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[Spawn Sack]

Dad was down visting last week. We tried and tried to tinker with the Eagle and just could not get it to work properly. Ended up saying screw it and uninstalled the unit and all wiring. Dad had an olderish Garmin that worked fine so we installed that. It's pretty basic, black and white etc, but it shows botton/depth up to reasonable crusing speed which is better than the last one!

Plan is to just use this for a year or two and after we have higher priority things on the boat bought/figured out we'll look at a nice color, GPS, fancy arse model

On a related note, does any one ever pay to have their F/F installed? I know it's not rocket science but this kind of job is not really my bag. We had a real bugger of a time fishing wires an getting the whole thing wired up properly. Honestly think I would just save up a few more bucks and pay someone to do it right. I do my own engine maintenance and related stuff to save $ and I like it. Electrical/wiring is just not really my area of competency

[andrewscag]

My older finder was really finicky about clean power. Had all kinds of trouble with it until I ran a separate power line straight to the aux battery. It had been powered with the rest of the electronics and that was introducing interference. I've read that if the transducer lines are run alongside the other wiring from the stern this can create the same problems though it doesn't with mine. I'd say run a separate power line for your new fancy one and consider insulating the transducer line if you have to run it with the other wiring. Other than that I got nothing

[Spawn Sack]

So had our boat out on the Fraser for the 1st time today. Overall everything went well. Had a hoot catching pinks, kept a few nice clean does to smoke up, nobody died or was ejected from the boat, etc. Would have liked to stay on the river all day but had to ehad back before lunch as working afternoon shift

Anyway, the fishfinder we installed to replace the original one that was NFG worked okay today...but it still had some issues.

So unlike the original Eagle model that would not pick up bottom most of the time, this Hummingbird Matrix 10 one that my dad and I installed a couple weeks ago DOES read the bottom depth, however it will lose the "proper" depth as soon as you r get crusing and read like "980 feet" or something bizzare.

Also, it was kind of weird as sometimes it would lose the proper depth say at 3800RPM, but then wehn we slowed down to 3400RPM or whatever it would pick up the correct depth, then be fine up to 4000RPM, then lose the proper depth again.

I definitley do NOT like the feeling of not knowing the Fraser very well and crusing along not knowing how deep the water is. Of course I exercised a bit of common sense and tried my best to "read the water" and go where the water appeared deep enough.

Anyway, I'm going to try and trouble shoot the damn replacement FF

Plan is to down load the manual online and read it cover to cover. There may be some setting that needs to be tweaked to help it work properly. Also might try and loosen the 2 screws a bit that hold the mount to the transom and lower the transducer a bit (not the angle, the depth).

If I can't get this free replacement Hummingbird from my Dad sorted out we are going to have to buy a new one.

Honestly I think I would pay a boat shop to install/set it up properly. Maybe there is something my dad and I overlooked that is causing issues.

If you pay whichever shop to install it, I am assuming they will garuntee that it will read bottom up to a certain speed? If they are just going to slap it in and say "the troubleshooting is up to you if it doesnt work to your liking" well, then I might as well just install the damn thing.

Can anyone reccomend a shop that does a stellar job at installing FFs? I live in Chilliwack. Would bring boat to Abby or Langley but preferably not further west than that. Getting kind of tierd of this glitchey FF baloney. Just want one that works properly! Will try and dick with this one a bit but may just ahev to bite the bullet and buy a new one and pay to have it installed "right." 

[DionJL]

What part of the river were you in? You can always watch for a boat with a prop to go through the water and follow them. If they aren't hitting their leg, you'll be fine with a Jet.

[Noahs Arc]

You have to make some pretty bad choices to end up high and dry in a jet on the Fraser.

[Spawn Sack]

What part of the river were you in? You can always watch for a boat with a prop to go through the water and follow them. If they aren't hitting their leg, you'll be fine with a Jet.

We launched at Island 22 around 8am. Many guide boats were departing at about the same time as us but as I suspected they are PEDAL TO THE METAL and there is no way I would feel comfortable going that fast trying to keep up, and I doubt our boat has the jam to keep up even if I wanted to.

So we put putted our way down to the mouth of the Vedder, anchored up and fished for a few hours, and put putted back. For the most part everything went fine however on our way to the mouth we had to go around an island/bar. We weren't sure what was the "good side, or if both side were good, so we took a guess and went left. WELL, luckily we were going slow, as about half way down the bar it dropped to about a foot of water. If we were going fast we may have burned over this, on plane, no problem but we rubbed bottom a little and the jet sucked in a bit of sand/crap Scared us a bit but we got through it fine. On the way back to I-22, big surprise, EVERYONE (many passing us) are going the other way around the island. Turns out there is 5-7 feet depth on that side. Damn it!

Anyway, it seems prudent to not be focused on one's FF too much and instead look at the water, look for shallow water before you are in it, etc. However if I look at the damn FF I want it to show me an accurate depth

Anyway, if ya'll were gonna get a new FF installed in your river boat, where would you take it?

[Noahs Arc]

A dealer?

[Spawn Sack]

Just looking for a solid referral, that's all. I am aware that any place sells boats and FFs will likely gladly take additional $ to install it for you. I am assuming just like mechanics there are awesome ones, and alright ones, and ones that will rip you off and/or do a half-arse job. Looking for a full-arse job, no corners cut, that will stand behind their work and so on. If my mechanic did fish finders I would take my boat there! Not at all new to the fishing scene (been at it for over 30 years), just new to the river boating scene, that's all