You might check if your motor specs indicate what CCA or MCA is required. My Optimax specs say minimum 800 CCA or 1000 MCA. So an Optima 27M or 31M Bluetop fits the bill. I chose the 27M because the 31M was a bit too tight. I sometimes fish 12 hours with 3 sonars, Structurescan, NMEA2000, livewell all pulling power and have no issues.
John S.
I talked to a friend who just got Gen3 units and is starting to use GoFree maps. He said if he has 5 lakes on the SD Card, when he turns the unit on, it asks “do you want to use lake xxx” 5 times. So he has to answer the question for every lake on the card which is really annoying for him.
I have maps for several lakes on my laptop. There is a directory for each lake and each directory contains the 5 files. I don’t rename any of the 5 files. I can copy multiple directories to the SD card, so each lake is it’s own directory.
When I turn on the sonar unit, it chooses one name and asks if I want to load that. If it’s not the one I want, just select whatever is highlighted (YES or NO, it doesn’t matter). Then go in
Menu -> Chart options -> Chart source and it lists all the lakes to select from.
This is on Gen2.
John S.
I expect your GPS puck needs a NMEA2000 network. Plug that and all sonar units into the network.
John S.
The owners manual for my motor says to have it vertical when you pump. Before that I never knew it made a difference.
John S.
You might see if your motor has a minimum requirement for CCA or MCA. My Optimax requires a min 800 CCA or 1000 MCA so it needs a hefty battery. I use an Optima 27M and run 3 sonar units, structurescan, NMEA with Point-1, and occasionally livewell and I’m usually out all day when I’m out. A 31M would be better but that’s too tight a fit in my compartment.
Medium noise reduction could be filtering out too much. Try low for noise rejection and surface clutter.
DI sees farther out the side than 2D and is way more useful than regular 2D on Lowrance units. That’s partly because Lowrance has a dedicated DI transducer whereas legacy Humminbird don’t, so their DI sucked. Newer Hbird units license the Lowrance technology and are much better, though I don’t know which models started using that.
I have two Lowrance HDS units on the console because I want to see SI, DI, 2D, and Chart/GPS all at the same time. Can’t efficiently do that with just one unit. So my 10″ is dedicated to SI, DI, 2D sonar and a 7″ dedicated to the map/GPS. Trying to do it all on just one unit is possible but you’ll be constantly be toggling between screens and get frustrated. My SI uses the full width of the 10″ screen and I still need my readers to see all the detail. Bigger is better.
I like Humminbirds’s SI better than Lowrance, but Lowrance’s is still very impressive and for everything else I prefer Lowrance’s features and performance. Personal preference.
One unit is a refurb from Cabelas and two are used from EBay. I’ve had great luck with used units, but it’s a crap shoot and I got lucky.
Btw, if you want to mark GPS waypoints on the console unit while you’re driving around, you want an external GPS receiver mounted near the transom-mounted transducer. Check if your models will support that. With Lowrance all you need is NMEA network.
I just found a straggler here and there along the channel. Saw many schools of bait. Little Lake still has too much ice to be fishable.
I have a 2008 115 Optimax and it’s awesome. However there was an issue with a bad batch of coils. There was a period of time Mercury would replace all 3 at no cost but I’m sure that’s expired. Maybe a dealer can look at your parts and tell you if they are from the potential bad batch.
Some people complain about the cost of oil, but I only use a gallon a year and I’m running mine a lot. I pick up my oil in November and the dealer gives me a discount.
ffib, I’ve done most lakes in Chippewa County, but not Holcombe. The detail of Long Lake is amazing. I also did Mud/Callahan in Sawyer county since we have a camper at the resort, and am currently working on Round Lake so I can have ridiculous detail of all the bars. Also doing some of the Chippewa Flowage and did Osprey which is a fun little lake.
Insight Genesis is FREE to upload data and download as many maps as you want. I’ve done a lot of mapping and never paid anything. It eliminates the need for map cards.
IMHO the accuracy of the gofreeshop maps is much better than what I’ve seen on any map cards.
