A Poor Quality Picture but Important Today......

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Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on January 19, 2016 at 9:52am

As mild as we have been this season it appears likely that we are close to dropping below 40 degrees for surface temps......this depth finder shot was from one year ago yesterday........a little over 41 degrees in this same spot yesterday.....when all said and done Mother Nature rules.......

Comment by Andy is OptiMystic on January 21, 2015 at 8:35am

Well I am keeping my fingers crossed that they send me back a better unit or fix that one. Several years ago I had one that served me well for a while; a different Humminbird portable unit. I was between boats at one point and loaned it out to someone indefinitely and it never came back so I don't know what happened to it. 

It really blows my mind that I never noticed the difference about color screens with readers versus true prescription lenses before. I prefer high contrast themes and I hate web pages with colored backgrounds (I use full frame readers at the computer). 

Comment by carl hendrix on January 21, 2015 at 7:52am

for what its worth; first depth finder I got - was a pirana 170;;  when I turned the unit on;; the depth  started spinning like a ferris wheel!!  the temp. did also!!my first thought was -- what did I do wrong!!  I called hum. bird in Euffala;; they had me to put a double ground on the boat and unit;;  didn't work.  I sent it back to them to fix;;  they sent it back;; and it was no better!!  I tried different transducers;; double grounds;; nothing helped.  I eventually had sent it back to them 2 times;; each time I got it back;; it was no beter than before. I even put it on a pvc pipe;; dropped it in water to check  ;;  it still spun  like a ferris wheel!!!    ok;; so  it had to be the unit!!  long story short-- I trashed that one;; got a lowrance  in a gray scale;; worked great!!!   then got a colored lowrance unit- LOVE that one!! 

Comment by Andy is OptiMystic on January 21, 2015 at 7:29am

That is interesting. I looked at the Verilux for a few reasons - it's cheap, small, sharable and it has mapping software. Not as good a map as you are making, but it will make contour maps on your phone as you collect data and it gets better the more times you pass over a spot. I got one and tried it; couldn't stay connected well with my Android phone, so back it went and I got the PMAX.

Since you talked me into the maps on the phone, I will just pin spots on it with actual depths if they vary much and interesting features. 

Comment by Slip Sinker on January 21, 2015 at 7:24am

I was happy with my Piranha Max for a while… simply put it found fish for me. I used paper maps then pdf files of lake maps on my phone along with google earth… that was my game and it worked for me and kept me happy on fish. One fishing trip I was following a 20 ft break along the shore that dropped down to 32 ft of original creek channel and spotting fish on my P’Max then I noticed a distinctive hump and took pictures of the shoreline to mark this spot. The spot was repeatedly tough to find day in and day out but it produced small mouth bass and white bass consistently drop shotting and jigging spoons. I was content with my method and I had my spots that consistently produced until one day I walked into Jay’s and started conversations with the salesman and he asked me if I was in the market for a sounder and I responded “ the day that I can produce a lake map on a fish finder , ill start looking” salesmans response “ ken they do that now “ and he proceeded to show me all the models and the technology available to Humminbird and Lowrance.  I was floored. I left the building went to a restaurant in town to use their WiFi and did a complete investigation on the technology. I selected a manufacture.. Lowrance and then a price point model to get me into this mapping technology. The Elite -7 HDI. Went back to the store made my purchase and haven’t looked back since. Since then there has been a geometric progression in my fishing game. I couldn’t wait to get out on the water and look over my hot spots with the sounder … I was astounded.

Here is the hump I located with my P’Max… it ended up looking like a sunken shed or shanty. Amazing... and yes that is a school of small perch over the roofline!

Producing maps required you to run tracks or paths about 50 ft apart over an entire lake or sections of lakes and the data is recorded on the sounder as log files … these log files are then uploaded to an Insight Genesis site along with bottom composition, weed beds and bottom contours… a map is produced and then loaded on your compatible sounder. I spent a few hours mapping one of my favorite lakes … went back to the launch had lunch while my map was being generated… loaded the map onto my sounder and started fishing hard bottom to weed line areas for p’seed and had a big fish successful day. Running over the whole lake with your nose in the sounder alone marking waypoints etc makes you know a lake much quicker than just fishing it over the years. I took that pattern to a larger reservoir and caught many lunker p’seed with one topping 9.4” … my master angler seed. Money well spent? A resounding YES! This lake mapping took many years off of becoming familiar with a lake.

Comment by Andy is OptiMystic on January 21, 2015 at 6:07am

I just did a test that makes me feel pretty stupid. There is a significant difference in how well I can read text on my cell phone (color) using my actual prescription bifocals versus the off shelf +2.5 bifocal sun glasses I wear fishing but there is almost no difference in how easy it is for me to read another phone (cordless house phone) that is monochrome. So if I ever get a color fishfinder, I should spring for prescription sunglasses also. Or maybe get clip ons or the over glasses. I may have to look into that soon; Slip Sinker talked me into getting the Navionics maps on my phone.

Comment by Andy is OptiMystic on January 21, 2015 at 3:58am

That hasn't been my experience, but it could be my vision comes into play (I am farsighted and have to be wearing my glasses to clearly see either). In sunlight, I glance at my watch and squint at my phone even on its brightest setting. My unit wasn't working right on Sunday. I was fortunate that another boater with me had a Humminbird so I could determine that my transducer was working and the head was the problem. His unit was a higher end color one. It was fairly easy to read the numbers when he turned it on; they were black on a white background. Are you saying the PMAX is going to fade over time? I had no trouble reading it in sunlight Sunday but it is new (and already on its way to Eufala for service; I hope that's not a sign of things to come). Because it is new to me and I was having trouble, I was in all the setup menus hoping to see some setting that was wrong.

It may be that because of my vision having less to discern is what makes it easier for me to process. I mean no offense; the high end units have far more capability and you are getting something for the extra money. But for me, clarity doesn't seem to be one of them. 

Comment by Slip Sinker on January 20, 2015 at 10:13pm

Andy ... ive owned both Lowrance Elite and Piranha Max there is a huge difference in sunlight washout for both or similar models. i could see the complete screen clearly with the Lowrance higher end models as compare to the Hummingbird Piranhamax. night and day... but there is that price differential.

Comment by carl hendrix on January 20, 2015 at 9:17pm

Andy;; yes sir; I know a lot about the b&w screen being a bit ( out of focus)  reason I suggested a color unit is;; you can see what is on the screen with sunlight reflecting  directly on it.  I have a gray scale unit  for my trolling motor;;  and sometimes the glare  makes the screen almost impossible to see.  I nmy area;; so many stumps;; sand bars; trash in rivers;; I went to a colored unit -- and;;; I can choose what color  fish id-- bottom-- thermal line against a back ground.  makes everything;; kind of stand out;; no guessing what it is any more.   but like the  guys selling the units asked me;;;;;  do you watch your tv at home in black and white;; or color??  I got the color one!!

Comment by Andy is OptiMystic on January 20, 2015 at 8:47pm

Carl - I know you are addressing Jeffrey, but I chose a similar unit. With all due respect, sunlight is actually one of the reasons I chose to go BW. The difference between black and white IS night and day; literally. There is no starker contrast in the spectrum of visible light. Colors can be vivid and bright and show you minor differences better, I will grant you that. And in actuality the Humminbird low end models are black and light green, not truly white. Jeffrey's picture is out of focus because it used the reflection off the glass. The trees reflected in the lower right of the FF are in focus. Color units also have reflective glass screens. Anyway, I think there are a lot of very good reasons to go color, but I don't think clarity of simple images is one of them.

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