With Christmas around the corner I was looking at getting a new FF/GPS combo since Ive determined that my POS Hummingbird can only tell me depth. I mostly fish for stripers in Hartwell but do venture down to Murray and Charleston occasionaly.
Does anyone have any preferences for striper fishing? I was looking into the Lowrance LMS-522C.
Also what is the best nav. card for SC lakes and nearshore?
Thanks for your help.
TexasAngler
180F Angler
lots of guys swear by Lowrance. when i was in the same position as you a few months ago i ended up getting the humminbird 787. it’s got a 16 channel gps versus 12 channel as in most other gps units in this price range. same transducer, but the HB is expandable with quad beam and side imaging transducers as well. plus, it’s a bigger screen. and i’m not 100%, but i think it has more waypoint capability as well.
as for maps… Navionics all the way. that’s what i’m asking santa for christmas!
here’s a screenshot.
“When you learn from someone else, that knowledge does not belong to you, it belongs to the next person that needs it.”
Phishinphan,
Have you ever used or seen the SI Hummingbird in action? I just cant determine if its worth the extra money especially on the smaller screen(Im not dishing out 2g’s for the big screen).
TexasAngler
180F Angler
have ya’ll ever hired a guide ?(I have fished with more than one) … they ALL use LOWERANCE…
I never have used it, no.
murray- no doubt Lowrance makes a good one. but I just liked the humminbird combo unit features for the money. I don’t have any complaints after using it for nearly a year.
honestly…I probably wouldn’t have any complaints about any of the ones in this price range.
whichever one you get just make sure it’s compatible with the navionics chips
“When you learn from someone else, that knowledge does not belong to you, it belongs to the next person that needs it.”
I use an Eagle642c-iGPS along with the Navionics chip and I agree about making sure you select a unit that will accept the Navionics chip. Lake Murray and Hartwell are both in high def (not all lakes are)and it’s incedibly accurate.
When buying the Lakes version you need to be sure to get the Eastern USA version and not the Southern USA chip. Also, if you are going to buy one and only fish say Murray and/or Hartwell I believe both (Murray for sure) were in high def on the 2007 version of the chip, so you may not gain anything by buying the newer version and can probably pick up an 07 version much cheaper.
I happen to have a Humminbird 797c si with side imaging, which is a pretty neat extra to have at times. It’s a big help to identify structure on the bottom, but I’m not certain how much good it would be for stripers in open water.
I also have a Lowrance LMS337c df mounted a few inches away from the HB, and I can tell you that the HB, while pretty good, will not compare with the Lowrance when using the standard down sonar, at least in my opinion. The Navionics map chips that I have will work in either unit.
Blackwaterkatz
i went through this whole ordeal with my father in law when he purchased his new boat. he ended up getting he humminbird 997si i believe that is right its the side imaging with the 8"screen. do some reasearch but the nav bundle humminbird sells was great it had all the coastal maps on it as well as all the sc lakes that i have checked out. the side imaging is worth every penny. when i can afford one thats what i will be getting. when we go looking for structure off shore it shows perfect detail. and it is very weekend fisherman easy to use. hope any helps
Thanks for the replies guys. I think Im between the dual frequency lowrance ff/gps and the SI HB. Ill have to do a little more research but Ill let you know what I decide.
TexasAngler
180F Angler