Thread: Discussion on Lowrance Elite 5 DSI/Chartplotter ....

I hate adding this to this thread but here goes, I just got one and am going to mount it at the console. On my boat I have a walkthru windshield and the only place I can mount it is somewhere,somehow between the windshield and the console. My thought process will be with a ram mount getting it up close to the windshield but also away from the console, am I going to have a problem with the internal gps antenna. If so can I add an external antenna if need be. Thanks for any and all replies

It has a connector for an external antenna.

So I got out twice this weekend and spent a lot of time on the DSI. Fished Saturday on a body of water between 10 and 45 feet. I kept the unit on 455/800 most of the time to try and hone in on the unit. I switched through the various colors over and over and think Sepia showed the best of what I was looking for. I also noticed that the 800 is the best setting for the shallow water, however, the bottom content always seems to be better at 455. I changed the surface clarity a lot too again to see what it would show. I was able to find some nice looking structure and schools of fish. When I found someone, I would switch around the settings to see how it would look in other colors and settings. That really helped. Here is just one picture, for what's worth.



also fished sunday on a body of water that ranged from 0-10'. This time I kept the unit on 800, but changed the surface clarity a lot. I think in this shallow water it best with the surface clarity OFF. I was still able to see rocks and trees, but i think because it was so shallow, the fish moved before I got over them!

Couple things, first, I was having issue with the unit resetting each time i turned it. I realized, you can not leave the SD card in it, at least one with the update loaded on it. Once i removed the card the settings saved. Also, the temperature reading is really jumpying once it first turns on or when the 'ducer is put in the water. After a while it settles out. I reads about 1 degree warmer then the Eagle 500C i have mounted on the transom. Other than this, I am impressed. I could really see schools of pan fish (crappie, sunnies). I love catching fish from under the boat that i see on the fish finder. Now I want to go over some know structure to see how it looks.

this is what my screen looks like thought it should have some detail......

Took my new Elite 5 DSI out for a trail run at the local lake today...took me a while to get initiated as the unit lacks many of the menus listed in the owners "attempt at a manual".

I could see the structure, trees with branches, clutter at the top of water which I assume is algae mats, but between the bottom shadow and the surface I could not descern any fish, just mostly clear area whether the contrast was med or high.

Trolled around for a couple of hours playing with the unit...set noise off, 800hz as I was in around 10-12 ft of water, and the contrast at med and high...made no differance.

I have read all the comments in the blog and gather that there are no "arches", no fish "ID" and images like that for fish.

So what should I look for?

Among the tree branches on the bottom the detail on the window is too small to see anything like the photos show i.e. really big "fish signatures"

So any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

Originally Posted by buffresources

Took my new Elite 5 DSI out for a trail run at the local lake today...took me a while to get initiated as the unit lacks many of the menus listed in the owners "attempt at a manual".

I could see the structure, trees with branches, clutter at the top of water which I assume is algae mats, but between the bottom shadow and the surface I could not descern any fish, just mostly clear area whether the contrast was med or high.

Trolled around for a couple of hours playing with the unit...set noise off, 800hz as I was in around 10-12 ft of water, and the contrast at med and high...made no differance.

I have read all the comments in the blog and gather that there are no "arches", no fish "ID" and images like that for fish.

So what should I look for?

Among the tree branches on the bottom the detail on the window is too small to see anything like the photos show i.e. really big "fish signatures"

So any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

Look at post # 103 on this thread, that is what Lowrance says they look like. I haven't seen anything like that on mine.

Originally Posted by buffresources

Took my new Elite 5 DSI out for a trail run at the local lake today...took me a while to get initiated as the unit lacks many of the menus listed in the owners "attempt at a manual".

I could see the structure, trees with branches, clutter at the top of water which I assume is algae mats, but between the bottom shadow and the surface I could not descern any fish, just mostly clear area whether the contrast was med or high.

Trolled around for a couple of hours playing with the unit...set noise off, 800hz as I was in around 10-12 ft of water, and the contrast at med and high...made no differance.

I have read all the comments in the blog and gather that there are no "arches", no fish "ID" and images like that for fish.

So what should I look for?

Among the tree branches on the bottom the detail on the window is too small to see anything like the photos show i.e. really big "fish signatures"

So any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

I sounds like your not doing anything wrong. You will just have to spend some more time cruising around looking at things on the bottom of the lake. Make sure you are in advanced mode so that you can practice with all the features and options. If you see a fallen tree at the shore line, cruise over to it and go right over the part of the tree that's in the water. Between two and four mph I think will give you a good representation on your screen.. Go back over the tree again and again with different settings and after awhile you'll be able to wrap your brain around what your seeing on the screen. You will also notice after awhile the viewing screen is plenty big enough. Ok, now what do fish look like? If the fish is not moving very fast it should appear as a small dot, dash or smear. Fast(er) moving fish will be a longer smear or a sqwiggly line. Schools of fish are of course the easiest to identify followed by groups of fish followed by individual fish. For example, picture in your minds eye a brush pile in 20' of water with four or five bass hovering within 2 to 5 feet of the pile. The image you will see on your sonar should be a fairly defined (not perfect) representation of a brush pile with four or five obvious dots hovering around the representation. Now, mark the location, turn around and go back over it. You will an inverse image of the brush pile with four or five dots, but possibly the dots will have moved from thier first location. That's it in a nut shell. Practice, practice, practice and you will not only learn to trust your unit you will learn to rely on it. Don't try to learn it all in one day. Try to keep it fun. It's what we're out there for. Right?

That's some really good suggestions. It takes on the water. The area I fished last weekend is a known area where fish stack up every winter. This was the perfect place to learn the dsi. The fish looked like dots but there was also some obvious arches too. We caught some sunfish, crappie, and bass jigging spoons. It took that once instance to believe the dsi was working. The picture I posted earlier, though not clear, shows a shool of fish up high in the water and what I believe to be a tree along the bottom. I am going again this wekend, ill try to take some better pics.