I should have also noted a lesser known feature of using gofreeshop maps is you can set coloring of depth ranges. As many depth ranges as you want, though the color pallete is limited on my Gen2. For instance, I set
0-1 red
1-3 fade red to yellow
4-11 fade white to blue
12-20 fade pink to purple (primary crappie zone throughout the year except spawning time)
21-30 fade green to royal blue
30+ dark navy blue (since I rarely fish that deep)
Obviously I’m a huge fan of Insight Genesis and map a lot of lakes and look forward to having it for a long time. It’s disappointing Lowrance doesn’t market it better because a lot more average anglers would buy their units if they were educated on the amazing maps available for free.
Insight Genesis is FREE to upload data and download as many maps as you want. I’ve done a lot of mapping and never paid anything. It eliminates the need for map cards.
IMHO the accuracy of the gofreeshop maps is much better than what I’ve seen on any map cards.
I have non-touch Gen2 units and have been creating Insight Genesis maps of most lakes in my county. I assure you they are more accurate than any map chip you can buy. There is a HUGE variety of amazingly accurate maps available for FREE from gofreeshop.com (Insight Genesis website).
It’s disappointing Lowrance doesn’t market these free maps more because lots more people would buy their units if they understood how great the maps are.
If you see an object on your console sonar and mark a waypoint, you want the GPS receiver near the transducer so you’re marking the coordinates where you physically see the object. If the puck is 8 ft from your transducer, your waypoint will be 8 ft from the physical object you see.
For me, the big advantage of the Point-1 is the magnetic compass so the screen cursor always points in the direction the boat is facing – not in the direction you’re drifting/traveling. That’s very nice when precision fishing structure/cover in deep water.
You might create an overlay that shows voltage on the screen. I had similar flaky issues on my bow HDS unit so I displayed the voltage and it was 10v when the console units read 12v. I was going to rewire power to the bow with fatter wire but I accidentally discovered I had a bad connection and re-seating the connectors fixed it.
FishBlood, no need for the Lol, though I don’t take it personal. I was asking for an intelligent answer from someone who actually uses StructureScan 3D and can educate me on the features and how they work in the real world versus what marketing fluff says.
As an engineer myself, I think you underestimate what smart engineers can accomplish with state-of-the-art technology. The Digital Signal Processing software can tell how far an object is, how far off the bottom, the density, and perhaps even the length. It’s not that far fetched to think they could color objects that have a different density than the bottom.
Ok, maybe it can’t tell exactly what a fish is, but highlighting something that’s different density than it’s surroundings would be cool. Thinking more out of the box, with the large memory in modern sonars, they could characterize densities of rock, sand, wood of various diameters, various fish species into a reference database. Then it’s a matter of looking up something that matches what the sonar signals indicate.
That’s how engineers think and how they come up with so much cool, amazing stuff. Remember back in the day when everyone told the Wright brothers “Lol, man can’t fly!” 
John S.
I thought I saw they had a feature that would make the fish a different color. Do you know about that?
John S.
You can get a lot of great high-def maps for FREE from gofreeshop.com. If they don’t have your favorite lake, you can log sonar data and have one made. It’s a great feature I’ve been using to map all my county’s lakes.
I also have the Insight Pro card which is great for the large lakes I haven’t gotten around to mapping yet.
John S.
You must have all 5 files for a lake. My unit is max 16G so I learned the hard way to use a smaller card.
Sorry if I’m late and you don’t need the info anymore. The LCX units will work fine with the Point-1 GPS receiver. They just don’t take advantage of the higher data rate.
What size is your SD card? There may be a maximum size that unit can read.
I would just Edit Overlay when in full screen sonar mode just to check settings and see if they look right. Though I thought if it worked in one page, it would also work in the other page.
John S.
The LOWRANCE label on the front of a Gen1 is black. It’s white on a Gen2.
These work nice with a slightly larger blade and good bait keeper
http://www.capnredbeards.com/newww.html
Hookem,
I don’t recall for sure, but I think the LCX will continue to power the network even if the LCX unit is powered off. You’d have to try it to verify.
John S
Steve, the Optima bluetop are dual-purpose deep cycle designed for both starting and running electronics. You are correct that charging after every use keeps them healthy for many years.
I’m a huge fan of Optima blue tops. They cost more, but they charge faster and have twice the runtime. Group 31 is ideal if your storage compartment is big enough, but group 27 will be good also.
Great report Turk. I had the wife there Saturday and while we saw fish on the graph and got some to move to the bait, we didn’t get bit. Well, I did have a big fish on but it broke me off before I could see what it was. I usually struggle there so we appreciate the tips from those who are figuring it out.
John S.
