What am I forgetting?

[Chuck Tribolet]

Low gunnels in the gulf is a good way to find the worst thing you can find on the bottom... your boat. (unless you have an "unsinkable self bailing" one like a Boston Whaler)

I do have a Boston Whaler.

 

[OceanObsessed]

Sounds like you have a good list going. Don't forget your fishing license (if needed in AL) and bring plenty of water. Bring a light water proof jacket (or rain gear) too... even here in South Florida it can get pretty chilly when you get in a summer thunderstorm out on the water.

 

[OE2X]

Bring a light water proof jacket (or rain gear) too... .

ROFL!! Out here we have to dive in our drysuits. Rain gear? Hey we don't even use umbrellas in Seattle.

 

[Nemrod]

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/JRWJR/DSCF0041.jpg

Assuming that link works since this site again does not support pictures take a look at the device to the left of the Whaler Nemrod's console. That is a Humminbird 987c side scanning sonar/GPS/fishfiner/navigation map unit/chart plotter. Bad thing about it is that at least under good conditions it pretty much alleviates the need to dive down and see what the "blip" is because it gives you an actual sonar picture. With "decent" conditions it works suprisingly well down to 100 feet even in saltwater--with some limitations in the side scan mode. In the price range nothing--NOTHING--compares to it. Expensive, yeah, a toy, maybe, but you know what? It is a Boston Whaler Outrage so it deserves at least one nice toy. If you can convince your banker (wife) or perhaps rob a quick market or actually several I recommend it.

My wife can actually see me sometimes diving if she passes over me with the boat, is that cool or what?

Oh, you can see my DSC capable VHF and my antenna which I have folded down and which, darn, needs a four foot extension because the EMF from it plays havoc with the 987c and the compass and the Magellon which you can see also, a Magellon SporTrack, mounted on top of the console with it's Magellon supplied adjustable mount. I may reinstall my Eagle gray scale sonar/fishfinder in the middle and a AM/FM/satelite type stereo above the VHF. I also have a hand held VHF and of course cell phone.

N

 

[fire_diver]

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/JRWJR/DSCF0041.jpg
That is a Humminbird 987c side scanning sonar/GPS/fishfiner/navigation map unit/chart plotter. Bad thing about it is that at least under good conditions it pretty much alleviates the need to dive down and see what the "blip" is because it gives you an actual sonar picture. With "decent" conditions it works suprisingly well down to 100 feet even in saltwater--with some limitations in the side scan mode. N

Wow, color me jealous! I have been drooling over one of those since I first saw them. Maybe when I upgrade my boat, I'll include one of those in the amount of cash I need.

So are you saying that it doesn't work well below depths of 100ft? Some of the lakes in my area have depths over 200ft. Of course, my cheap depth/fish finder doesn't really show anything that deep either.

FD

 

[wreckchick]

I just added a Garmin 178c Chartplotter/Sounder with the Bluechart for down here and I am thinking that for the money it's a nice little piece of equipment to have around

I would probably be tempted to commit a felony for that Hummingbird though. Sadly, that's what it would take to get one.

Rachel

 

[NadMat]

Dang N, you got some neat toys, not only all your cool vintage dive stuff, but neato new stuff too. I am sooooooo jealous Maybe some day if I find myself in your neck of the woods I can get you to bring 'em out to play

Rick, as always, your advice was great, you are up there at the top of 'people on SB whose post you should always pay attention to' list. Dang, SB is a great resource.

Oh, by the way N, pics are working again, as you can see by the fact that I put your purty boat pic in my post

 

[Nemrod]

Fire Diver, not to take over the thread but since we are talking about outfitting a boat for diving-I guess it is OK.

The thing about the limit to approx 100 feet is in the side scan mode only. In the standard down looking sonar dual frequency mode it will reach the other side of the planet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your problem with side scan is that the beams are looking out to the side of the boat and therefore also looks through an oblique water column and to get the detail a higher frequency is used. The high frequency even at the high power levels this thing can produce simply cannot reach much further. Water column aeration, thermoclines, plankton, algae, fish--all eat up some of the signal thus limiting it to approx 100 feet, sometimes a bit more and sometimes less. The signal is not as clear in sea water because it is so "alive" BUT--LOOK HERE--it works just fine!!!!!If you want to spend 12,000 or so for a tow behind--go ahead--lol.
Severe rocking also degrades the return signal so it is best to side scan into the waves or with them and not across them. But, again, small chop is not a problem but quickly spaced rollers will confuse the signal. Think about it, the computer is not seeing the signal it sent out in the same plane on return if your rocking and rolling. In any case, since this thing is way better than nothing and way better than a standard sonar one usually decides they can live with a blurry image or degraded image--which is still way more--way more than anything else close in price can give you. It works really good.

LOL, and just because I dive vintage does not mean I am not a master of 21st century technology (insert rolling eyes of my wife persson right there)--lol--and thanks NadMat.

Fire Diver, in Table Rock out in the middle with side scan mode, the ss signal gets no returns but passing fish and bait balls--way deep. BTW, you can run the bottom looking sonar and side scan sonar all at once and see all three on the screen at the same time. On some installations the lower unit of the engine will block the scan to one side, I had that problem so I just run the engine out a bit. SS only works at slow non planning speeds (approx five to ten mph) anyways. Normal down looking sonar of course works at high speed. N

 

[matt_54351]

with a good color lcd depth finder and some pratice you begin to learn to recgonize all kinds of things without spending as big a bucks. you definately need lower freq for depths over 180-200ft (50hz or lower, depending on conditions), but after that wattage plays a more important role. our 1000w unit starts having troubble with smaller particle pickup/difinition in about 400ft of water, and will give you an accurate bottom depth out to about 750ft, but that's salt water and a 2-5kt current. thankfully for tilefishing you only need to know your in 600+ and if you can get your bait down to the bottom, they'll be there and they'll always bite

 

[Nemrod]

It is often discussed in various places how a "fish finder" differs from a sonar. Well, a fish finder is a sonar (of which there are many types) that is optimized for finding fish. They typically have a fairly wide beam which is usefull to see fish out to the side of the boat in a large area. Problem is though that a wide beam when it finally strikes bottom is also seeing a large area which it must average to one value on the screen. This results in a "smoothing" effect that can very much hide small "blips" which is the word that caught my attention in the initial post. Scuba diving use in water up to 130 feet is not the same as fishing often in hundreds of feet of water. For diving use, I would recommend getting a unit/transducer combo that has as narrow a beam as reasonably possible. This will increase your bottom resolution so you can more easily disntiguish small undulations in the bottom. You kind of have to learn your unit and how to interpret it's display. N