330Express Transducer question

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Jtravis

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Recently I have been doing some Canyon fishing in the northeast. My Gt 51s don't reliability hold bottom in over 600 feet. I was thinking about adding a B175L for chunking tuna and for nighttime swordfish. I was hoping to get some opinions on this setup. The boat is a 330 Grady White Express with twin garmin 8612xsv' s. Thanks in advance for any insights you can give!
 
The GT51M is old but still the best side-scan transducer with a well doing traditional sonar, but not made for 600ft.
Yes the B175L would do much better, a B265LH would do even better and has two bands able to show Low and High frequency band contemporary on your 8612xsv's. If it's worth to fork out a substantial higher sum for the B265LH is your decision, but the B265LH is the better transducer.
Chris
 
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Sardinia306Canyon said:
The GT51M is old but still the best side-scan transducer with a well doing traditional sonar, but not made for 600ft.
Yes the B175L would do much better, a B265LH would do even better and has two bands able to show Low and High frequency band contemporary on your 8612xsv's. If it's worth to fork out a substantial higher sum for the B265LH is your decision, but the B265LH is the better transducer.
Chris
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Thank you very much for the reply! I will definitely look into the B265LH.
 
You are kind of in a pickle. If you want a good look at tuna /swords drifting at night, you are much better off with a "High and Wide" like the B175HW or now they have a B175MW Medium & wide.
They have extremely wide beams to see whats high up around the boat but, of course, these don't read deep bottom. But, for tuna and night swords you don't need bottom. The chart will tell you close enough how deep you are.

For tilefish and day swords, you need to read bottom past 600. B175L will get you that. B265LH too. They make an M265LH in-hull also.

For really good deep bottom readings you need a 2k sonar and transducer.

I have a 2KW GSD24 sonar and an R199 in-hull for deep fishing. It reads bottom past 2000. never fishing that deep anyways Reads squid & tilefish in 800.
I use the GT51M for everything but tilefishing. However, most of our tilefish come from 450 to 700 on the West Wall of the Hudson.
Tried deep dropping swords once with no luck. Hoping to get more chances at that.

I wish I had a B175HW or MW for tuna fishing.
 
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SkunkBoat said:
You are kind of in a pickle. If you want a good look at tuna /swords drifting at night, you are much better off with a "High and Wide" like the B175HW or now they have a B175MW Medium & wide.
They have extremely wide beams to see whats high up around the boat but, of course, these don't read deep bottom. But, for tuna and night swords you don't need bottom. The chart will tell you close enough how deep you are.

For tilefish and day swords, you need to read bottom past 600. B175L will get you that. B265LH too. They make an M265LH in-hull also.

For really good deep bottom readings you need a 2k sonar and transducer.

I have a 2KW GSD24 sonar and an R199 in-hull for deep fishing. It reads bottom past 2000. never fishing that deep anyways Reads squid & tilefish in 800.
I use the GT51M for everything but tilefishing. However, most of our tilefish come from 450 to 700 on the West Wall of the Hudson.
Tried deep dropping swords once with no luck. Hoping to get more chances at that.

I wish I had a B175HW or MW for tuna fishing.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the detailed reply! I don't think I can swing a 2k transducer at the moment but maybe in the future. I am new to the tile fish/swordfish game and I appreciate the advice!
 
Jtravis said:
Thank you very much for the detailed reply! I don't think I can swing a 2k transducer at the moment but maybe in the future. I am new to the tile fish/swordfish game and I appreciate the advice!
Click to expand...
If you were in my place what would you do?
 
It depends on how much you are willing to pay and if you want a huge B265/275 transducer sticking out the hull or have it glassed in.
I bought the boat with the B265LH installed and installer did a questionable good job as position is where the lift sling goes and i believe he could cut the fairing block a bit to make it less high.
However i had a TM265LH on my now sold 30ft rib installed and without GSD 26 blackbox it could read easily 2000ft, 1500 ft without any problem and after i installed the GSD26 blackbox i can read bottom at 5500ft, same or better will be on my Canyon as i have the B265LH what should be a that better than the TH transom mount.

The LHW models are engineered for mid water pelagics but the high band does work awkward for 100+ ft bottom fishing as the cone size is so big that it illuminates too much bottom what reduces detail and makes it difficult to understand where the structure/fish is.
However you can use the L Low frequency band of the B275LHW transducer for bottom fishing purposes, not perfect but not a big problem either as there is just a little loss of detail due the low frequency.
Should you opt for the B175 versions then you need two, a W one for mid water pelagics and a non W version for non abyssal bottom reading, as SkunkBoat mentioned, a B175HW and a B175L. Or you install only the B175HW and keep the GT51M as side-scan and traditional transducer for more shallow waters.

Again, i personally would not consider a B175 model and meanwhile i am not sure if a LHW model would make sense for my kind of fishing as i deep drop fish frequently between 1500 - 3000 ft.

Chris
 
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I think your GT51m will do great for bottom fishing and as your everyday go to.
The GT51 will read depth for tiles in 450-600. That'll do. Its very hard to bottom fish deeper than 600 when drifting.


Drift the canyon at night for tuna/sword, your baits are 150/100/50.
I would get a B175HW for tuna/striper fishing. Its going to see more up in the water column when you are trolling or chunking.
Thats the best bang for your buck.
 
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