Finally got my new  boat on a non electric lake.  The stock lowrance elite 3 that came with my tracker went nuts whenever I ran my motor at more than 2k rpm. By nuts I mean it was saying we were in 500-2200 feet of water, wild depth fluctuations from, saying I was in 3 feet of water when my first pass marked us at 27 feet, or just not showing any depth reading at all. Sometimes slowing down would get it to give an accurate reading, sometimes I had to power it down to get it to read. When idling or using the trolling motor it works fine. I think the transducer may be too close to the motor, but what else could it be? I checked all cabling and it seems fine, and I fiddled a bit with sensitivity, eventually restoring all defaults to no avail... TIA!

Your issue is probably a tilted transducer, re-align it so the bottom of the transducer is either parallel with the bottom of the boat or the trailing end slanted down some to get a better water flow across it.

 

Awesome, it does look a bit tilted, but I'm in my driveway, will find some level ground and make sure. Thanks Wayne!

Does the turbulence from the prop make the device see thousands of fish?

Sometimes there were tons of them on there, yes.

Prop "turbulence" is not an issue. The outboard prop will not affect a transom transducer unless you run the motor in reverse.

Water flows off the hull and passes over the transducer BEFORE the outboard prop affects the water.

You could get electrical interference from the outboard if the transducer cable is real close to it and you have an electrical issue with the motor like bad spark plugs, or charging system.

 

 

If you haven't yet figured out if the transducer is parallel with the bottom of your boat, simply hold a 2'or 4' level, or a straightedge on the bottom of the boat, extended beyond the aft end of the transducer. You will be able to tell how the transducer is positioned relative to the bottom of the boat.

2 hours ago, Wannabe bass angler said:

If you haven't yet figured out if the transducer is parallel with the bottom of your boat, simply hold a 2'or 4' level, or a straightedge on the bottom of the boat, extended beyond the aft end of the transducer. You will be able to tell how the transducer is positioned relative to the bottom of the boat.

Good advice. I'm gonna try it this week, going out Friday.