Wayne P.

"When seconds count, the police are just minutes away"

Not only useless for DI, but impossible. Trolling motors with a built-in transducer are for traditional 2D sonar ONLY. None do any type of imaging.

There are three Helix 7 SI units Helix 7 SI GPS--discontinued Helix 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2 current model--CHIRP Sonar and CHIRP Imaging. Helix 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2N current model that is networkable All come with same transom mount transducer XNT 9 SI 180 T. It gives the unit traditional sonar, Side Imaging, blended SI for Down Imaging, and Temp. Those units get sharper images with the XHS 9 HDSI 180 T transducer since it is longer and produces a thinner imaging pulse. You can exchange the included transducer for that model by contacting Humminbird Customer Service--it is about a $85 upgrade including shipping.

Windex Multi-Surface Vinegar and a microfiber cloth. A "screen protector" will defeat the anti-glare coating on the displays and in some cases darken the display more.

I have been on the water 7 times this year, just fished 4 of those times--46 bass so far, largest 5# 2 oz. Was at Lake Anna Saturday with a couple of former Jr BASS members. We tried the cold side first with no luck--water temp was 46. Then went to the hot side and we caught about 25 bass--water temp 64-71. Today at Sandy River there was some surface activity with shad breaking being chased by bass and crappie.

When the new Humminbird SOLIX units come out in March you can do all that including MEGA Imaging--12" and 15" touch screens.

Now that you have the boat, this is the motor for it: http://newatlas.com/30hp-aquawatt-most-powerful-electric-outboard-motor-in-the-world/18511/

As typical with Bass Pro employees, they know very little about Humminbird stuff. You cannot share mapping with the Helix 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2N. Yes you need a map card in both if you want map data. Humminbirds can read Lakemaster and Navionics digital mapping. Mix or match. The connection between units is Ethernet and that will allow you to share sonar data, GPS data, sensors, and Ethernet accessories that are compatible with the Helix 7 G2N series. Yes that unit has built-in Auto Chart Live to create HD contour mapping. If you have no use for a commercial map product, it is certainly no use in purchasing any. You may want to purchase the Auto Chart Zero Line card though as you can save your Auto Chart Live data to that card. The units have a max of 8 hours of memory for mapping.

The 12" SI is $100 more than the former ONIX 10" NT model and you get cross-touch plus a larger display.

You should be using a shoot-thru application with that hull. If you put the LSS-2 where the blue X is, you can idle at a faster rate when scanning than if you put it where the red X is. PLUS you will have more clearance of the outboard for the left side Side Scan. You do have to consider the outboard contacting the transducer when trimmed all the way down.

Your biggest concern should be if the 2D transducer (skimmer) is not at the bottom of the hull, it will be impossible to get 2D/Depth when on plane. On plane means the bottom of the hull is on the water's surface. You don't have that indicated in your picture.

The fish don't care what the color is, you do.

Humminbird units read Lakemaster digital mapping and Navionics digital mapping. The Helix and discontinued number series units do not read the Community Edits. The ONIX does. Lowrance units will create Community Edits and read downloaded Community Edits. Yes the Helix 9 DI GPS does the above and has the Auto Chart Live feature. You can view all the current Navionics Nautical Charts maps and Sonar Charts maps on the Navionics website's Web App. They are current as of yesterday. If you get the Navionics Mobile App (Boating or Boating HD) you can have the maps and Community Edits on your smartphone or tablet. You can create and share Community Edits with your mobile device also. If you purchase one of their map cards, you can have the same data that the Web App has when you update the card. You get a year of Freshest Data updates for all new purchases. For Sonar Charts uploads, it takes about a week to process sonar logs unless the body of water is not on their worldwide base map as at least an outline. If you record data to use with Navionics Sonar Charts and any part of your tracks are shown on land either due to inaccurate shorelines or no shoreline, Navionics will re-draw or draw the shoreline (zero line) to contain all the data you collected. The map sample I posted above was not on their world-wide base map. Just land was shown. They created the shoreline after I uploaded the first few sonar recordings. I had over 75 waypoints for that lake before the Sonar Charts program was activated in the US so all of them were shown on land with any map card like this.

