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

Here's a link to screenshots from Hot Maps Premium on another forum. I can't see how this is worth the money. Contour lines look the same as my stock map, no added detail that differs from the stock map on my Elits 5x DSI, except for a different and maybe more detailed color scheme. If I'm wrong, someone feel free to educate me. Is it worth it to see a few stumps, rocks on a map???

Navionics Hotmaps Premium Owners (scroll down the page a little)


FYI, went to Boone Lake today and it is full from rain/runoff from Watauga, very stained and very low visibility. Temps in upper end 45F, main lake and coves, 67F. Caught one smallmouth about 11" on a steep rock wall 10' deep in 26' of water. People I talked to couldn't catch anything and/or didn't even see fish. Caught one crappie last week 13 1/4", water was very stained then too. Just not many crappie to be found here.

Got out on the water today to try out the Elite 5 dsi and had a blast. I only caught 3 crappies, 2 bluegills and a white bass. I spent most of the time playing with the FF. Over all I am very pleased with the unit even though I still have a lot to learn about the FF. I tried to focus on finding and fishing the flats next to the deep channels. I was unable to locate my jig on the side or in front of the transducer. I'll have to play around with the contrast and or colors options.

Originally Posted by crappie239

i wouldn't waste my money on a map. i bought Navionics android version and it is inaccurate and shows less than the stock Elite DSI map. Their PC version on their website shows the same lack of detail and inaccurate info concerning depth and contour for the reservoirs I fish in east TN. i would love to see a screenshot from someone that has a Premium Hot Map to compare it to. without seeing one first, i think $145 is way too high for something that won't find fish for you anyway...

I got a chance to go fishing with Yikess last year and saw his Lowrance Lake Insight Pro map card. I was pretty impressed with the topo contours. Most outlets sell 'em for about $99. It sure would beat using a foldable map when trying to locate and troll the edge of a underwater river channel. If I can't locate a used one for sale then I'll probably go ahead and bite the bullet.

Here's a link to screenshots from Hot Maps Premium on another forum. I can't see how this is worth the money. Contour lines look the same as my stock map, no added detail that differs from the stock map on my Elits 5x DSI, except for a different and maybe more detailed color scheme. If I'm wrong, someone feel free to educate me. Is it worth it to see a few stumps, rocks on a map???

I bought it because of the one foot contours on Toledo Bend where I fish.

I just had my Elite 5 DSI out for it's maiden voyage yesterday. It is waay better than what I had. The mapping (Lower Potomac) river was a little off with locations of islands etc. I went directly through an island at one point. The bottom pictures were excellent. I never saw any fish though. some of the images of emerging grass beds were impressive. Most water I was in was shallow. I do have some questions for you pros. The images show what is directly under the boat? Correct? How far to either side does it extend from transducer in say 10' of water? If I understand the posts from earlier in the thread correctly , the distance from the front to back is severely limited. It shows you what is beneath the transducer and that is about it. I had difficulty getting a depth at speed. It would lose it at about 15 - 20mph. Cruising off plane up to 10mph was awesome. If I change the frequency to 80ghz will that improve high speed performance? I never adjusted sensitivity. There seem to be some surface clutter at top. Didn't really bother me too much. I had to boost the brightness to max to see the screen. This seems like a nice unit. I'm anxious to become more familiar with it.

Originally Posted by Runnin

I just had my Elite 5 DSI out for it's maiden voyage yesterday. It is waay better than what I had. The mapping (Lower Potomac) river was a little off with locations of islands etc. I went directly through an island at one point. The bottom pictures were excellent. I never saw any fish though. some of the images of emerging grass beds were impressive. Most water I was in was shallow. I do have some questions for you pros. The images show what is directly under the boat? Correct? How far to either side does it extend from transducer in say 10' of water? If I understand the posts from earlier in the thread correctly , the distance from the front to back is severely limited. It shows you what is beneath the transducer and that is about it. I had difficulty getting a depth at speed. It would lose it at about 15 - 20mph. Cruising off plane up to 10mph was awesome. If I change the frequency to 80ghz will that improve high speed performance? I never adjusted sensitivity. There seem to be some surface clutter at top. Didn't really bother me too much. I had to boost the brightness to max to see the screen. This seems like a nice unit. I'm anxious to become more familiar with it.

