DownTime wrote:
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
With respect to shallow water performance, that's natural. Get within
five feet of the bottom and the signal return will be overpowering and
produce nothing but hash. Plus, if the bottom is muddy, you can get
false returns to hard bottom. I've turned down the sensitivity on my
Raymarine DS600 to zero and still can't get a reliable reading under 5
feet.

Shallow water fishing is mostly sight fishing anyway. Even in deeper
water, depending on the species, it's mostly sight fishing.

The best way to handle this situation is to set the offset for your
draft - at least that will tell you what you are getting into shallow
waters.

Thank you for the replies. Part of our issue here, is it could be times
in 2-3 ft of water and it is murky enough to not have a clear vision of
the bottom. In Matlacha pass with the numerous oyster bars, one must
exercise extreme caution.

It appears my dilema is reduced to a Garmin unit for up top and
hopefully they make a splitter for both units to share the transducer,
or replace it all with another brand.

For today, its more a matter of tying everything down and put away, as
Fay is coming. I hope she's a kind soul and nothing like her sisters
Wilma or Katrina.


Check with the aerial photography guys in your area and see if anyone
has shot the passes you are interested in at low tide. If you can get a
good photo, you'll be able to see most of the oyster bars, and mark them
on a waterproof chart.




--
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do
something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do
the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I
should do, by the grace of God, I will do.

— Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)