Lowrance Totalscan transducer baffle

[CountryboyinDC]

I bought a HDS Carbon with the Totalscan transducer for kayaks.  Since I want to be able to move this between kayaks (so long as the have enough gear track on the gunnwales forward the cockpit), I mounted it on a YakAttack Cellblok and put a Ram transducer mount on top of that (PN 316-18-TRA5U-NB).  The setup is fine on a pedal kayak, kind of in the way on my 'paddle' one (Jackson Coosa HD).  That's not the issue I'm trying to resolve, though.  The artifact on this thing is pretty pronounced, and I'm deducing it's because the transducer is not protected the way it is on a transom mount or a scupper mount for kayaks.  Yakattack advertises their mount as being baffled, but it doesn't fit the Totalscan transducer.  I know I'm not getting the images the Hobie Pro Angler guys are getting with the same graphs, and the difference that jumps out is the transducer mount (they have a neat cover for the transducer from BerleyPro that allows mounting in the transducer scupper).  If anyone has found a way to make a baffle for a similar purpose, I'd appreciate any help I could get.

[redmexican5081]

Is that transducer mounted backwards? I believe on a lowrance transducer the wire comes out the front.

[CountryboyinDC]

2 hours ago, redmexican5081 said:

Is that transducer mounted backwards? I believe on a lowrance transducer the wire comes out the front.

That would be easy enough to test.  I'll try that next time I'm out.  It would just be a matter of turning the piece of the mount that holds the transducer head 180 degrees.  The graph seems to read in the normal manner (things on the left show up on the left side of the graph), but that could be the graph making a correction.  Thanks.

[PAbasser927]

There is a setting in your unit that will flip the image if the transducer is mounted backwards.  If this setting is enabled, your unit will still read correctly.  @redmexican5081 is correct though, by default the front is the end that the wire comes out of.

[CountryboyinDC]

3 hours ago, PAbasser927 said:

There is a setting in your unit that will flip the image if the transducer is mounted backwards.  If this setting is enabled, your unit will still read correctly.  @redmexican5081 is correct though, by default the front is the end that the wire comes out of.

It wouldn't seem as though the mounted direction will fix what I'm seeing, but it's worth a try.  I had a smaller one mounted in the scupper, and it would only go one direction, so I didn't pay much attention when I mounted this one.  I'm going shad fishing Saturday, so I'll try that.  It sure would be a pleasant surprise if that cleared up the noise.

[PAbasser927]

You’re right that the direction likely has nothing to do with the poor image.  However since the Totalscan is also capable of sidescan, the direction would matter to make sure each side is reflected on your unit correctly.  If it is mounted backwards, you could be trolling with the bank on your left but you scanner would show the bank on your right. 

[CountryboyinDC]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:23 PM, PAbasser927 said:

You’re right that the direction likely has nothing to do with the poor image.  However since the Totalscan is also capable of sidescan, the direction would matter to make sure each side is reflected on your unit correctly.  If it is mounted backwards, you could be trolling with the bank on your left but you scanner would show the bank on your right. 

So I went out Saturday, and turned the transducer around.  Not the ideal testing conditions, the winds were gusting, sometimes as much as 40 mph.  I did see the see obvious structures and they were showing up on side scan in the correct orientation.  I think they were last year too though.  But there was definitely as much if not more artifact than before, and how much of that could be attributed to the conditions I can't say.  I plan to be back out on a body of water I can test again this in a couple of weeks.  I may see if I can cobble up some kind of temporary baffle to see if that makes a difference before I take the project too seriously.