Vexilar Help

[Jmnhunter]

when i was fishing last night, during the day, the bottom on my vex. was fine, no clutter or fish! when it got dark, the bottom "grew" shallower, there seemed to be a gain of clutter everywhere on the bottom. I tried putting my gain to 0, hit the IR button, but it was still there, I couldn't see my jig until i brought it up to 10ft or so. Or was it just a cloud of zoo-plankton on the bottom coming out at night? IDK. or is my transducer bad? help! it only did it last night, during the day it was fine.

thanks

jn

[fishfart]

If your battery runs low you can get extra clutter.

just something to check

[Ed Carlson]

Sounds to me like little critters popping of the lake bottom after dark.

If you have a FL-18 run it on LP Low Power mode and you will be able to tune them out. If you have a FL-8 or a Fl-8 SLT you can add the S-Cable to reduce the power and also eliminate the clutter. The LP mode and the S-Cable allow you to get a lower gain setting and subsequently tune out these little critters.

If the critters are thick in the hole you may also need to wipe off the surface of your ducer from time to time to clean up the signal. Tiny bubbles adhering to the face of the ducer may also clutter up the signal again wipe it off periodically and it will be fine.

Critters are indeed something worth noting. Note what depth they appear to top out at. Panfish like crappie often surf this critter column feeding. Knowing where these critter layers set-up often helps to pick productive fishing zones to target.

[red bricks]

zooplankton. Starts on the bottom and spreads throughout the entire water column. I have seen it before a few times where i fish. I is frustrating as heck. It shows me how dependent I am have become on the vex. I think the zooplankton occurs more over soft bottom areas

[Jmnhunter]

do they occur where there are low #s of fish?! I tried a lake where there was supposed to be high #s of of ONLY eyes, but the survey was back in 78, so it think most fish froze out. it is frustrating.

my battery was low also, I need to get a new one becaus I think i overcharged it.

thanks for the info.

JN

[Surface Tension]

ya I think its just zoo plankton coming off the bottom too. Not a problem on most lakes but some are much worse then others. Try the suppression cable as Ed mentioned and turn the gain down. You may have to go low enough to where you can't see your jig anymore but fish will still show up.