When to optimize your 2D Transducer settings

[Flyswatter]

I figure factory settings are most likely what most folks end up using for most of their fishing needs.  When and why do you start to change sensitivity settings on you your HDS units when you are fishing offshore structure?

[Bassinkorea]

This is going to be a great learning thread for me....I'm looking forward to evrryones different preferences.

So far in my short one year HDS experience, I have not changed any of the factory settings, but I do know I am missing out by not doing so.

[bassn1]

You will not see me . But I will be in class as well 

[BigDBasser]

I found two forums that have a lot of info on the HDS units.  They make good reading and the people there are very knowledgeable and I found that I have learned a lot by reading them.  The forums are Texas Fishing Forum and Bass Boat Central 

I'm not much into their forums but I check them out periodically for the info.

[Mike Cork]

I have found so far that probably 80% of the time I just turn them on and go. If you think about it Lowrance and HB both want you to be extremely satisfied with the product so you'll sell more for them. So both have put a lot of effort into factory (automatic) settings, and these setting work great most of the time.

I don't have any hard fast rules yet, nothing that I can say "if you have this, do that". When I start playing with setting, sensitivity, contrast, MHz, is when I'm not getting as clear of a picture as I know the unit is capable of.

If I'm looking at wood objects I'll turn the contrast up a little, seems to help. Conversely with a known rock object turning the contrast down a little and sensitivity up a hair seems to help spot fish.

Any adjustments I make are very small from auto settings. But I have a lot of learning yet to do!!

Alright Guru's I know your out there, throw us a bone or two 

[beast96z]

Far from a guru, but I will say there aren't a whole lot of things to adjust on theses newer units. In most cases, I adjust sensitivity for screen clarity, and as Mike said, you can adjust contrast for hard or soft structure. If you are getting into drop shotting or spooning directly under the boat, you can bump up the ping speed to 80% or so for a better view of your bait under the cone. Still a lot of learning to do on my part as well. 

[Flyswatter]

Great insight Mike and Beast96z.  Great insight.  Just what I thought and glad to know.   I have learned tons over the lat 4-6 months here at Ultimate Bass' for my electronics needs. 

[Todd Driscoll]

Going back 4+ years ago, I used to run my 2D sonar in Manual Mode all the time.  Honestly, the software is so dialed in now that I run it in Auto mode nearly all the time.  With Auto settings, I can watch both my worm and 1/4 oz weight when vertically fishing with a dropshot with no problems at all.  The only time I run 2D sonar in Manual is when fishing over tall (> 6 feet), submersed vegetation.  Reason for this is, in Auto, when grass is tall and thick, Auto will catch the top of the grass as bottom at times. 

There are a couple of key 2D sonar settings.  Assuming you are fishing in < 60 feet of water, select Shallow Water.  Also, under Installation select your appropriate transducer.  I also prefer color palette 13. This was called bottom color tracking in the older units, helps separate fish from the bottom/cover, and also shows hard bottoms/shell beds better.