jsh32 Posted April 10, 2018 Posted April 10, 2018 Finally bought a fish finder for my kayak and got to use it this past weekend. Spent the first day on the water mostly playing with that and hardly fishing unless I was marking a lot of fish. The second day it worked great just like the first day and put me on some fish i probably wouldn't have found with out it. The third day however was spent mostly fighting with my unit. I would randomly lose the bottom reading and mark fish, then the bottom would appear again and the fish marks would go away. Sometimes I would just lose the depth reading. I thought it could be just i was in super shallow water (the wind was brutal and I could barley stay off the bank for a while) but once I moved to a different section of the lake into some deeper water, it was still happening, maybe more than in the shallow water. So my question is, what happened? Why did it work so well the first two days and suck butt the third? Could my battery have just been low? Could my transducer have come loose from the bottom of the inside of my kayak? Was it the settings? Im totally new to using a fish finder and have no real idea what Im doing, so any help would be great. Quote
NoSlackin' Posted April 11, 2018 Posted April 11, 2018 My guess is the transducer is loose somehow. How did you install it(the transducer)? 1 Quote
Sprocket Posted April 11, 2018 Posted April 11, 2018 Be sure your plugins are completely plugged in. Your power and your transducer cable. On those you have to give them a little extra push sometimes. SE Kansas grass grower 2 Quote
LonnieP Posted April 11, 2018 Posted April 11, 2018 2 hours ago, Sprocket said: Be sure your plugins are completely plugged in. Your power and your transducer cable. On those you have to give them a little extra push sometimes. SE Kansas grass grower I agree. I have a striker 7 and the cables have came loose a couple of times while on the water. Quote
jsh32 Posted April 11, 2018 Author Posted April 11, 2018 13 hours ago, NoSlackin' said: My guess is the transducer is loose somehow. How did you install it(the transducer)? I did install it with the help of my brother. Ill double check that. 9 minutes ago, LonnieP said: I agree. I have a striker 7 and the cables have came loose a couple of times while on the water. I checked them while on the water and they seemed to be in all the way. Ill make sure next time I can get out that they are all the way in. Thanks for the advice. Quote
Bill M Posted May 28, 2019 Posted May 28, 2019 I just installed a striker plus 4CV and it will not turn on. I have power and ground at the plug and they are plugged in Quote
jaimeastin Posted May 28, 2019 Posted May 28, 2019 Never had issues with my striker plus cv. Make is sure your power is connected. If you just crimped the cable, it make not be a good crimp. I like to solder or solder quick connects on the wire. make sure the transducer is level and in the water. We need to more details to help. Quote
Fishingmickey Posted May 28, 2019 Posted May 28, 2019 10 hours ago, Bill M said: I just installed a striker plus 4CV and it will not turn on. I have power and ground at the plug and they are plugged in You might want to check or reverse your battery polarity. Another reason could be the in-line fuse is bad. i'm assuming it has one. Good luck, Fishingmickey Quote
gnappi Posted May 28, 2019 Posted May 28, 2019 My striker 4 only has never had that problem, the connectors seat really well and do not wiggle out. I'm guessing the transducer is somehow the issue. The only issue I ever had with my S4 was it shutting off when I goosed my TM, or (electric only Jon) got bogged down in weeds. A 35Ah "house battery" fixed that. That was not the S4's fault it was the drop to below 12 volts that did it. 1 Quote
Fishingmickey Posted May 28, 2019 Posted May 28, 2019 jsh32, I'd suspect transducer mounting too. Especially if you were in rougher water. The kayak hull can flex and this would cause seal to be between the transducer and the hull to break. FM Quote
Tai Posted March 30, 2020 Posted March 30, 2020 I have an s4 in my kayak. Transducer is hull mounted via duct seal. It reads great as long as I am in water deeper than 8'. Anything shallower and I dont get depth, only a flashing a frozen number. I am new to using sonar and cannot seem to find much info about it. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Quote
Golden AGe Posted May 7, 2020 Posted May 7, 2020 From the Garmin customer support web site: No depth/blinking depth in shallow water To prevent losing depth readings in shallow water, check the following settings: Check the frequency setting on the sonar device. If a dual frequency transducer is being used, the frequency may need to be set to Dual Frequency or 200 kHz when operating in shallow water. The 50 kHz frequency may be too strong in shallow waters. Change the Range setting to Auto Manually adjust the Gain setting. The Gain setting is the sensitivity of the transducer. If the device is having troubles reading in certain areas of shallow waters, try decreasing the Gain setting. This will decrease the way the transducer reads stronger return signals in shallow waters. Quote
GP_Cobb Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 I have both the 4 and the CV (which just died) in fact I replaced it with a 4, not impressed with the CV. I was just trying to hook it up on the blue brown wires through data and it says no transponder. I'm also new to boating and I assumed on the bigger boats only one transducer was required since they are sharing data. Any suggestions on two striker fours hooked together? Quote
Super User Ratherbfishing Posted June 20, 2021 Super User Posted June 20, 2021 Dumb question (but maybe not): Is your transducer possibly hanging up on a lot of vegetation? Have you made a lot of adjustments to your settings? Perhaps try to go back to the factory defaults and then tweak from there. Quote
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