Fishing Victoria Forum

frozenpod wrote: I would also be looking at getting a chirp system as they are better particularly when sounding with typical wpb water.

Thanks frozenpod - what chirp system/setup do you recommend?

Mattblack wrote:Is Furuno the Rolls Royce of the sounders or something? Are they better quality or better technology?

This is what I’m led to believe Mattblack (happy to be corrected though). Every time I google things like ‘Lowrance vs. Furuno’ or ‘Garmin vs. Furuno’ or ‘Recommend me a Fish Finder’ the replies always seem to say that Furuno is the way to go.

I wrote a post at 5am before I went for my morning swim, pushed submit and left. Must have failed so here goes again.
All transducers are made by airmar. Each manufacturer orders them with their connectors.
Issues when moving fast are 1. air bubble passing under the boat and across the face of the transducer. 2. Noise caused by the water rushing across the face of the transducer or by hull vibrations. 3. electrical interference, also another sounder nearby on the same frequency.
Generally speaking the higher the frequency the less it is effected by bubbles and vibration.

Tips on setting up a transom mount.

Get your mate to drive at planning speed in a straight line. Take a good hard look over the stern and look for where the water is least frothed up. It will usually be close to the deepest point of your hull. This is the area you want to get your transducer if possible. The engine may stop you from mounting there, if so pick the next best spot.

If you can mount your transducer on a sliding mount do it. Fine adjustment can often make all the difference.

The face of the transducer should be around 1cm lower than the bottom of the hull. With a Deep V this may mean one side is more than 1cm.
It should be tilted forward about 5deg when travelling. Remember bow usually goes up at speed tilting it forward. The reason for the fwd tilt is it places extra water pressure on the face and compresses the bubbles

Aluminium hulls are the worst for vibration noise. A thin piece of rubber between the hull and the mount sometimes helps.

If you get a lot of noise when travelling stop and rev the engine to see if it is electrical. These days electrical noise is rarely an issue.

When travelling at speed select your highest frequency, maximum ping rate and a high rate of screen shift. If you are unlucky to get lots of air bubble causing blank spots take the sounder out of auto range and auto gain and manually adjust so that it does not go off searching depths and gain settings.


Generally bigger transducers such as 1kw and higher are much larger and less disturbed by bubbles.

Except the fact that all hulls are not the same and some just suck bubbles under and you have to live with it.
More expensive sounders tend to have better signal processing and so are less effected by noise. However I go out on a boat that has a $12,000 sounder and transducers. We still cannot get good pics at more than 20knts in calm conditions. It is a cat with very expensive 1kw transducers but the hull shape means bubbles go under it.
My tinny with an Elite 5, 4 frequency gets a good pic at 18knts on the 400khz and 800khz. That's life..

Yes chirp has better signal processing that helps eliminate noise. Nothing helps with bubbles though, other than a better position or a better hull

Furuno FCV588 is a chirp sounder with the chirp transducer.

Hi Re-tyred,
I've been on the forum long enough to know you're the resident expert on this stuff...In your opinion, who is the best manufacturer of marine electronics when is comes to quality & technology? (I'm like Sickrat & rely heavily on internet reviews/opinions)

re-tyred wrote:I wrote a post at 5am before I went for my morning swim, pushed submit and left. Must have failed so here goes again.
All transducers are made by airmar. Each manufacturer orders them with their connectors.
Issues when moving fast are 1. air bubble passing under the boat and across the face of the transducer. 2. Noise caused by the water rushing across the face of the transducer or by hull vibrations. 3. electrical interference, also another sounder nearby on the same frequency.
Generally speaking the higher the frequency the less it is effected by bubbles and vibration.

Tips on setting up a transom mount.

Get your mate to drive at planning speed in a straight line. Take a good hard look over the stern and look for where the water is least frothed up. It will usually be close to the deepest point of your hull. This is the area you want to get your transducer if possible. The engine may stop you from mounting there, if so pick the next best spot.

If you can mount your transducer on a sliding mount do it. Fine adjustment can often make all the difference.

The face of the transducer should be around 1cm lower than the bottom of the hull. With a Deep V this may mean one side is more than 1cm.
It should be tilted forward about 5deg when travelling. Remember bow usually goes up at speed tilting it forward. The reason for the fwd tilt is it places extra water pressure on the face and compresses the bubbles

Aluminium hulls are the worst for vibration noise. A thin piece of rubber between the hull and the mount sometimes helps.

If you get a lot of noise when travelling stop and rev the engine to see if it is electrical. These days electrical noise is rarely an issue.

