Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews Recent Comments

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-19 03:17:55

posted by: luveyes. Was up for 8 days came home on Wed. LOTS of fish around, not hard at all to find a limit. A bit harder for the 18 inch + fish, just need to move. On Monday I just dinked around and caught 50 or so pitchin cranks, jigging, pulling bouncers with spinners, and bobbing. Just ran around, spent 15-30 minutes at a spot even if fish were there I'd run to find bigger ones..... I did find them.

Got a few MONSTER Whities, may have thrown back the state record.... So dang big it couldnt fight, much like a fistfight with a 600lb couch potatoe that cant move from his enormous girth.

Bobs were great, stable weather days they fish were shallower (5-9 FOW) and the not so stable days I found them in the 9-13 ft range. Pitching didnt matter. Fished the wind. Bouncers didnt matter either, any depth from 12-24 FOW had fish.

PM me, I may be up over the weekend for a day or 2 before the wife returns from her trip to the Dominican Republic.

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-18 21:57:28

posted by: Pro V1. luv, have you been up to DL lately? I'm heading up there Thursday with the family and was wondering if you had any hop spots.

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-18 05:13:20

posted by: luveyes. flatfish,

I let the finder decide. Definately not on autosensitivity for sure.

Start with the sensitivity on 100% and back it down until all of the clutter is gone, then work back up until there is just a bit of clutter on the screen. For DL it is around 70% give or take. This method works for any lake. With my units Sak can have a bit higher sensitivity due to the cleaner water vs DL, but never near 100% sensitivity. I have only had my boat on 1 lake in MN where I was near 100% (I believe 96%) and you could see down mid teens with the naked eye.

Through hull ducer, skimmer on bowmount, and universal sonar on Minnkota didnt make a difference. All were within a few % of each other.

As far as GPS I also have an old Garmin GPS 72. It is dead on accurate with trolling speeds and recognized speeds slower than the Lowrance (Lowrance loses speeds below 1.1), but no mapping available and it is B&W. Just waypoints plotted in thin air. I do believe it is more user friendly than the Lowrance, but they both have treated me well.

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-17 22:51:29

posted by: Pro V1. I know this is a little off topic but what percent sensitivity do most of you lowrance owners run your sonars at? I run mine between 65-70% on a friends reccomendation but notice that the pics on Greg S's posts look like he is running a lot higher than that? Any thoughts?

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-17 15:28:03

posted by: Tim Sandstrom.

The units to get into centimeter or millimeter type accuracy require base stations and a network of control points. But it is all off the same satellites. So if you really wanted to get technical with your fishing and hunting you could get the same accuracy. Just be spendy and time consuming setting up. Although, the GeoXT doesn't cost too darn much.

In the next few years I fully expect we'll have units that will be small, affordable, powerful and have layer capabilities. That is, turn off and on layers. Aerials, topo maps, etc. They already have units out with the 1 meter accuracy aerials. The state is getting flown this fall and it will be 1 foot pixel accuracy. That will allow you to see a human walking down a side walk!

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-17 15:21:00

posted by: SHORTHAIRSRUS. I have a ifinder and still using it for ice fishing works good.

Question for Tim or for anybody - the technology that gets you within a centimeter (ones used for surveying etc) - what do they have to pay for sat use - that technology isnt available on the public system is it?

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-17 14:39:17

posted by: snow.

Ditto on the ifinder,since 2005 works perfect.I've had all three units since 1995,garmin is the most user friendly,megellan platnum was great as well bit was'nt chip compatable and lowrance is at the top of the food change IMHO of course,from LCD's to handhelds,great customer service and free updates.

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-17 12:35:45

posted by: Korey Kirschenmann.

CLS,

If you want to know who's land you may be entering if not Grasslands, public, etc make sure to ask for the PLSS (PLAT) version when you order. It is the same price but just not a feature every sportsman is looking for so not included by default currently. This will help with land ownerhip immensely. It will contain the Township, Range, and SEction across the entire state. For Montana, I am just finishing a version that shows every parcel of land and who owns it for the entire state of montana. Eventually ND will get there too but it is a few years out as some counties are just beginning to get their paper records digitized.

One of the most popular handhelds are the Garmin 60CSx. A bit spendy but very nice unit. Great sreen, form factor, good battery life, great compass, waterproof (I believe) and much more. Lowrance is great but this is one of the best selling all-around GPS units as well. As mentioned before any of the main Lowrance and Garmins (besides the very lowest end eTrex - yellow) will allow you to use NDTRAX.

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-17 09:51:31

posted by: Tim Sandstrom. CLS,

I kid you not, the last couple years when I used my custom maps which are not as good as NDTrax, my hunting trips were much more relaxing. With a plat book in hand I knew exactly who's land I was on. It was just so reassuring. No doubting I was reading the map wrong, or the quarter line was actually a section line, knowing the fence line was actually a grazing section and not an ownership boundary, etc. It was especially nice when out in the backcountry walking around knowing you were walking on grasslands, PLOTS, State, private land, etc. It will be the greatest thing you add to your hunting equipment.

re: Is the Lowrance H2O C as bad as the reviews

2009-07-17 09:38:01

posted by: CLS. I'm looking for 100% in the field use that I can rely on to basically get home out of whatever adventure or scouting trip I lead myself into and back to a spot that looked promising.

My interest in the NDTRAX is the capablilty of combing it with a paper map while hunting the badlands in ND so I know who's land I may be on, approaching or if it even pays for me to stop and glass something in the field. It's jut a double check method and then hopefully will be used to mark a downed animal for an easy return in the night or next day while packing out. My Magellan can do this just fine, but I really want to use the NDTRAX this fall mule deer hunting as a time saving device.