Thread: Garmin Striker 7sv very poor sideview results

Thanks 6poundtest. That video was good, and I wish I had found it earlier. I did search for Garmin sideimaging, but only got videos of un-boxings and a few on-water mentions of how useful side imaging was. Nothing about actual settings.

That said, the settings I have worked out the hard way so far are similar to the above video host's settings but they also differ because the Garmin units and transducers are different. I think it's funny that with all of the possible color schemes, we both hit on the same amber one as best compared to the 30 or so other ones.

I don't have a sensitivity control, and don't have memory capability, so I can't recall scenes.

I will be taking it out on the Connecticut River again today (vs the weedy pond with the stone wall) and the bottom should be quite different and varied. We'll see what kind of performance we get there. Might actually even fish!

Thanks so much for your help and suggestions, and the video is definitely a good one.

Thanks Tex-79!

Spent a couple hours on the CT River and Retreat Meadows setback with the Garmin Striker 7sv, and I'm going to rate the sideview capability as acceptable at this point. Not as good as the demo or other videos, but useful enough for me. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm going to keep the unit.

No new striking discoveries re. settings. Definitely the 455 kHz setting is preferred. Switching back and forth to 800 kHz showed that the latter merely increased graininess and contrast. Tests were over relatively weed-free sand bottoms with occasional objects like logs and boulders. Maybe other brands or models of depthsounder get improved detail in sideview with higher frequencies, but this one does not.

Unlike some other Garmin models (like the one in the video linked earlier in the thread), the Striker 7sv display also does not need a high contrast setting. Best setting for 455 kHz (for me) was 40%, and for the granier and higher contrast 800 kHz mode, 24%. This was in the waters I was using it on ranging from 10-20' deep.

I also don't like the auto-range function, it jumps around too much in a river situation because of bars and holes....it seems to be easiest to read if the range is set manually to 30' to 40' at the depth range I'm using it in.

Amber, a single color display, is a must.

I think the manufacturer should improve the user's manual with a discussion of settings, illustrated with screen photos of the effects, and also ship these units with a usable sideview setup. The factory default sideview setting is apparently a demo of all the cool features (multi-color, 800kHz, auto everything) but to all intents and purposes, completely unusable for side imaging As such it will cause the same first day consternation that I experienced. With a poor initial setup, and no manual explanation of how to get a better result, this sonar will not get a good first user impression.

I downloaded the manual from Garmin for your unit and gave it a quick read through. Your sensitivity is called gain and is adjustable. Looks like you have to move data, like maps you might make yourself, using the Active Captain using wi-fi.
I think it has real potential to provide good results for you but that is going to take time on the water, fiddling with settings to get comfortable with it. Keeping the scroll speed on auto sounds like a good plan but I think I'd be looking at putting whatever other settings you can in to manual mode. Give yourself time to learn it. One thing I do remember reading is the side imaging is best kept closer to the boat rather than extended way out there. Something to do with both the power of the unit and the angle of the piezos in the 'ducer.
In case you haven't, you might read back on the Garmin board over on the BBC forums; lots of power users there that might be able to help as well.

I found one or two in my phone history this morning. Will try and get one of them up later today. Youtube the guy "fish the moment." His vid on settings in pretty good.
My best pics come between 1 and 4 mph. Anything over 5 has waves in it, and under 1 it starts to blurr and stretch of fuzzy. Try to learn in 15-20 fow and scan width on 40.
Use days that ain't fit to fish to cruise around adjust and learn.
I chose Garmin because of price and read it was simple to use.
Lowrance and Birds may be better, I don't know, but I'm happy with our strikers.

Originally Posted by 6poundtest

I downloaded the manual from Garmin for your unit and gave it a quick read through. Your sensitivity is called gain and is adjustable.

Sorry 6poundtest, but this isn't true.

Unfortunately Garmin's short 20 page "user manual" is generic, supposedly covering the 4, 5, 6, and 7 models in all of their individual varieties (like the Striker 4, Striker 4 Plus, Striker 4cv, etc.). It hasn't been responsibly updated or even separated by model. so what little specific helpful information it contains is compounded by errors. It's a mix of features and photos of different model screens and layouts, and it's left up to the user to figure out what applies to what.

