Quinte Fishing

Well, the dinosaur portable unit that came with my boat bit the dust. It's time for my first good fish finder, and I'm baffeled by the selection and features available. I'm ideally looking for something I might be able to dual-purpose for ice fishing and softwater, under $700 or so (if I'm selling my vex fl18) - OR - something just for the boat around the $400-500 mark. I'm hoping to get something with GPS cabailities, ideally something I can put a map chip into. I don't care for down/side scan as the guys I know that have this don't use it. I just want something I can see my jig on for vertical jigging, can see bottom hugging fish, reads well while driving the boat (max 30 km/hr), hopefully dual-beam, and is easy to read in the sunlight.

Let's hear what you like/dislike about your fish finders....

I'd recommend keeping the FL18 and using it for ice fishing as they are one of the best ice fishing units out there. If you are able to its always best to have a dedicated unit for ice fishing (flasher) and one for the boat (LCD graph).

As far as recommendation for a sonar/GPS unit I'd take a look at the Elite 4 or Elite 5 series from Lowrance. They are a great unit and the Gold models come with a Navionics chart that covers the Great Lakes region. They are going to be one of your less expensive option for a complete package.

Humminbird would also have a few offerings to check out. The 587ci HD or 597ci HD units would be great choices coupled with a Navionics Hotmaps or Navionics Gold chart. Humminbird also offers units with Down Imaging built into the unit. The 597ci HD DI would be a great choice if you wanted to get into that which for fishing weedy lakes is great.

-Lawren

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Radioworld 4335 Steeles Ave W, Toronto, Ontario M3N 1V7 - www.radioworld.ca

Check out our blog at www.blog.radioworld.ca

Thanks for the specific tips Lawren

I would grab a colour one if at all possible. They are much easier to see in the sun.

The local forums (here, Lake Ontario United, fish hawk etc) are usually the best deals for finders but the "good" ones don't come up too often. Ebay also has decent prices on 5 and 7 series Humminbird with DI and GPS. I would say if you're upgrading you have to have GPS at this point.

I recently got a 987c SI used here and it is great. Anyone who has side and down imaging that doesn't use it is missing out. They are both great tools but you have to do a little work to understand what you are seeing and why its different than the standard sonar output. They are about a $300 upgrade though from base sonar with GPS.

Imo, best bang for the buck is the elite 5 gold, i bought one to use as a backup to my lcx lowrance and to use as a full screen mapping only unit. I took my boat for a ride on the ott. Sunday testing props and used it, at 35 mph cruising it was showing walleye and catfish hooks in the usual holes, has great color and accurate gps., the dual freq is nice too. The only drawback with the elite is it's inability to network. But for $719 out the door i have no complaints, it marks bottom and hooks as well as my hds or lcx. The elite gold chips also contain 125 lakes that the std. Gold chip does not. But navionics is deleting that from newer chips., also if you update the elite gold chip it will wipe the 125 lakes from the chip. I just don't update mine. I update my premium instead.

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Paramount 21 "Superfisherman" CC,Merc 225x,merc 15hp pro kicker.MG xi5,105lb

thanks for the input guys - I'm still hung up on what features I want. It would seem I don't want just the down imaging, as it doesn't seem to mark fish that well, so that knocks out a few from the running.

Is down imaging really worth it? I'd like to hear from guys who have it and if they use it/like it.

RadioWorld - can you explain the difference between the 597 series and the 788 series? your website lists "advanced Fishing System capabilities" what is that? The humminbird website seems to note only the difference that the 788 will have ethernet capabilities - is that just to network 2 units together? Is there another function for the ethernet.

Also, some units specify 2 SD slots - for waypoints AND cartography. If I buy a unit with 1 slot, and put a navionics chip in there, will I still be able to save waypoints/screenshots, etc?

I'd say down imaging is worth it especially on lakes with lots of vertical structure such as weeds, trees, bridges, etc

Here is a pic to show you the differences between 2D sonar and Down Imagings



Notice the greater definition of the bottom structure within the weedbed. I have found that to be key when using down imaging on weedy lakes.

500 series units cannot network through Ethernet and do not have the 3 quick view keys on the front of the unit allow you to program your favorite pages. They also do not have as much power in the sonar end of it as the 700 series units do.

Ethernet will allow you to share GPS, Sonar, and Waypoints.

Yes you can save waypoints/screen shots with only 1 slot however your Navionics card will have to be removed

-Lawren

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Radioworld 4335 Steeles Ave W, Toronto, Ontario M3N 1V7 - www.radioworld.ca

Check out our blog at www.blog.radioworld.ca

Hi Lawren, I have a Humminbird 788c about 2 years old. Is it possible to get down imaging??? Maybe new transducer?

Thanks

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There's something wrong with that rod.
It has a bend in it!!!

thanks Lauren, that's great info!

No you can't. It is a hardware change internally which would require a new unit to be purchased.



No problem at all! Glad to help.

-Lawren

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Radioworld 4335 Steeles Ave W, Toronto, Ontario M3N 1V7 - www.radioworld.ca

Check out our blog at www.blog.radioworld.ca

I don't want to highjack your thread but I have been thinking about getting a new fishfinder for Christmas. I had been thinking about an HDS7 Gen2, but to buy it and a navionics chip it's close to $1300. Now I am thinking about an HDS5X Gen 2 (fishfinder only) and pairing it with an Elite 5M (GPS only but comes with a navionics chip)....this combo would run about $1200 SO instead of a 7" screen split between GPS and fishfinder I would have separate GPS and Fishfinder, each with a 5" screen, so less money but slightly more viewing screen.

Just wondering what your thoughts are? And if they can be connected together?

Your question comes down to personal preferance if you ask me. Whether you have 1 combo unit or 1 sonar unit and 1 GPS unit is something many people disagree on.

My personal opinion is to have 1 combo unit for a few reasons. First, 1 unit means 1 set of menus to learn. Even though both units you are looking at are Lowrance the menu's/operation of the units are slightly different. Second, I like the look of 1 unit as it keeps things cleaner looking on the boat and doesn't take up as much dash space.

The other side to the arguement is that if one unit goes down then you will still have one on your boat so its not a complete loss. Also, like you mentioned you will have more screen size for each unit than splitting on a 7" unit.

As far as your questions go, the units cannot be networked together, but there really wouldn't be any point in doing so as sonar units don't need to be linked to GPS units. Its only when you want to share GPS data that networking becomes a factor.

Don't forget about the QuinteFishing.com discount Radioworld offers because when you factor that in you're just a little over $1200 for the Navionics Gold chart and HDS7

-Lawren

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Radioworld 4335 Steeles Ave W, Toronto, Ontario M3N 1V7 - www.radioworld.ca

Check out our blog at www.blog.radioworld.ca

Thanks Lawren for the insight, definitely a few things to think about over the next couple of months.