When I purchased my boat some 4 years ago the Lowrance Structure scan was all the rage so I added it to my HDS-8. To this point it has been the worst $600.00 I ever spent. I have watched countless hours of Vid’s and read that manual 100 times cover to cover and im still lost. I seem to have it figured out for inshore but as far as offshore im stumped. Does anyone use one offshore (100ft or deeper) with any sucess? Dont know if im looking for something that isnt there or what?
A wise man once said “Do as I say not as I do” Good advice when I tell you that.
I have the same box and transducer as you (LSS-1) in my Simrad system.
Make sure you have it running on 455khz rather than 800khz.
It is not going to do much in over 60ft saltwater depth. This is also where I have noticed performance take a nose dive in most 83/200 ducers that come with garmin and lowrance models.
Sometimes it’s better or worse. Heavy thermoclines down in the water column can make a big difference.
In the 50-75ft range, it can help you understand moderate relief wrecks and reefs a little better than interpreting normal downscan 200khz.
At the end of the day, it is more useful at seeing bait and fish to your sides than it is at seeing deeper structure in the ocean.
It’s structurescan in fresh water and baitscan in salt water.
I have the lss-2 on a gen2 HDS and it works pretty good in deeper water, but only on 455khz. Downscan at that frequency is much more reliable than sidescan. Once you get much past 100’ it’s not going to penetrate the water column good enough to give good images. I prefer to use it to find structure or bait schools and not to find fish.
Just to let you know, the Gen 1 structure was only good up to about 90-100ft and you have to be going about 4-5kt or less. Gen 2 on Lowrance and SIMRAD are good up to 300ft depending on the frequency you are using. With the age of your unit you have the Gen 1. I have it the Gen 2 in my SIMRAD evo2 and it works great, but it does take some practice to learn how to read it.
