thanks wildman for your help!! i am running it on 200hz... just for grins i tried 83 the other day and it was allllll messed up lol... I do indeed run on pallete 1 just from personal preference.. does that really affect the "clearness" of the arches? I think you are right if the pixels are better on his unit that would make total sense to me! ... the water temps as you know are high 90*'s, water DIRTY as hell lol... and at times TONS of bait... im guessing all those things don't help, but my buddy is fishing the same lake and gets good returns why i started thinking something is wrong with my unit! I tried spraying some toilet bowl cleaner on the back of the ducer to clean that calcium buildup off but it wouldn't come off.. might try a nylon scrub brush... I didn't really think that was an issue since i thought the signal was shot from the bottom side which is clean on my unit.. Guess it can't hurt to clean it and try! Thanks for all the input fellas!

after doing more research I am wondering if what you guys think... I run all my cables that come from back of boat (steering,throttle,fishfinder,engine wiring) all through this channel that you see pictured... is it possible that the engine wiring harness is interfering causing disturbance? if it matters it's a 35 HP johnson 1977 model... I wanted to get some input before I un-ran the cables thru the channel because they are a pain in the @ss to get back through that narrow channel. If you guys think that could be it, it might be worth trying.. problem is the control box is on the other side of the console so running it on that side it will come "close" to the engine wiring aswell... thoughts?

Does your set up on the HDS have an option to choose the model number of your ducer? You might have it set on generic and need to set it on the true model #

No, your images are not showing noise that I see. How old or how much abuse has your ducer been through?

Lastly, are you catching fish? If so, then I would say that it ain't that broke.

If you think you are getting sorry HDS 5 shots, jump in the boat with me next time and I will show you some Cali side images. (insert evil laugh)

yes I have tried choosing my transducer from the list instead of "generic" option and couldn't tell a difference!... yes I am catching fish but when my graph can't read the depth or isn't working right its very frustrating! and definetely lowers the chance of finding fish with no graph!! the reason I saw interference is because there's all those blue dots on the screen... unit is probably 2 years old and hasn't seen any abuse at all just fishing.. never hits bottom or anything

O.K. came to my final conclusion! It appears JSB and Wildman are entirely too dang picky, both have pretty dang decent returns but both just want to milk it just a little bit more. If both of you 2 are fishing Calaveras why not meet there and compare settings, etc, etc... Man sometimes it's almost impossible for people to be happy.

Grout Scout, like I said (jokingly) when I can get my pictures to look like what I see underwater I will be happy. And don't you know the sweetist milk is in the last two tugs? I can't fish with JSB. He is too dang picky.

P.S. My head unit is on its way back to Lowrance for repair/replacement on the reboot issue and I put my jackplate on and it cleaned up the "white" surface noise lines to a PERFECT return. (grin).

JSB, post a email and I will get with you the next time I am out there. I can help you with a "calaveras" setting.

Have you went to another lake and tried to mark fish in a "fresh" water lake? Because of all the air bubbles, shad farts, bait balls, water turbulance..... yada yada in Calaveras, you have to remember that lake is a hot water lake. The water has a large alge and bacteria growth both of which (density) will be returned on sounding as some type of return.

Try this the next time you are there. Put a 8' section of a sein out with a rope bow to stern. Weight the sein in the middle with a brick. Lower the sein to 20 feet and slowly pull it up. You will see in the sein the TINY TINY shad babies by the 100s and other floating alge that you are getting your "noise" off of.

haha guys.. I am a bit picky for sure I don't know anyone who wouldn't when u spens so much on a unit I expect it to work right!! the main reason I believe my unit isn't working to full potential is because when I'm on my buddies boat his is crystal clear retuns on the exact same lake! never tried graph at other lakss besides braunig.... but my main complaint isn't I'm complaining about those pics I posted but more that A LOT of times the graph simply doesn't work

Ok, I will give you $200 for the graph and transducer; just saying, if it is broke and all.

haha hell nah, cuz it works 60% of the time.. it actually reads the depth of the lake.. like it is supposed to do..other times...ehhhhh broken! have to reset the entire unit and restart all that BS! which takes away from finding schools.. the only problem my buddy has is after a long days fishing his gets "lines" on it (so does mine) because it gets hot.. mind you we both have Bimini tops.. imagine that... a fishfinder that can't stand the heat.. because most everyone else i know fishes inside in the A/C. lol

$225.99 and not a dime more! Ok, I will go to 226.00 If you see the blue Panga out, swing by and say hey. More than likely I will not be out to Cali anymore until Mid August.

looking for someone to do an install of a Lowrance in FW area. PM me

It looks like your transducer isint level. Put your boat in the water and while idling put a level on top of your boat and mark it. and then when u have the boat out get the transducer level with where it was when u had it in the water. Also level it from left to right. This may help

jsb if you haven't tried it you might set your ping speed up and see if that helps hold the bottom. Mine was doing that with my hds and I had to move it to 19 to get it to read consistantly.

As for your arches the boat speed and the location of the fish within the cone area with have a big effect on that. Minute adjustments in sens my help your other problem.

I have a question, When they say dont run your transducer by wires that are electrical, how are you supposed to run your transducer wire without it comming in contact with power wires. Will this make the transducer not work at all? If ran beside power wires or will it just make noise and put spots on the graph. I was wondering if that plastic wire loom would help any.

I have both of my graphs close to the electrical wires and I don't have any problems. Now you will sometimes have problems up at the trolling motor graph when you turn the trolling motor on, it is normal and some people get interference and some don't. If you do, you can buy a choke (made by Hbird) for tm's and it'll take care of the interference. Yes I know you have a Lowrance but Hbird has addressed the issue and it works for all brands.