Garmin fish finder/transducer

[Thayer3047]

I purchased a boat that came with a garmin 93sv with a GT-56 UHD transducer, I fished Lake Ontario this past season and I wasn't very impressed with being able to see good arches in and out of bait balls etc. I played around with different frequencies while trolling but still didn't seem to find what I was looking for. Is there a transducer that you guys would recommend, I mostly fish for kings but also some browns in the spring. 

[rolmops]

The 56 is a very nice transducer. Very often it is the scroll speed that makes or brakes what you see on the screen. The slower you set it, the longer the lines, The faster, the shorter the lines.

I have both a Garmin 93SV with a 56 transducer and a Furuno 587 with an Airmar 260 transducer, which is a one kilowatt transducer. The furuno is arguably one of the best fishfinders around and together with the Airmar 260 , it is a powerhouse. But the Garmin with the  56 has the same quality when set up properly.

[Thayer3047]

When trolling what scroll speed and frequency are you using on your garmin? 

[rolmops]

I do not remember the scroll speed off hand. Sometimes it depends a bit on the trolling speed.  As for frequency, when comparing it to the Furuno , I run it at either 50 or 200 because those are the Furuno frequencies. I mostly have the  Garmin aimed a bit forward while the Furuno is ever so slightly backward , specially when trolling deep, so I don't loose sight of the torpedoes. When fishing shallow, I  change frequency on the Garmin in order to have a wider view, which I cannot really do with the Furuno. With the Garmin aimed a bit forward and being able to mark fish forward and sideways I often can change course a bit so the marks will get covered by the lines off the boards.

[4426]

i have two echomaps on my boat, one is hooked to the gt15m-ih transducer, and one is hooked to garmins 50/200 transducer. They work decently, mark at speed most times, but in hindsight, i wish i would have gotten an airmar transducer or two(probably a b60 and a b150m for chirp, note if youre networked to more than one echomap its difficult/impossible to recieve more than one 2d image at a time, i dont have mine networked anymore for this reason). 

Edited January 23 by 4426

[stinger]

15 hours ago, rolmops said:

"I do not remember the scroll speed off hand. Sometimes it depends a bit on the trolling speed.  As for frequency, when comparing it to the Furuno , I run it at either 50 or 200 because those are the Furuno frequencies. "

 

I run the smaller screen version 620 Furuno in duel beam while trolling and it will display fish and bait. .  I like to see what is under the boat as well as around it.  The 50 Khz shows rigger balls down to 120' or so and I switch to straight 200Khz when at speed.  The settings, freq and scroll speed are displayed across the top of the screen using the Furuno 525ST-PWD transducer.

 

 

[Shakemsam]

Much better options for trolling than the 56. Suggest an Airmar P66 but you will need an adapter. The 56 is really designed for shallower water and structure.