# Fish Finder settings while at rigs



## blakeb (Aug 10, 2009)

I cant seem to get my Raymarine (e140w) fish finder to work correctly when out at the rigs. I have a Airmar CS4500 transducer. It works great in 500ft or less even at cruising speed. However as soon as I get deep enough that it loses the bottom, it seems to pick up a bunch of noise at about 60ft (thermocline?) and wont sound fish. I have tried setting the range to the top 400ft and lowering the gain to reduce the noise, but I never see fish on the finder with either 200khz or 50khz. I know they are down there because we are catching blackfin.

Anyone have some advice?


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## sealark (Sep 27, 2007)

200khz wont work very good past 200 ft. 50 khz should work. Turn up the power. A temperature thermal will cause many problems with a signal bouncing off of it. Submarines actually use to use a thermal to hide from sonar.


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## GWally (May 16, 2009)

I have been digging into different transducers for my E7 (boat not in the water) and may have found your problem. Reading the tech info on the CS4500, all the info I see shows that this is a 4.5 mhz transducer and it is for speed measurement. The info says it has 2 transducers to measure the time difference between small particles present in the water to measure a time difference with resulting speed computation. I'd verify the info/designation, but from what I see, there is no way you will mark fish with this unit.

Question
Which DSM sounder module do you have? I'm guessing it is the DSM30 and just checking, for a thru-hull installation, you need the B117 which looks like it would replace your CS4500.


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## blakeb (Aug 10, 2009)

That was the only transducer I found in my settings on the Raymarine, but I went back and looked at the spec sheet from when we bought the boat and found this:
Raymarine DSM400 Digital Sounder 
Raymarine R209 3KW Transducer w/ Faring Block


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## GWally (May 16, 2009)

I recommend giving Raymarine techs a call. They have helped me a bunch. You have a powerhouse Sounder with variable frequencies and the R206 has 24 elements on the 3 KW 50hz side and the "normal?" single element for 200hz. You can select 28 38 or 50 hz on the 3kw side and 200 hz on the 2kw side. I'd guess there are some setup steps you may need to do because they describe this as a commercial unit and "is the most technologically advanced transducer for sportfishing". Info I have read is the only way to get perhaps (?) enhanced performance is to go chirp.
This rascal should do everything you need and more.


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## blakeb (Aug 10, 2009)

Thanks. I will give them a call. It is rock solid in shallower water, so I think it is just a configuration thing I am missing. I will update here when I get things figured out.


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## SnapperSlapper (Feb 13, 2009)

I don't know about your particular setup, but I've owned a c80 and a57, and used a couple of other raymarine bottom machines on others boats, including the e series with 1kW transducer. For using at the rigs I'd run it on 200 kHz. Set your depth from 0-300 or 0-400'. Use manual gain, and turn it up till you start getting fuzz, then back it down one notch.


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## my3nme (Oct 9, 2007)

I have the RM e127 with the B60 transducer and was having the same problem the last time I was out there. I had done a update and when I did the unit defaulted to another transducer. I haven't been back since I made the adjustment but the RM tech said I should be able to pick the fish up. I've always set the gain to auto but may need to do something different next time


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## strike two (May 16, 2009)

Call Jerry at George's marine electronics. He can definitely help you


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