I am really new to fish finders and have a boat with 2 HDS-8 gen 1 units. I was fishing with a friend and he suggested that I tape up the transducers so that underwater stumps, weeds, etc. couldn't tear them up. I did as he suggested but am wondering if that will affect the way they work. He told me that it wouldn't but I'm just checking to make sure.

Also, I'm wondering if I can get some tips on setting them up for down and side imaging and how I would do that for optimal performance. I will be mostly bass and crappie fishing.

As I said, I don't know that much about them. For some reason my front unit is showing water temp while the one at the console isn't. Also, one is showing the time and one isn't. Is there a setting that I need for that or could it be something else. The boat I bought came with these units and I wasn't the one who installed them or had them installed so I know nothing about how that was/is done.

I'm an old fart (63) that hasn't fished since the 70's and only then in ponds and very small lakes out of a 12' jon boat. I'm trying to begin again in bigger water with a bass boat and all this is new to me.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Define what you mean by taping it up. I wouldn't want anything between an external transducer and water. Will it impact the beam? Depends. I am self-taught, but pick up those things really quickly. Drop me a PM if you want to chat.

There are some experts you can hire to tune them (Slade).

Yes, you can adjust the overlays to add time, depth, temp on each unit.

The only kind of tape that might mess them up is foam tape. It would absorb the sonar ping. I wonder if foil tape would mess them up???

Anyways, I don't see what the advantage would be if you taped them.