New to Side Imaging

[Todd2]

Well, I finally made the purchase. BPS marked down the Humminbird 899 CI HD SI Nav combo to $499 and I literally got the last one, other than the display model. 

Does anybody have any tips for this model? I'm looking at the swing arm mount, is that the best route for spinning around and viewing from the front of the boat also? 

How do you use SI along with your Sonar? 

Thanks...

[Wayne P.]

PM sent

[Todd2]

Got it....thanks

[Skog]

I just picked up the same model and am looking at the same mount. I want to swing it around so I can use it from the front too. Can you let me know what you ended up going with? 

[Todd2]

I ended up going with the Ram horizontal swing arm mount. Two knobbed swivel points, no ball. It's built like a tank.

I got out on Sunday for the first time. I left the rods in the box for the most part. I had extremely high and muddy water but for my purposes it didn't matter.

 

 

 

 

[Skog]

I am glad you said that is the mount you went with. That is the same mount I am looking at. Not knowing where you mount it,  do you think this would be a good mount to use  for both console and at the bow by just pivoting the mount? How do you like the 899ci?I was hoping to get out this weekend but we are starting to ice. 

[Todd2]

It's working for me...but I've got a lot to learn with side imaging. I've watched a lot of videos but I think it will take another day or two of just graphing to start to grasp what it can do. I'm still struggling with what screens to toggle back and forth to...lol

 

 

[Wayne P.]

Something to help with toggling between views is choose your three favorite ones for the three favorite buttons.

When viewing one of them push the View button to advance to the next one in the rotation or push the Exit button to go back one view in the rotation. Depending on which three favorites you have and what views you have set to Hidden, you can have 9 shortcut views of favorites.

[Todd2]

Wayne, I think I get what you're saying. I need to get home and put it in simulation mode. I have the three presets as

1.)Full SI

2.)DI/Maps

3.)Full DI

It's very much a work in progress. Wayne, can u give a quick overview of how you manage the screens?  Here's how I did it the first day. I SI some areas until I found some spots around cover. I then froze the screen, set my waypoints, switched to screen two to go to WP. When I got close to WP, I went to screen 3 (Full DI), found my spots and dropped a buoy. Yeah, I still use those, I just like that visual reference. I had cold, high, muddy water but I did drop a jig on one spot and got a thump but missed. I only cast a few times so I'm already a believer...I just need to work on it. Thanks....

 

 

 

[Wayne P.]

I do not use DI for fishing at all. Only for instructional screenshots.

I use SI for most all sonar functions and use 2D occasionally for FishID to determine fish size.

I add mapping when needed.

The SI view shows the water column, the bottom, and stuff in the water column, that pretty much covers all the info I need.

I use 360 also, but that is just a version of SI.

[Todd2]

Makes sense and simplifies the screen toggling...thanks.