Lowrance Triple Shot 7 not marking fish arches

I’ve finally come to the realization that my Lowrance TS 7 isn’t marking fish arches.  It shows depth, bottom structure, water temp, and what I think are bait-balls in the to 20’ of the water column.  It became apparent yesterday, as I was doing a little trolling with tdspence on Henry Hagg Lake.  We were right next to each other, and he was marking tons of fish at various heights in the water column.  My screen showed absolutely nothing except for the bottom.

I reset the unit to factory settings, and then played around with frequencies, scrolling speed, ping rate, sensitivity, etc., with no result. 
The transducer is mounted in the retractable Hobie mount on my PA14. 

The info I found in the Internet, seemed to focus on the location and attitude of the transducer as the usual culprit, and I’m wondering if there’s some idiosyncrasy related to the Hobie design. 

Any advice or suggestions?

Check to see if you have a slight gap between your transducer and the Hobie "cover".  My understanding is that it shouldn't be against the plastic. 

Perhaps a question to start with is:

Was your unit working OK and marking fish in the past? Or is this a brand new first time use installation?

“Was your unit working OK and marking fish in the past? Or is this a brand new first time use installation?”

It’s two years old, and worked well at first.  It’s kind of gone through a gradual deterioration: gradual enough that it didn’t occur to me that something was wrong.  I’m kind of frustrated at myself for not catching it sooner, as I put in a lot of trips on the Willamette this spring, and hardly marked any fish. 

For a retirement job, I work part-time in the fishing department at the Hillsboro Sportsman’s Warehouse.  With my discount, I may be able to swing a new unit. 

It sounds like your "crystals" in the transducer housing have deteriorated and are not sending out a strong sonar pulse or maybe not able to receive the bounce back very well. They are a Piezoceramic disk which might be susceptible to hard knocks or impacts. Or it had a problem that has gotten worse from the start.

If you could find someone with a compatible Lowrance transducer on their boat and just plug in your display to see if you get good readings, a new transducer may be all you need. If the problem persists it would probably be in the electronics and you should treat yourself to a new toy!

Another thought: you might go into your settings and switch to manual Gain and set it at maximum. Also if you have multiple frequencies in your transducer signals, switch to the lowest frequency which will produce a stronger mark on your screen.

Thanks for the replies and great info.

One of the guys at Sportsman’s has a compatible transducer he’s going to let me try out.  If that doesn’t change things, I guess I’ll be buying a new one. 

Can I also suggest you reset the head unit after you've tested a different transducer and before you buy a new one?  If you haven't already tried that, of course.  Sometimes there's a gradual degradation of the head unit - it's electronics, after all - and a factory reset, if it makes a difference, might allow you to dial it in again. 

I’ve finally come to the realization that my Lowrance TS 7 isn’t marking fish arches.  It shows depth, bottom structure, water temp, and what I think are bait-balls in the to 20’ of the water column.  It became apparent yesterday, as I was doing a little trolling with tdspence on Henry Hagg Lake.  We were right next to each other, and he was marking tons of fish at various heights in the water column.  My screen showed absolutely nothing except for the bottom.

I reset the unit to factory settings, and then played around with frequencies, scrolling speed, ping rate, sensitivity, etc., with no result. 
The transducer is mounted in the retractable Hobie mount on my PA14. 

The info I found in the Internet, seemed to focus on the location and attitude of the transducer as the usual culprit, and I’m wondering if there’s some idiosyncrasy related to the Hobie design. 

Any advice or suggestions?

Post screenshot of the sonar screen and screenshot of the settings. This really sounds like a settings issue to me, if I had to guess you're running at 455mhz/CHIRP. I bet if you run it at good ole 83mhz you will see far more fish on the screen.

I concur with previous comments in regards to your transducer... I would replace the transducer if you are looking to save money or I would just go with a new unit.

Tinker, I only know of a hard reset and a soft reset, but for the whole unit.  Is that what you mean by resetting the head unit?

Yeah.  When I said "the head unit" I was talking about the box with the screen.  Sorry, probably a local colloquialism from when I was back East.

Tinker, I only know of a hard reset and a soft reset, but for the whole unit.  Is that what you mean by resetting the head unit?