I've got a Garmin 73SV on my kayak and left the transducer arm when coming back to the ramp on a previous trip and got a few little scratches/scuffs on the transducer.  in my opinion, i'd say nothing major, but the last time i went out the side imaging and down imaging looked like nothing but intereference on the screen while the traditional sonar seemed to work pretty much ok.  they were all reading the same depths and all, but the screens on the down imaging and side imaging looked "fuzzy".  wish i'd have taken a picture, but it was raining so hard the whole time out, i figured it would surely ruin my phone if i did.

is it likely that some light scratch/scuff marks on the transducer would have such an impact on it?  or maybe something else was going on?  It was a VERY shallow lake, like never deeper than 15' so i'm not sure if that played into it or not.... maybe i didn't have the setting dialed in right for that shallow?

appreciate any thoughts on what to look at or try next time i'm out on the water if i have the same issue.....

This has came up before and I believe scratches didn't effect the imaging.