Garmin Panoptix

[PootiTharp33]

Hey guys so I'm about to upgrade to the Garmin echomap chirp 73 sv. Im wondering if I should upgrade and add the panoptix transducer. Has anyone used it? I've seen all the videos and. While it looks sweet I'm not sure if it's worth the money. I'm also in kayak, not a big bass boat but any advice would be awesome!

[Jm526]

Never used but seen the vids also, seems awesome. Would like to see what people think of it. 

[Scott F]

I see Cabelas has the 73sv (pre-chirp) model on sale right now for $500. Are you taking advantage of that? I got one for a similar price last spring, it's a great unit. I have seen videos of the panoptix in use and it sure looks like it could be very useful, but at $1,500 just for the transducer, it's too far out of my price range to even consider it. The only drawback I see, aside from the price, is that like a video camera, it's hard to fish and watch the screen at the same time. If the price comes down substantially, like it has with a lot of this technology, I might think about adding it to my unit.

[PootiTharp33]

Yah I'm picking up the echomap chirp 73sv for Christmas. Through my work I get a discount through Garmin. I should be able to get the panoptix transducer for about $650. Still a large chunk of change. I looks awesome but I can't decide if it's one of those features that's cool and practical or just cool. I could see it being useful for boat ramps and other high concentration areas but not really applicable to beating the bank. 

[Sprocket]

I've been using Panoptix (PS21) for a little over a year now.  It is awesome!!! Especially for schooling bass, finding balls of baitfish, and locating brush piles, underwater timber, etc.  On a kayak however, I think it might be somewhat awkward to mount it on some kind of shaft that can be rotated easily.  Unless you have a trolling motor on your yak.  I'm not sure it would be that great if it was mounted on a fixed location.

 

SE Kansas grass grower 

[J Francho]

There's a transom mount TD that features FontVu and LiveVu that would be easy to mount on a typical TD arm from Yakattack or other maker.

[PootiTharp33]

On 12/2/2016 at 6:34 AM, Sprocket said:

I've been using Panoptix (PS21) for a little over a year now.  It is awesome!!! Especially for schooling bass, finding balls of baitfish, and locating brush piles, underwater timber, etc.  On a kayak however, I think it might be somewhat awkward to mount it on some kind of shaft that can be rotated easily.  Unless you have a trolling motor on your yak.  I'm not sure it would be that great if it was mounted on a fixed location.

 

SE Kansas grass grower 

I was thinking about mounting that transducer on my normal transducer arm (clearvu transducer on the bottom of transducer arm) but just rotating the kayak instead of rotating the arm. 

[Sprocket]

That would work.  I forget you can turn a yak on a dime, in a second. 

 

SE Kansas grass grower