is in hull). It works great, but was just wondering if there was something that would show even better clarity? Would a chirp transducer be better than a traditional 200kHz for showing the sea floor?...

Everything is going to depend on what depths you normally fish in and what you're hoping to see:
- You can use CHIRP transducers on the FCV1150, and select the frequency
- Lower frequencies show better bottom contours in deeper water than higher frequency.
- A Low frequency XDR like a 2kw 28 kHz may perform better (better returns) at 1,000' - 1,500' than a 3kw XDR at 88 kHz
- High Frequency (200 kHz) shows better target separation in the top 300' of the water column
- For the FCV1150, a good all around CHIRP transducer would be something like the Airmar R109LHW or the R509LH.

Hope this helps, :sail

- Maggy
 
hillman":wnwtdeqw said:
Pelagic Fisher":wnwtdeqw said:
Hey jp498

thanks for clearing that up! I know some brands have 455kHz/800kHz transducers, wouldn't the bottom get more detailed the higher kHz you go?

I put a DFF-3D on a couple years ago and have been running it with an SC50, the results have not been to good but I put an scx20 on a couple days ago so hopefully that will improve the performance, I'll find out next trip!

Thanks again

Do you get clearer detail with SCX20?

Hi hillman
bottom mapping is now more accurate since putting the scx20 on!
 
Magnetron":2atz28rv said:
Pelagic Fisher":2atz28rv said:
...I currently use an FCV-1150 on the 200kHz frequency (not sure what transducer as it is in hull). It works great, but was just wondering if there was something that would show even better clarity? Would a chirp transducer be better than a traditional 200kHz for showing the sea floor?...

Everything is going to depend on what depths you normally fish in and what you're hoping to see:
- You can use CHIRP transducers on the FCV1150, and select the frequency
- Lower frequencies show better bottom contours in deeper water than higher frequency.
- A Low frequency XDR like a 2kw 28 kHz may perform better (better returns) at 1,000' - 1,500' than a 3kw XDR at 88 kHz
- High Frequency (200 kHz) shows better target separation in the top 300' of the water column
- For the FCV1150, a good all around CHIRP transducer would be something like the Airmar R109LHW or the R509LH.

Hope this helps, :sail

- Maggy

Thanks for the feedback Maggy!!
 
Hi,

I installed a DFF-3D a few years ago and have been using a SC50 to power it ever since. The results have of bed, furniture not been great, but I recently installed a SCX20 and am hoping that will enhance the performance. I'll find out on my next trip!
 
The SC50 is a very powerful commercial-grade high-precision satellite compass, comparatively to the SCX20, the SCX20 will provide you a very good backup compass to the SC50, and to some degree is easier to integrate with a Navnet system. However, the SC50 is the superior product, I would suspect if you're having issues with an SC50 to inspect the wiring and installation or perhaps it's time to contact Furuno Technical support and have Furuno support go through with you what's going on with the SC50.

- Maggy
 
The SC50 is a commercial unit that isn't covered by this forum but my guess is the mounting of the SC50 processor isn't setup the same as the configuration, so the pitch and roll sensor isn't working correctly. If you find the SCX20 works well, I expect you will want to have the SC50 checked out because how the processor mounts is very important to the pitch and roll sensor that is inside.
 
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