Runnin ... as I understand it, the unit puts out a "fan shaped" sonar ping ... something in the neighborhood of 3-6 degrees thick. Here's a couple of charts showing the size/type/width coverage of a DSI unit :

newDIbeams.png Photo by kosmo012 | Photobucket

http://www.bassfisher1.zoomshare.com...ngle_Chart.pdf

If you lose your depth signal at speed ... it could be your transducer isn't mounted correctly, you have the depth setting too shallow for the water depth you're running in, or there's something wrong somewhere. It should read at speeds up to 40mph ... but the optimal images come with speeds of 8mph & under.

Click on this : http://www.lowrance.com/Root/Lowranc...0153-001_w.pdf ... then print it out & study it. It will show you all the various menus & break them down as to what's in them & what they do.

I keep my "brightness" around 90-95% for daytime use .... but, having used it during the night and having the glare bother me, I'll drop that down to a point where it's not blinding me.

My unit is trolling motor mounted, so I'm just going on what I've read about transom mounts and not any personal experience. But, I can tell you this ... the more I use it & play with it, the more I find out what it can/can't do ... and I try & optimize the "can do's", as they apply to the fishing methods I use.

... cp

Thanks for your help. I'm trying to understand what and where I'm seeing on my graph. The two links provided seem to give quite different information. Kozmo's photo gives a formula: At 800kHz: it says the width of the cone is .83 x depth. That would indicate to me that at ten feet, I would see an image on the graph that is 8.3 feet wide. Bassfisher1's depth chart shows that at 10', There is actually three zones being covered. The side coverage is 19', the Down Image is 9' and total coverage is 47'. The only number that seem to jive is the 9' down image number. Is it correct to assume that at 10' I'm looking at a field that is just slightly less wide than the depth? Also, if the front to back cone is only 3 degree or so. What I'm seeing is pretty much directly beneath the back of the boat. So if I wanted to throw a marker of float to mark a spot identified on the DSI unit, I would want to toss it overboard just as it appears on the monitor on the left side of the screen.

Go with Kosmo's chart. I'm thinking that the Bassfisher1 chart is for the "structure scan" units (LSS) and probably shouldn't have been included ... my bad !! (but, the "Down Coverage" readings "could" be used ... just not the other two)

With a transom mounted transducer, what you are seeing "on screen" is pretty much what the big motor is passing over. You would want to drop a marker just as cover appears on the RIGHT side of the screen. If you wait until the image is to the far left of the screen, depending on your speed, you could be well past the cover.

Check out this picture, and notice depth & speed :



With my transducer being TM mounted ... by the time that image was center screen, even at 0.69mph, the tree would have been underneath the backseat angler. (I waited until it was fully on screen, to take a screenshot)

It might be a better option to mark a waypoint on cover you're passing over at speed, then come back & find it before dropping a marker. And I wouldn't actually "drop" a marker buoy ... I'd pitch it out away from the boat, making a mental note of where the cover is in relation to the marker. You really don't want to drop a marker on top of where you're wanting to fish, since it could get tangled in the cover, spook the fish from the falling lead crashing into the cover, or present the potential hangup should you get your bait or a caught fish too close to the marker's line.

If your unit is relatively new, it should already be updated to the 3.6.0 version. That update should allow you to choose between a split screen that's side by side, or top/bottom. Whether using two sonar images or a sonar/chart split .... the top/bottom split seems to be a better choice, as it gives you a wider view (keeping the bottom & cover images on the screen longer).

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about :



(note : the sonar image is from the "simulator program" ... the chart image is an actual waypoint ... so there's no correlation between the two. This screenshot was taken IN my home, with the unit powered by a jumper battery & hooked up to a "spare" transducer/power wire)

... cp