Yet another fish finder thread

Saltwater Striper Fishing
21

I have the Lowrance HDS 7 Elite and I love the downscan! Screen is still decent size and I love the chart plotter too. I have used the chart plotter to find my way in and out of a lot of places. I agree downs an is much more important and I fish mostly freshwater for catfish, bass and crappie. Sides can is a novelty compared to a good downs an image.

22

If you consider the mix of trolling motor and fish finder… Humminbird 8xx units and bigger are capable of controlling a MinnKota via I-pilot. Also, the LakeMaster charts now include Lake Murray and Thurmond. This means you can tell the Humminbird to cruise on the 30’ contour line or such. The “go to” feature allows you to go to any waypoint within 2 miles, and you can set up routes of WPT’s for a 2 mile stretch and reverse that route. The LakeMaster charts were the missing link for me until just recently. My wife and I used the route thing to pull us up to a friends house and stop… while we were on inner tubes behind the boat (an I had the remote in case I needed to shut down). You should have seen their mouths drop when we pulled up and stopped just off their dock! But I digress… the Lowrance and Garmin units do not yet have this ability. Also consider that the Humminbird has one transducer to do both the Down and Side imaging and if you go that route, you pay a lot more for the Lowrance.

23

Thanks for all the info everyone. I decided to keep it simple and cheap for the moment. I decided to keep my Garmin 441 for dedicated gps. I have really liked the gps function of the garmin, it’s the sonar that has been terrible, and the tiny screen flipping back and forth from gps to sonar. I decided to buy an Elite 7X HDI on clearance and use it just for sonar and down imaging. I know I won’t have the map connected to the sonar for marking bait balls and fish on the screen, but I doubt I would use that all that often anyway. Plus I can hit mark on the GPS when I see something I like, and go back.

Having the map on a dedicated 4" screen that I am familiar with, and then a dedicated split 7" with broadband and DI should be enough to get me by.

“Banana Pants”
Indigo Bay 170
90 Johnson

Wilderness Ride 115

24

You’re gonna miss the trackback feature. I use that all the time. I see something on the sonar I want to fish, usually I’m too slow on the trigger to Mark it right then, but i just scroll back to it and put in a waypoint. That’s probably the most used feature on my unit.

'06 Mckee Craft
184 Marathon
DF140 Suzuki

25

I can’t believe the deals on the Elite 7 units. Are the new CHIRP units that much better?

Wellcraft V-20 sportfish with a 200 Evinrude

26

It wasn’t worth the extra $266 to me on a sonar only unit. Some may feel like the extra separation is worth it, but going from what I have now to a 455/800 down image option is leaping light years for me anyway.

“Banana Pants”
Indigo Bay 170
90 Johnson

Wilderness Ride 115

27

This was not available when I placed my order. Otherwise I would have easily spent an extra $100 to add gps to my unit. Sweet deal at 50% off.

http://www.anchorexpress.com/lowrance-elite-7-hdi-combo-000-10967-001

“Banana Pants”
Indigo Bay 170
90 Johnson

Wilderness Ride 115

28

I don’t know what options are available or costs involved if you return the one you have coming, but this place has the E-7 with GPS and 83/200/455/800 in stock for $462.

http://www.hodgesmarine.com/Lowrance-Elite-7-Base-Combo-83-200-And-455-800-p/low000-10966-001.htm

It’s the one I bought from them 2 years ago. It was $614 then.

'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki

29

Just to get your juices going… here’s some shots from yesterday on Lake Murray looking for (and finding) the stripers… unit is a Lowrance HDS8…

30

Dilly…what kind of boat were you in yesterday?

“I may be going to hell in a bucket. But at least I’m enjoying the ride”

31
quote:
Originally posted by Geronimo

http://www.thedigitaloasis.com/Humminbird-999ci-Hd-Si-Combo-Side-Imaging-Tm-Transducer_p_29060.html?utm_source=googlepla&utm_medium=cse&utm_term=409190-1&gclid=CKjniOCshMMCFfPm7AodR2AA6w#.VK5xjH48KrU

This package seems hard to beat at that price.

“Banana Pants”
Indigo Bay 170
90 Johnson

Wilderness Ride 115

It was…had to upgrade a little. Got to play a little yesterday with it and the difference from the 598 I had was impressive.

Just the ability to plug the SD card in and copy 500 plus waypoints/tracks from the Hill, Murray the coast etc from one to the other without the programming trouble was a small part of it. Been using Humminbird for years and didn’t see a reason to change.

Been on countless boats(Chip, Tim, etc) with HDS units and was impressed.

“I may be going to hell in a bucket. But at least I’m enjoying the ride”

32

I love love love the Digital Oasis … they have great stuff and even better prices … We have bought several items from them and have never been disappointed

33
quote:
Originally posted by Geronimo

Thanks for all the info everyone. I decided to keep it simple and cheap for the moment. I decided to keep my Garmin 441 for dedicated gps. I have really liked the gps function of the garmin, it’s the sonar that has been terrible, and the tiny screen flipping back and forth from gps to sonar. I decided to buy an Elite 7X HDI on clearance and use it just for sonar and down imaging. I know I won’t have the map connected to the sonar for marking bait balls and fish on the screen, but I doubt I would use that all that often anyway. Plus I can hit mark on the GPS when I see something I like, and go back.

Having the map on a dedicated 4" screen that I am familiar with, and then a dedicated split 7" with broadband and DI should be enough to get me by.

“Banana Pants”
Indigo Bay 170
90 Johnson

Wilderness Ride 115

I have the exact same setup on our boat only I use the Lowrance 5DSI for the chartplotting and 455/800 downscan and the 7HDI for the 83/200 sonar … it works great …

I just got Loon’s Humminbird 597 and once that’s hooked up then I’ll have another chartplotter and 455 side scan …

So that ends up being

Dual GPS/Chartplotters (One with Navionics and one with Lakemaster) …

83/200 Sonar …

455/800 Downscan …

455 Sidescan …

All on 17" of individually configurable and independently rotating screen space …

For a grand total of … $1,205 … I’d pretty much say that I can’t get much better for the price … :wink:

34

Loon, we were in a 21 ft Sea Hunt w/ T-Top

35

Cool deal…little flats boat here. Slightly above Dreher?

“I may be going to hell in a bucket. But at least I’m enjoying the ride”

36

We moved a lot, started at Dreher, went up past Spinners, then backtracked.