I have been dying to try the Lowrance HDS8 with StructureScanâ„¢ (LSS-1) on my jetski off shore, and with all this bad weather we have been having, it took a while. At last I got a break from the office and headed south to Umkomaas on the KZN south coast with my fishing jetski. The weather had turned bad again with a SE wind blowing and creating a very bumpy / choppy moderate 1.5m sea. Not ideal, but I had no intensions of heading back to the office.
Fishing was not great off Scottburgh, so after a couple of hours of perseverance I decided to head back. On my way back I passed the Aliwal Shoal over the Northern Pinnacles from east to west to see what it would look like on the sonar. This is what I saw on the Lowrance HDS8 with DownScan™. The pinnacles and schools of small fish were clearly visible. The poor choppy conditions did not seem to affect the DownScan too badly. Unfortunately I spotted no game fish that I could target on the Shoal’s outer ledge.
Shortly after leaving the Shoal heading back to the Umkomaas river mouth, I spotted a strange shadow on the sea bed using StructureScan, about 250ft to my starboard. I realized that it must be the wreck of the MV Produce. And sure enough, there she was. Due to the poor choppy conditions at the time, the side sonar loses a bit of detail due to the rocking of my little jetski.
The MV Produce is an old Norwegian cargo vessel 119m long, that was allegedly carrying molasses. She was travelling from Durban, headed south into a very heavy south westerly when it struck the Aliwal Shoal in 1974. I could not find an old photo of the produce on the net, but this ship would be similar.
The south –north wind and current pushed her some 600m back north where she has come to rest on her starboard side, facing NNE. Her back is broken with the bow section lying some 40m to the North. This image is used to demonstrate roughly how she is lying on the sea bed today.
This photo taken from north to south / bow to stern, clearly shows her deck lying at a very steep angle to starboard.
Even from this conventional 2D sonar image you can clearly see her lying on her side with the shoals of fish suspended on the east side of the wreck.
I did a very rough recording of the wreck, and came up with this 3D representation. The bow seems very pronounced because it is facing upward.
I have created a chart of the MV Produce for use with Lowrance units.
Fishing was not great off Scottburgh, so after a couple of hours of perseverance I decided to head back. On my way back I passed the Aliwal Shoal over the Northern Pinnacles from east to west to see what it would look like on the sonar. This is what I saw on the Lowrance HDS8 with DownScan™. The pinnacles and schools of small fish were clearly visible. The poor choppy conditions did not seem to affect the DownScan too badly. Unfortunately I spotted no game fish that I could target on the Shoal’s outer ledge.
Shortly after leaving the Shoal heading back to the Umkomaas river mouth, I spotted a strange shadow on the sea bed using StructureScan, about 250ft to my starboard. I realized that it must be the wreck of the MV Produce. And sure enough, there she was. Due to the poor choppy conditions at the time, the side sonar loses a bit of detail due to the rocking of my little jetski.
The MV Produce is an old Norwegian cargo vessel 119m long, that was allegedly carrying molasses. She was travelling from Durban, headed south into a very heavy south westerly when it struck the Aliwal Shoal in 1974. I could not find an old photo of the produce on the net, but this ship would be similar.
The south –north wind and current pushed her some 600m back north where she has come to rest on her starboard side, facing NNE. Her back is broken with the bow section lying some 40m to the North. This image is used to demonstrate roughly how she is lying on the sea bed today.
This photo taken from north to south / bow to stern, clearly shows her deck lying at a very steep angle to starboard.
Even from this conventional 2D sonar image you can clearly see her lying on her side with the shoals of fish suspended on the east side of the wreck.
I did a very rough recording of the wreck, and came up with this 3D representation. The bow seems very pronounced because it is facing upward.
I have created a chart of the MV Produce for use with Lowrance units.