transducer 83khz or 200khz whats better ?

[the crush]

i have the hds5 (just bought this year) with the lss_1 i fish lake erie depths no deeper than 30 ft. i have read a coulpe different articles that say to use the 200khz and others say to use the 83khz ??????

[LWinches]

i have the hds5 (just bought this year) with the lss_1 i fish lake erie depths no deeper than 30 ft. i have read a coulpe different articles that say to use the 200khz and others say to use the 83khz ??????

At the depth you specified, the coverage area of the 200 khz will be small, less than the length of your boat. The 83 Khz will tell you more about what's in the area around the boat, though not necessarily under you. Lowrance claims 120 degrees of fish detection for the 83 Khz. My experience is that it is wide but not 120 degrees. Both frequencies should perform reliably to 30 feet. Reliably meaning that if a fish, even a small one, is in the cone it will show on the screen.

If you are idling along looking for fish, pay attention to your ping speed. You may need to up it some. I like a fast ping speed so that if I'm moving along looking I can move a little faster. My experience is that the Lowrance 83 Khz performs better than Hbirds because of being able to manually adjust the ping speed. I don't have any scientific proof of it but Hbird seems to ping the 83 Hkz at half or less the ping rate of the 200 Khz. One result is that you can go across fish and never see them. Being able to manually adjust the ping speed means you shouldn't have this problem.

I've had trouble with 83 Khz reliably showing fish at depths of 60 feet and deeper.

The 83 will tell you when you are getting close and the 200 when you are on them. Vexilar does this very well with their Edge units. Half the screen on the narrow cone and half the screen on the wide cone. It is very effective.

[REW]

LW has it right.
Use the low frequency wide angle for pod searching and to use as an early warning detector when running at high speed for depth changes.
Then, use the 200 kHz narrow beam to work over an area more slowly looking for bottom fish etc.

Take care
REW

[the crush]

Thanks a lot for all the info like I said I have only used the unit one time so far but thanks again for tyhe gOod tips