i have the same problems with my eagle... it's making me very angry. i have been going fishing with a friend that has a cheaper, self-contained unit from fishing buddy or bottom line or something, and it reads small jigs clearly all the way down to 130 fow (haven't tried deeper, but it wasn't fading at that depth), and my ice-fishing eagle only reads the jig to about 50 or 60 fow tops, and that's on its good days. i'm trying to find time to sit down and call eagle to figure it out -- i'll let ya know how that conversation goes...