I just used my 332C for the first time yesterday on the ice. I had some mixed opinions on it. First it seemed pretty easy to read. My 8 year old was using my Marcum LX-3 and wanted to use the Lowrance because he felt it was easier to read. I also notice the Marcum could not filter out the interference from the Lowrance which may have been the reason he could not read it. My uncle however did not seem to have a problem with his FL 18 filtering out the interference. Not sure how impressed I am with the Marcum.
One problem I did have with the Lowrance was locating my jig when it appeared that we had a lot of activity with suspended fish. It seemed that fish would move in suspended. We were fishing in 38’ of water and the fish would move in at depths of 27’-35’. I had the split screen view with bottom zoom. How do you adjust the setting to find your jig in all the clutter. The real time sonar on the side is B&W so I knew I could not use that, but I had a nest to impossible time finding my jig in the suspended fish and on the zoom portion I would lose my jig when I pulled it up quickly. Any advice from those of you using these systems?

Roddy

Roddy,

I use a 102C which is the same sonar. I usually only use a single screen with it zoomed in. I set surface clutter and noise rejection to the highest settings. Set sensitivity so you can pick up the jig throughout the water column (usually 75%-85%) and adjust colorline so jig is showing a different color than the harder returning bottom and larger fish. This should allow you to differentiate, but a simple jig motion should also allow you to see the jig as well.

EJ

If your having trouble not finding your jig then you just need to make a few adjustments because these units have a ton of power.
First turn of auto depth range. Then once you know your depth (for example 30 feet) scroll down the menu to "upper and lower chart limits". For bottom hugging walleye in 30 feet I set my upper limit at 20 feet and my lower at 30. Now I have eliminated any clutter from 0 to 20 feet. In this mode use your up and down arrows to take that 10 foot "window" up or down.
I have been catching eater size walleye lately in 60 feet of water but with the same 10 foot window my screen looks the same as fishing shallow water. You can still use your 3 zoom levels to really tighten up the window and your jig will be very very obvious. If not, you have another issue like your transducer is not pointing straight down or a bad transducer.
Hope this helps

i just got the m68c by lowrance and used this weekend in michigan. i was very pleased how it showed my teardrop jig. i was fishing for bluegill and crappie in 40 foot the fish were suspended between 18 and 23 foot and it had no problems marking my jig and fish. i would highly recommend this unit to anyone. good luck!

I need a little help following your explanation. I have a LMS334C and I am not following the part where you describe setting the upper and lower limits. I fished Little Bay de Noc over the weekend and used the unit for the first time on ice. While I didn't experience any difficulty, I was fustrated that I could only zoom to 4X and fishing in 30+' of water left me thinking about what you are saying. Is it possible to improve on the zoom with what you are saying? Tight Lines.
CD

To move you zoom manually. Switch you auto depth to manual than you can then change you zoom with your up & down arrows to what area you want. hope that helps.

Brian Rud

I've been using my x67c since last season - great on the ice, and great on the trolling motor. I, too, have turned off auto depth and auto sens, and find that tuning for the different water in area lakes can be a bit of a challenge. But, once it's tuned in I feel it really outdoes our Vex or Marcum. Didn't think of trying my LMS334c, I'll have to check it out.

I have a 334c but it has only been used on my boat. I would like to buy a carrying case to effectively use this unit for winter fishing. Any suggestions where I can get a suitable case? I like the newer style that is nylon and can be closed when not in use.

Has anyone experienced problems with damaging this unit when it is place in a portable house and dragged behind a snowmobile at low temps. I am wondering about the durability of the screen at low temperatures and bouncing around.
Thanks,
John

Esoxguy,

You can get the complete kit including the softside case from Lowrance at LEI-extras. Cabelas and Reeds can get them as well. If I remember correctly the part# is PPP-16I. You can also just piece together the parts you need yourself if you do not need all of them.

I would be hesitant to have the graph bouncing in the back of a sled over rough ice. I would make sure it is secure wherever you are carrying it. Durability and battery life are areas where a flasher is better than a graph, but I'll take the better performance of a graph.

EJ

CD did you get it figured out ok?

I understand about the changing from auto to manual with depth range, but setting limits??? I can zoom to 4X and change my view of the water column, but still am confused about setting? Iam I missing something here? Tight Lines.

Alright here is what you do:
I am still assuming that you are standing on the ice in exactly 30 foot of water in this example. Obviously you would change the numbers you set it at accordingly for different depths.

Hit menu and when you see depth range in auto push enter and the square should come off that selection and now it is in manual depth control (not to be confused with auto/manual sensitivity by the way).
Now that you are here you will see another choice called "upper and lower limits". Scroll to this and push enter. The blue cursor will go to the upper limit spot, push enter again. Use the arrow keys to to get to the upper limit you want. In the example we used a total depth of 30 feet and we set the upper limit at 20 so lets use that again. Get each number correct and press enter to lock them in. When you have the upper limit set and entered push the down arrow key to get to lower the limit box and set it at 30 feet and then press enter to finish. Now hit exit out of all this and get back to the main sonar screen. You will notice now that your sonar screen will not be able to "look" any shallower than 20 feet or deeper than 30. It will ignore everything else. But notice the depth scale on the side has much smaller incriments now. And also rember that in manual depth range the machine does not "automaticaly" go find the bottom for you like it does in auto..... So at this point you need to use the down arrows to move this window down to the bottom of the lake untill you start painting the bottom line again on your screen. Once you do this the bottom line is 30 feet and depending on what zoom level you are in you may be able to see from 20 to 30 in no zoom or in 4X zoom it will only be from around 28 feet to 30 feet. So in 4X you are only looking at a 2 foot window of the water columb but it is 30 feet down instead of looking from 0 to 30 feet and trying to break that down into sections. Make sense? At this point your jig is going to look like a 53 inch Musky swimming by. The nice part is you can do the same thing in a 100 feet of water if you want so that your jig and bottom line are always the same relative size on the screen. This makes it much easier to get good at judging walleye comming off the bottom from the "vapor" trail comming off your lure that happens in a stationary sonar reading. If you want to be impressed with how good these units really are, spray your lure with WD-40 and you can watch the oil comming off the lure as it decends down. Using your unit on ice will improve your sonar skills much faster than on the soft water. Good luck.

>Esoxguy,
>
>You can get the complete kit including the softside case from
>Lowrance at LEI-extras. Cabelas and Reeds can get them as
>well. If I remember correctly the part# is PPP-16I. You can
>also just piece together the parts you need yourself if you do
>not need all of them.
>
>I would be hesitant to have the graph bouncing in the back of
>a sled over rough ice. I would make sure it is secure wherever
>you are carrying it. Durability and battery life are areas
>where a flasher is better than a graph, but I'll take the
>better performance of a graph.
>
>EJ

I would not recommend the Cabel's kit. I have one and wish I would have waited for the lowrance kit. For one the soft case is very tight. Some other issues are the cords they sell you are much longer than what you need for ice set-ups.

Ahhhhhh. I got it now. I downloaded the Emulator from the Lowrance website and now understand. This adds a whole new dimension to the capabilities of this unit. I was satisfied with my results after fishing with it for the first time, but can see where this will be very useful next time out and beyond. Thanks for the tips. Tight Lines.