Quote Originally Posted by livemusic View Post
I have a new-to-me boat and it has Humminbird Helix 9 (stern mount, display at console) and Helix 7 (bow display, mounted on Minnkota Fortex troll motor). It would be fantastic if I could find fish so I wouldn't waste time on dead water. Can I? Do you?

I am not entirely sure what I am looking at. The previous owner is a serious bass fisherman and I would think he had these units tweaked pretty good, but again, he fishes for bass.

I have seen some side images on the Helix 9 that was clearly showing a brushpile; this was in 30 ft of water. I also was exploring and found what certainly looks to be bream beds; it was a large area almost 100 yds long and the beds were in 5 to 6 ft of water. Even if they are from years past, I assume that bream will come back to these beds. Another day, I think I saw a school of fish in that 30 ft of water, probably bream because it was downwind of an automatic feeder.

In my exploring I sometimes see an arc on the screen and it looks like the image I have seen where sonar experts are saying that is a fish. Do you guys find these arcs indicating crappie? How did you get your sonar tweaked so it shows fish well? Do you find fish first and then cast for them?

I have watched a few videos on sonar; I am not totally green.

My Helix 7 on the bow, the connection gizmos, there are 3 plastic connectors that are inserted into the base of the unit and two of these keep popping out... aggravating... anyone have a tip on how to make these stay? This boat is only 1.5 yrs old.

Sometimes, the Helix 9 also goes off or goes squirrelly when the big motor cranks. In fact, both of these units... sometimes I have difficulty in getting them to act right; I keep cycling through screen views to get it to even display properly; it's like it's stuck and won't 'move.' For the amount of money these things cost, this is a bummer!

TIA for any insight!
battery issues i bet ,most of the newer graphs hate voltage drops , and last time i saw that it signaled a battery on the way out .
my hummer did the same thing and i swore it was just a bad unit until i figured it out .
it was not a voltage spike issue for me for sure , dont think a spike will cause it ,but to be sure a drop will ,,,,,you described what happened to my unit exactly ....