Replaced a 5" Garmin with a Humminbird 7" Helix 7 CHIRP MSI GPS G3 for a bigger screen. Sorry I did not get the G3N (bluetooth) so I do not have to remove the unit to connect to computer to update maps. The Garmin had all 1' contour maps on one LakeVu micro SD chip. The Humminbird US and Canada chip has only the 5' Navigation charts on it. If you want the 1' fishing maps you have to buy a $24 annual app and download a few states to only the Humminbird 16GB chip. If you want the complete US 1' contours you have to buy the Regional Navionics chart for $150 for each of the 5 US regions or Alaska or Canada chips. The individual Humminbird chips do not cover a very large area. MN is on one chip. Garmin I can view individual lakes on computer in Base Camp (free), mark waypoints and transfer them to the unit. Cannot view Humminbird or Navionics on computer. You can use the Navionics Chart Viewer on line only but you cannot mark waypoints and transfer them to unit. Humminbird needs wifi but Garmin does not. I fish remote lakes where no wifi so I wish I had stuck with Garmin.
I run a Helix 10 , with all the bells and whistles..there are so many versions of the helix watch out ...ive been on the BBC boards longer then i been here..
i crappie fish several times a week in local farm reservoirs. it is rare that i fish water deeper than 12 to 15 feet. i prefer hummingbird electronics. don't know the model name/number but it cost about 235.00 from wmt. all i care about is the depth and bottom contour. i look for stumps, tree limbs, etc., anyplace crappie are staging. the newer, panographic units look to be good stuff, but don't appeal to me. i could get by fine with a 99.00 unit, as long as i can see the bottom and some structure. i was fishing the other day and a fellow trolled over to me. he said he had 2700.00 worth of electronics on his boat and was trying to learn how to use it. i couldn't help him. good luck with whichever unit you select.
i crappie fish several times a week in local farm reservoirs. it is rare that i fish water deeper than 12 to 15 feet. i prefer hummingbird electronics. don't know the model name/number but it cost about 235.00 from wmt. all i care about is the depth and bottom contour. i look for stumps, tree limbs, etc., anyplace crappie are staging. the newer, panographic units look to be good stuff, but don't appeal to me. i could get by fine with a 99.00 unit, as long as i can see the bottom and some structure. i was fishing the other day and a fellow trolled over to me. he said he had 2700.00 worth of electronics on his boat and was trying to learn how to use it. i couldn't help him. good luck with whichever unit you select.
I have a lowrance elite7 ti. I replaced the factory transducer with a 50/200hz because I sometimes fish deep water and the 50hz with CHIRP really shines. I've marked fish down over 2500'. It definitely helps with my type of fishing.
The cheapest fishfinder made will serve you just fine. You may want to get a combination unit so that when you find a spot you can press a button and save it as a waypoint.
I have an el-cheapo on my kayak. In 20 feet of water I can watch a 2 ounce egg weight sink to the bottom.
i crappie fish several times a week in local farm reservoirs. it is rare that i fish water deeper than 12 to 15 feet. i prefer hummingbird electronics. don't know the model name/number but it cost about 235.00 from wmt. all i care about is the depth and bottom contour. i look for stumps, tree limbs, etc., anyplace crappie are staging. the newer, panographic units look to be good stuff, but don't appeal to me. i could get by fine with a 99.00 unit, as long as i can see the bottom and some structure. i was fishing the other day and a fellow trolled over to me. he said he had 2700.00 worth of electronics on his boat and was trying to learn how to use it. i couldn't help him. good luck with whichever unit you select.
The difference is, your standard 2D fishfinder will show you a circle of the lake bottom equal to depth. In 15 feet of water, you can see structure in a 15 foot swath under the boat.
With a good side imaging sonar you can see a detailed view of the bottom structure in a 150 foot swath of the lake or more.
If you are on a 3 acre pond, that increased viewing range may not mean much. The reservoirs around here are typically 30 to 50 miles long.
You can not see fish hanging against a vertical rock face ten feet below the surface with traditional sonar. Not unless you are willing to put a few scratches on your boat. Nor can you see fish in water too shallow for your boat to traverse.
With side imaging, I can troll along 20 feet from the rock face, and see a school of crappie or a bass against the rock with my sonar. Then I can tell the grandkids exactly where to cast.
Or it might be a downed tree fifty feet to the right or left of the boat, or a rockpile with fish suspended at the sides.
Sure, we used to catch a lot of fish before any kind of electronics became available. Then the depth flashers came along and showed us where to jig for perch in the lake. And I have used the 2D Huminbirds for twenty years. But the new side imaging units give you about 100 times more data to work with.
Basically, all they are is time savers. A good sonar saves you time spent casting into sterile waters, and gets you onto the fish sooner.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
I have a Garmin 73SV. It has the lakeVu maps, Chirp, and sideview features as well as the ability to create maps. I use it for both bass fishing and trolling for trout as well as basic navigation on new lakes.
My old unit was a very basic hummingbird unit 2d unit that had no mapping. but other than that old unit I don't have much to compare it to.
I will say that the resolution ( i guess because of the CHIRP feature) it sees things that the old 2d unit didn't and the SV lets me see structure off to the side. I am no great sonar wiz, but if I am working a shoreline and the SV shows something odd ( submerged rock, etc) it will get a cast or two and that has been a fish getter for me. sometimes you can see fish off to the side too.
The lake view maps have been useful, but they are no replacement for mapping a water yourself. Probably 80% of my fishing is on the lake where we have our summer cottage and I have pretty much mapped out the 400 acre lake and fount several significant items of structure that were not in the lakeVu maps, nor the state distributed contour maps. The lake isn't that big and gets fished over pretty well, but those three "sunken islands" I found with the mapping feature have been productive for me and I never see anyone else fishing them probably because they aren't on the shoreline and aren't listed on the maps.
I am happy with the unit and the 7" screen has been good enough.
Thats my two cents but I really don't have any experience of competitive units to tell you how it would stack up.
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There is more inside the new fish finders than i can learn...my old bird after a few years i figured it out ..i could , like said above ...find the fish, mark the fish and then proceed to attempt a catch...98% of the time the ff and me were/are spot on !
I have a 9" Garmin on the console Di and Si with navionics. Transducer on the stern. Have a Lowrance Hook2 on the front. Transducer is on the troll motor just chirp. Humminbirds probably have the best image if you want to spend the money for them.
I have a 9" Garmin on the console Di and Si with navionics. Transducer on the stern. Have a Lowrance Hook2 on the front. Transducer is on the troll motor just chirp. Humminbirds probably have the best image if you want to spend the money for them.
Does the Hook2 do about everything you want? There’s a Hook2 4x in the dash of my boat. It’s much better than whatever I had on my last boat.
The last time I went ocean fishing, they had some kind of fish finder that looked like a flat screen tv. The fish actually looked like fish. I could see my bait in the water and the fish take it. They said it was about $8000. I’m not sure mama would go for that.