There is no "gain" or sensitivity setting in the Striker 7, despite what the manual says. Maybe there was in a Striker 4 of five years ago, who knows? I listed all of the settings available on my depth sounder in my earlier post, as well as what I set them to.

But I do thank you, 6PT, though for trying to help out and going to the trouble of reading the manual. I'll look into the Garmin board on the BBC forums, and thanks for that!

Originally Posted by jay the baptist

I found one or two in my phone history this morning. Will try and get one of them up later today. Youtube the guy "fish the moment." His vid on settings in pretty good.
My best pics come between 1 and 4 mph. Anything over 5 has waves in it, and under 1 it starts to blurr and stretch of fuzzy. Try to learn in 15-20 fow and scan width on 40.
Use days that ain't fit to fish to cruise around adjust and learn.
I chose Garmin because of price and read it was simple to use.
Lowrance and Birds may be better, I don't know, but I'm happy with our strikers.

Thanks JTB, I'll watch "Fish the moment" My settings and depths have been in line with what you suggest, and I can't row much faster than 4 mph, so that's right in line, too. :-)

I have no experience of Lowrance and HumminBirds, but have owned two other Garmins (Striker 4, and Striker 4Plus) which I was quite happy with, so I'm actually quite familiar with them.

I don't have the same problem with the Striker 7sv sideview under 1mph that you do for some reason, if you check out the 3 screen shots I showed earlier, the third one is the best and it is under 1mph.

Guys in general I want to repeat, I'm satisfied that I can use the unit now with the settings I worked out. I can see structure to enough of a degree to make it worthwhile. The quality is not as good as the simulator makes it look on this unit, the initial factory settings were problematic, and the manual is poor and in need of a rewrite, but I've stuck with it, spent enough hours dialing it in, and bottom structure is fairly legible for me. I'm looking forward to checking out possible crappie structure on my stretch of the Connecticut.

Originally Posted by SRHacksaw

Spent a couple hours on the CT River and Retreat Meadows setback with the Garmin Striker 7sv, and I'm going to rate the sideview capability as acceptable at this point. Not as good as the demo or other videos, but useful enough for me. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm going to keep the unit.

No new striking discoveries re. settings. Definitely the 455 kHz setting is preferred. Switching back and forth to 800 kHz showed that the latter merely increased graininess and contrast. Tests were over relatively weed-free sand bottoms with occasional objects like logs and boulders. Maybe other brands or models of depthsounder get improved detail in sideview with higher frequencies, but this one does not.

Unlike some other Garmin models (like the one in the video linked earlier in the thread), the Striker 7sv display also does not need a high contrast setting. Best setting for 455 kHz (for me) was 40%, and for the granier and higher contrast 800 kHz mode, 24%. This was in the waters I was using it on ranging from 10-20' deep.

I also don't like the auto-range function, it jumps around too much in a river situation because of bars and holes....it seems to be easiest to read if the range is set manually to 30' to 40' at the depth range I'm using it in.

Amber, a single color display, is a must.

I think the manufacturer should improve the user's manual with a discussion of settings, illustrated with screen photos of the effects, and also ship these units with a usable sideview setup. The factory default sideview setting is apparently a demo of all the cool features (multi-color, 800kHz, auto everything) but to all intents and purposes, completely unusable for side imaging As such it will cause the same first day consternation that I experienced. With a poor initial setup, and no manual explanation of how to get a better result, this sonar will not get a good first user impression.

My 93 has the GT52 as well. I think it does work better for whatever reason. I don't really use SI all that much, mostly in the winter looking for shad schools, because I am not all that competent with it otherwise.

They say 3x the depth is a good rule of thumb for SI range. I never use the auto range either.

My biggest gripe with the Striker series is the silly friction fit power connector. I always had trouble with them working loose while running through a heavy chop. Probably not an issue on a rowboat though.

I had a Helix 5 for a while, the SI on that kicked butt with hardly any fiddling, even though the screen was tiny.