Dual Sounders

K

KCW

Active Member
I own a 185 DE hardtop and sit on the transom to steer the boat when i am trolling. My sounder is mounted on the dashboard and I can't see it most of the time. Do any of you guys run more then one sounder.
Thanks
 
i do, and you can as long as they are running on different frequencies.
The "proper" solution is get a sounder which plugs into a network, and just add a second screen.
 
I have two ....... only run one at a time ;)
 
I always run 2 sounders at once off of separate transducers. They have to be on separate (different) frequencies. Just going from memory one is 192 and the other escapes me right now but I think it is 50HZ, One gives an 8 degree beam and the other 23 degrees. This can and does give radically different readings in steep slope terrain. I have the narrow beam on the back deck which I feel gives the most accurate reading directly under the boat for the riggers or jigging. The shallower and flatter the underwater terrain the closer the 2 sounders are to exactly the same.
 
Thanks guy's. I will install another sounder, it will make my fishing buddies happy so they don't have to listen to me always asking the depth etc. If the weather is really crappy i will be steering up front , but i like keeping my eye on the gear.
 
I have 2 as well. Works great, and as suggested would be best to run them on different frequencies. Main advantage is you can set one to zoom in on the water depth you are fishing to add greater detail on one sounder to improve your look at what is going on.
 
I"m in the same predicament KWC , and this spring I too intend on adding a second sounder. The unit inside is a Raymarine and would cost stupid amounts just to put the screen in the back, so i will probably go with a Lowrance.
 
I have 2 but only run them 1 at a time. The 2nd is a back up. I set up the digital depth to the largest numbers possible on the side of the monitor, so they can be easily seen and read from the back of the boat.
 
If I can add a little on profisher-and a little on Haliloger-depends on the style of boat you have-if grady style should be easy to get away with large numbers and a single unit if you don't need the redundency. If you have a pilothouse like Halilogger it is nice to have a sounder on the fishing deck. I Should say I have a fairly cheap eagle or Lowrance sounder on the back deck, been there in all weathers for 8 years-accurate-very fast bottom pick-up and big -lit nos. on a small screen. If I'm hunting specific pinnicles I use the front in conjunction with the chart plotter-but most of the time the small sounder is great and I can compare front and back as well.Good to remember which units transducer is on which side -helps to figure out the steepness of slope while prawning.
 
I also used to have a cheap Eagle out back, mainly for when I was in new grounds and wanted to stay right on top of things. It was there a few years until a customer got a coat loop caught around one of the mounting knobs on his way inside the cabin and broke the mount. Eventually the transducer got wacked and it stopped working. It sat in my garage for years and I finally got rid of it. Sometimes people stand in the way and I ave to ask them to step aside so I can see, but most of the time one sounder works ok for me. I try to spend as much time up in the front helm seat as I can to stay out of the sun. Customers all want to be out in the sun...I get so much sun in a summer, I want out of it.
 
Saw an option today if you own an iPad. There is a device now that takes NMEA 0183 and converts it to WiFi and can send it to an iThing. Allows you to see all depth, speed, etc. With the Navionics app, it acts like a chart plotter plus it can show AIS data. On top of that, you can listen to tunes and post here...

Device is called an iAIS.
 
Often here in Sooke it is hard to tell whether you are sun burned or wind burned.
 
I run two all the time. One off the back deck while I work the riggers ans one at the helmstation for the pilot. It really is the only way to fish effectively to know what is in front of (or behind) your cannon balls and lures.
 
A gps/ sounder really pushes the price and more importantly the size. I purposly bought a cheap sounder ment to be in an open boat- eagle/lowrance expecting to replace every 2/3 years-go figure 9 seasons. I suppose the redundacy is nice but I have radar, charts and a compass as back-up so even now if my sounder went I think I would replace with a single function sounder
 
I was happy with my set-up but having thought on it could I run a splitter on my cheap lowrance and put the same model on the other side using the same transducer thus giving a repeater?
 
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