# Hummingbird Sonar help?



## bpd1504 (Sep 15, 2012)

So I have installed a new Hummingbird 859c Hd DI unit on my boat and all seemed good the first time out. After today the second run I seem to have had an awful lot of near the surface clutter. The line showed up around 2.5 ft. and was consistently thick. I wish I would have taken a photo for more detailed information but......I have installed a new VHF Radio since the first time out can any of the wiring for the antenna be causing interference? The antenna is on the right side of my console about 1ft. away from my unit and all the wires obviously lead into the console near each other? Maybe I'm overthinking it but I swear all seemed perfect the first time out. I turned off the motor and the line was there even just adrift. 

If the problem persists I will attach photos. I'm a little confused as of right now. Any info would be appreciated.


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## 68bucks (Aug 17, 2013)

Try the marine electronics form on The Hull Truth message board. There are a lot of people that can help with that stuff there. 

http://www.thehulltruth.com/marine-electronics-forum-19/


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## bpd1504 (Sep 15, 2012)

This is an example. Is the top surface clutter normal?

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## 68bucks (Aug 17, 2013)

bpd1504 said:


> This is an example. Is the top surface clutter normal?
> 
> Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Ohub Campfire mobile app


Looks about normal to me. I have a Lowrance HDS and I get the same thing depending on the sensitivity. I also get a lot of clutter on the screen of there is a lot of mud in the water or a lot of algae. On lake Erie in the summer I will pick up the algae blooms on my screen and it can make it almost unreadable. I have to lower the sensitivity a lot to clear it up but then you tend to miss some fish. Here is a 2 shots of my screen from a lake in Ohio yesterday. Also one from lake Erie last fall perch fishing. That is the one at 26' depth and it has more surface clutter like you have. Seems like I have a setting in my menu to reduce the surface clutter.


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## Buckeye Ron (Feb 3, 2005)

bpd1504 said:


> This is an example. Is the top surface clutter normal?
> 
> Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Ohub Campfire mobile app


bpd1504,
You can adjust your surface sensitivity(Surface Clutter) to eliminate that much of a line. You can find it on page 83 in your manual.

Hope this helps,

Ron


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## fishingguy (Jan 5, 2006)

I don't know about birds, but on the lowrance I can set the depth range to target the depths I want. I will normally knock off the top ten or fifteen feet and set the deep side to either the bottom if fishing skinny or the bottom of the depth of water I am looking for fish. Surface clutter and a 70' deep bottom are pretty much a waste of pixels that show nothing you can use for information.


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## K gonefishin (May 4, 2004)

I personally wouldn't knock off the top 10 or 15 ft, many times this is where the fish are located and bait, sometimes you don't mark the fish but you mark the bait, this is big indicator if fish will be high, often times if you run out of bait you run out of fish. Having the entire screen visible is important to get a good luck at what is going on down there. I will do this on lake ontario when fishing over multiple hundreds of feet of water but only because I only need to see 100 ft not 500, the water column is so small on Erie why not see it, those walleye could be feeding anywhere.


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## uplander56 (Jan 15, 2009)

Are you running a bow mount? Were you running your bow mount on your first outing?

The top clutter in that top 3ft is often cause of the turbulence from a bow mount. It can be more or less too, based on what speed your running the bow mount, current, how rough it is, ect., 

In the sonar menu, there is a section to adjust surface clutter readings. You could mess with that some on your next trip. One thing I would caution, as Kevin said, if you block out the top section of your graph you can certainly miss some marks. And likewise, if you set your surface clutter to the lowest setting, that too, can cause weak readings in the shallow section of your graph, and could make you miss some marks.

Randy


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## bpd1504 (Sep 15, 2012)

Thanks guys, there are surface clutter setting I just am not as familiar with this unit as I will be soon. I was more questioning my install and placement on the transom. I feel like I'm getting good reads so I was just wondering if that clutter was normal. As always I appreciate the information you guys all share on here. Thanks! 

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## lark101_1999 (Apr 12, 2004)

http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php take a look there and post your ?tion help full bunch


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