When travelling at speed select your highest frequency, maximum ping rate and a high rate of screen shift. If you are unlucky to get lots of air bubble causing blank spots take the sounder out of auto range and auto gain and manually adjust so that it does not go off searching depths and gain settings.


Generally bigger transducers such as 1kw and higher are much larger and less disturbed by bubbles.

Except the fact that all hulls are not the same and some just suck bubbles under and you have to live with it.
More expensive sounders tend to have better signal processing and so are less effected by noise. However I go out on a boat that has a $12,000 sounder and transducers. We still cannot get good pics at more than 20knts in calm conditions. It is a cat with very expensive 1kw transducers but the hull shape means bubbles go under it.
My tinny with an Elite 5, 4 frequency gets a good pic at 18knts on the 400khz and 800khz. That's life..

This is a really really good post
Thanks for this

I'm gonna follow this guide and adjust mine asap to get the most out of it

Can we possibly put this post in a new thread on it's own and sticky it? @mods

Mattblack wrote:Hi Re-tyred,
I've been on the forum long enough to know you're the resident expert on this stuff...In your opinion, who is the best manufacturer of marine electronics when is comes to quality & technology? (I'm like Sickrat & rely heavily on internet reviews/opinions)

First of all I spent 25 years in marine electronics and in my latter years was East Coast Technical manage for Furuno. So I may be a bit biased.

I love my cheap little Elite 5, but outside the Lake System it has some serious deficiencies. By 50mtrs it is struggling, the screen is small and the power is lacking.
Furuno almost never produce leading technology first. Simrad and Lowrance are usually the first out with new ideas. Furuno spends a lot more time in development and tweaking their product before they put it out there. I have been to the factory in Japan a few times, the dedication to detail and testing is an eye opener. Many products that Simrad and Lowrance market have been under development in Furuno for a number of years before. They make no apologies for it when you talk to the engineers. Scanning side beam is an example. Furuno didn't release theirs even though they were developing it 10 years ago. We looked at it in the factory in 2008. The reason, no cheap method of stabilising for roll and pitch. They asked Airmair to include roll and pitch sensors in their transducers. When they did Furuno released their BB sounder in a 3D version. 15 years prior to that we were putting scan beam sounders on very large commercial trawlers with a $20,000 stabilising package on a $30,000 sounder.
Chirp is the same Furuno have been looking at it for years but held off till they were happy with it.
So you want the latest in thing, maybe not Furuno, but if you want a well construct and well tested piece of equipment that will not be the cheapest on the market, go Furuno. Most commercial use Furuno.

re-tyred wrote:

Mattblack wrote:Hi Re-tyred,
I've been on the forum long enough to know you're the resident expert on this stuff...In your opinion, who is the best manufacturer of marine electronics when is comes to quality & technology? (I'm like Sickrat & rely heavily on internet reviews/opinions)

First of all I spent 25 years in marine electronics and in my latter years was East Coast Technical manage for Furuno. So I may be a bit biased.

I love my cheap little Elite 5, but outside the Lake System it has some serious deficiencies. By 50mtrs it is struggling, the screen is small and the power is lacking.
Furuno almost never produce leading technology first. Simrad and Lowrance are usually the first out with new ideas. Furuno spends a lot more time in development and tweaking their product before they put it out there. I have been to the factory in Japan a few times, the dedication to detail and testing is an eye opener. Many products that Simrad and Lowrance market have been under development in Furuno for a number of years before. They make no apologies for it when you talk to the engineers. Scanning side beam is an example. Furuno didn't release theirs even though they were developing it 10 years ago. We looked at it in the factory in 2008. The reason, no cheap method of stabilising for roll and pitch. They asked Airmair to include roll and pitch sensors in their transducers. When they did Furuno released their BB sounder in a 3D version. 15 years prior to that we were putting scan beam sounders on very large commercial trawlers with a $20,000 stabilising package on a $30,000 sounder.
Chirp is the same Furuno have been looking at it for years but held off till they were happy with it.
So you want the latest in thing, maybe not Furuno, but if you want a well construct and well tested piece of equipment that will not be the cheapest on the market, go Furuno. Most commercial use Furuno.

Thank you kind Sir, you answered that perfectly....you are an asset to this forum indeed!

Sickrat wrote:

frozenpod wrote: I would also be looking at getting a chirp system as they are better particularly when sounding with typical wpb water.

Thanks frozenpod - what chirp system/setup do you recommend?

We just got a new furuno chirp setup to replace the 585 with 1kw transducer.

Only used it once and it was good but way to early to make an accurate call.