Jigging question

[westonhar00]

Hey guys. I am having more trouble with my lowrance unit that I mentioned in my last post. It’s the HDS 7 with the total scan transducer. I went jigging today; and had found some nice schools to jig on, but my jig absolutely will not show up on my screen: I tried to trouble shoot with a downline to see if I could see the downline, it was a little better, but I still couldn’t see it as good as I should. Turning on chirp helped a little bit, but it still wouldn’t show up 80% of the time on the screen. Could this be because of the same problem I had in my last post, the ducer not being level with the water level? I’m almost positive it has to be the transducer because I’ve heard these units are great to jig with. I’m extremely disappointed in what I thought would be a better transition switching to lowrance from hummingbird. Any thoughts? Thanks

[westonhar00]

If you would like to look at how my transducer is mounted, it is in the last post

[irons]

Could be the degree angle of the cone, a narrow beam and the jig would have to be directly below the transducer. Could be the angle the transducer is mounted. Or could be that you were not directly below the cone. Also try experimenting with the sensitivity and contrast. There are just so many variables to this. That unit is a good unit, you will find the right set up, keep working at it.

[westonhar00]

I was in about 35 feet of water, I started off with 200 kHz and I couldn’t see anything after my jig got past about 15 feet below the transducer. I switched to 83 and i could see it go down a little longer but then it disappeared once again. The sensitivity didn’t help, nor the contrast; which I assume means that my jig wasn’t in the sonar beam at all after it got down to the bottom. Which puzzled me because the sonar cone gets wider the deeper down it goes. When testing with the downlines, I was on 83 kHz and I could barely see the lines, they were very thin, which I assume I can fix that with the sensitivity and contrast. But then at some points the downlines wouldn’t show up on the screen at all. I’m very confused and it’s hard for me to diagnose a problem, because I simply can’t see a problem.

[irons]

Were you moving? If so, the line/jig could be moving out of the cone.

[31Airborne]

Irons points out something most people miss - even a slight drift will cause your line to swing back out of the cone. To your level question, if the 'ducer has any kind of free play in its mount it could lift/drop out of position. Make sure it's secure in the mount.

I have my units' sensitivity set at 85%. That's about the breakpoint where the clutter starts to show up. I have no issues seeing 8 or even 6# line and small profile lures.

[westonhar00]

I tried to make sure that I was sitting still, and I’m almost positive that I was. Even if i wasn’t completely still; my old hummingbird would have definitely been able to pick up my jig and downlines. I am probably gonna mount my old hummingbird that I have sitting around just to have a machine that I can see the jig on. I can’t believe that it isn’t picking it up on the lowrance. I’ve been trying to find the problem, but can’t figure it out. And I know that the lowrance transducer is working because I’ve gotten some really good sonar shots, down imaging shots, and side imaging. I even got some really cool picks of the old bridge. I don’t know why I can’t see my jig

[FishON]

My older HDS-7 marks jigs great when its in the cone.. I do need to watch my line and make sure my jig is under the back of the boat..