If you stay above the brush pile it will continually be recorded at the depth of the bottom and the brush pile parts. When you see it displayed and then not displayed, you are not where the brush pile is anymore. You will not see the "shape" of it unless you are passing across it. The display records history, only the very first vertical row of screen pixels on the right side is current data.

You cannot "map" the bottom without knowing what the depth is. A "fish finder" (sonar unit) does that. The GPS function saves waypoint. You need a combo "fish finder" and GPS unit to do what you want. Along with that, the GPS part needs to be a Chart Plotter to have any mapping capability. If you want a unit that will create contour mapping, you can do that a few different ways. Some models do live contour mapping in real time, some take recorded sonar logs that are processed by another source to create contour maps that are then used in the unit just like purchase digital mapping products. The processed maps can be personal or shared depending on the unit brand or the mapping product. You will not get any fine details like road beds or creek channels with any map creation product. Those features are added manually by companies that product digital mapping, and that takes another map source for reference--typically USGS maps. Depth data and location data is used to create contour mapping, "down imaging" is not one of those. I use three ways to create contour mapping: Humminbird Auto Chart Live Navionics Sonar Charts Live using Vexilar Sonarphone and the Navionics App Navionics Sonar Charts using Humminbird sonar logs uploaded to the Navionics Sonar Charts server for processing, then downloaded to a Navionics map card after the data is processed. Recently Lowrance has added the Navionics Sonar Charts Live feature to some of their units via a software update. Lowrance has the INSIGHT GENESIS program to create contour mapping. Garmin has a map creation function also-- do not the name of it. This contour map was created from sonar logs that I recorded and upload to the Navionics Sonar Charts program. It can be viewed on the Navionics website's Web App, viewed with the Navionics Mobile App, and download to a Navionics map card as the Sonar Charts map layer.

Humminbird has Side Imaging--that what the SI in the model name means. Lowrance has Side Scan. Look at the posted images on the Electronics forum. The model you posted has been discontinued. It has been replaced by two other 7" display Side Imaging models. Helix 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2 Helix 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2N Both have CHIRP Sonar and CHIRP Imaging and GPS/mapping. Both have built-in Auto Chart Live to create HD contour mapping in real time to the unit's memory or to a ZeroLine card ( has several million shorelines to contain the created contour lines). The G2 is a standalone model. The G2N is networkable to other Ethernet capable units. All three have 83/200 kHz 2D sonar and 455 kHz Side Imaging and a Down Imaging view created by blending the two SI pulses. All my current sonar/GPS models are Humminbird Side Imaging.

The first word in your post pretty much covers the Spotlight Scan. Good luck

LOL, I try to keep up with the technologies.

Your phone has Wifi and the transducer has a Wifi transmitter. You just pair the two--no different than paring your smartphone to any Wifi source. Just uses Wifi frequency instead of Bluetooth frequency.

The Vexilar Sonarphone uses WiFi instead of Bluetooth so it has greater range. You won't cast farther than it can provide data. https://store12459.americommerce.com/store/p/26-SP100-T-POD.aspx I use the boat mount version and it does very well. I use it to create HD contour mapping with Navionics Sonar Charts Live. I have the app on iOS and Android devices. This is simulator on an iPad:

With that type sonar, how well can you see your mobile device in bright sunlight since that would be your display?

The only thing that will give you more camera range is IR and that may be marginal since the subjects would be the same temp as the water. Imaging sonar would be a more functional tool for what you need since turbidity is not so much an issue.

A 4" or 6" dock post will be the same size on the display as a fish of that length. You have a 7" diagonally measured display and the more area you try to cover, the smaller the stuff will be displayed. The only way to make it display larger is go by very slow so the SideVu pulse is scanning it longer and it is recorded for a longer period of time on the display. Use a short SV Range setting to also make stuff look larger. This is a bridge support with 8'-10' diameter pilings being passed by very slowly and recorded on a 10.4 inch display:

Additionally the Humminbird units with ContourXD background mapping have most of the stump areas marked since ContourXD is the 2006 Navionics Hotmaps Premium map.

I have a few of the old paper maps of Lake Anna. Those areas are designated as stumps. Navionics has been adding those notes back to their maps after they lost the rights to publish those map details around 2009.