Side scan

[striperjohn]

Will side scan work with an LCX 111C HD? I can't seem to find anything on the Lowrance site that says yeah or nay. My 111 works great, has a huge screen (great for old eyes) but I like the idea of seeing what's on either side of me.

[BentRod]

No you have to have the HDS units to run LSS. If you could swing it financially, I would keep the 111 and add an HDS. This is what I did with my LCX37...Kept it for sonar only. You need maximum screen size/pixels with the LSS. If you split screens, it's difficult to interpret what's on the screen. The LSS is the stuff though..it's incredible and I wouldn't be without it now. I didn't think it was great at first because the only one I had seen was mwards and his transducer was in a bad spot and we could never see anything. When Hokiechad got his, I saw what I had been missing..it will find you fish you wouldn't see on sonar..guaranteed. In fact, there's usually at least a school or two every trip I see on the LSS that I don't see on my sonar.

[BentRod]

Here's a great example of its value. Mward and I caught bait in a creek one evening about 430 and we had 2 hrs to fish til dusk. We decided we'd head to a spot we heard had fish vs wasting any time looking elsewhere. Well we idled outta the back of the cove and just before Mward put it on plane, we saw this...


Look at the depth we were in..15ft give or take..we saw nothing on the sonar as that school was right on the bank. We both said let's fish in here! We idled another two or three hundred yards past them and put bait out and pulled down through there. As soon as we got there, rods starting bending! This was the result...


We ended up catching 6 or so fish before we had to stop, which wasn't a bad short trip. The LSS was the sole reason we found those fish and then preceded to catch them. It's the real deal.

[mwardncsu]

Yep - its a bummer that the installation initially done was killing the performance of my sidescan, and honestly I did not even know how bad Downscan worked great, and I was seeing some things on sidescan (could see dock pilings when I rode right by a deep dock) but did not realize how much I was missing. Now, I can mark dock pilings that are 150' or more off the side, and more importantly fish like in the pic above

This was the original install - it is nice and protected from logs and such up there, but the problem, is that 30 degrees or more on each side are blocked from view - and these are probably the most important portion to be able to "see".




Relocated the SS xducer this spring when I did all the other rewiring. Now, it still has some protection due to the keel being lower than the xducer itself, but the xducer sits lower than the sides of the "pocket" and thus can "see" out the full side view now.



A good trick when installing is to run a string or hold a dowel rod or stick of something parallel to the top of the SS xducer and see if it contacts anything - if so, it may block the view. I put some painters tape across the side-side of the pocket and used that to help set the highest point that I would mount the SS xducer.

[leo24551]

Mward and Tyler, you guys are a bad influence, now you got me wanting Structure Scan.

[mwardncsu]

As I said earlier - we are all enablers to our addiction..... ;D

[leo24551]

Mike, a little bit of info I've learned over the past couple of days; the LSS1 is a dual frequency unit capable of operating at 455 or 800, the LSS2 is a single frequency unit. The transducer on the LSS2 is 1.5 times longer than the LSS1. Some of the people that I've read behind say that the best Structure Scan images come when you hook a LSS2 transducer to a LSS1 black box. I don't know if this info is of value to anyone, I just thought I'd throw it out there.

[mwardncsu]

The LSS2 supports both 800 and 455. The very 1st versions/code load only ran 455 for some reason. However, they claim you get 800 kHz clarity on the 455 frequency. 800 works good to maybe 15, maybe 20 ft - 455 after that (at least with the LSS1). I generally just run 455 all the time as I get trolling motor interference at certain speeds when running 800.

[maintenanceman4lif]

I agree with Leo you guys have me wanting one of those too now!

[striperseeker]

I have one. Now all I want is the time to use it.

[Brian]

My transom doesn't have a step like that that I could tuck the transducer into in front of the motor. Do they have left and right transducers that can be mounted to either side of the motor, or what is the solution for a straight transom?

[hotdog]

Oh No!!!! Now ya got me thinking too.

[mwardncsu]

I need to get a commission from Lowrance

[leo24551]

I need to get a commission from Lowrance

Mike, what you need to get is another boat slip, Bigjon and I both know where your boat is hiding.

[BentRod]

Here's mine. Just make sure the LSS is lowest so it can see. Also keep it up and protected.. You don't need it to hold bottom on plane. They cost like $250 to replace.