Good Morning Everyone Need Some Fish Finder Help

[ecarl357]

To start off, I just wanted to say hello to everyone. This is my first post, so I hope I am putting this in the right place.

I am sure this has bbeen discussed before, but I could not find anything close to what I was wanting information on. I have a G3 HP200 Bass boat. The boat has the fishfinders that come factory, but I am looking to upgrade. I like high tech gadgets, so I have been looking at some of the higher end fish finders on the market. Here is where I have confused my self to no end. I would like to purchase a GPS finder. I have looked at some of the Lowrance units with the hard drives. I really like the size of the 111 and the 113. I am looking at some of the Humminbird side imaging, but I have heard they do not work as good as they are advertised. I did not consider Garmin until I looked at thier site yesterday. They have a GPSMAP 545, when coupled with the G2 Vision card seem to be pretty remarkable. The only drawback to the Garmins is they seem to have a small screen.

I do most of my fishing in Missouri and Illinois with an occasional trip out of that area. I bass fish only, and would like to start fishing some tournaments. The other thing that I can not seem to find much information on is whether any of these models can be used in a vehicle for the road trips to a lake. I guess I am looking for any personal experiences, or anyone who has dealt with any of the models above. I am sure you all know how pricey these can get and I don't want to find out I wasted a bunch of money. Any information you could provide, would be greatly appreciated. If there is any info I can provide that would help, just let me know.

Thanks In Advance,

Eric

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

[acar555]

If the big screen is what you want most then the Lowrance Lcx-113 is the way to go.  If you want a true fish and structure finding machine then go with the Humminbird 997, which has almost the same width as the Lowrance just not as tall.  They do exactly what they say they can do.  Check out this for user pictures from side imaging units.  http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaging/photos.  They are also compatible with the Navionics Platium cards that show 3d and satellite overlays.  http://www.navionics.com/HMPlatinum.asp  I am not very familar with the Garmin units but have noticed that their sonar resolutions are not very good for what they cost.

[bipr8]

I have had 2 Lowrance an Eagle (made by Lowrance) and 2 Humminbirds.  

The Lowrance and Humminbirds were in the same price range and the Lowrance's were much much much better.

The Eagle for the price was awesome, but (the one I had) lacked the bells and whistles you may be looking for.  Still a tough easy to use unit.

I would say go Lowrance.  

[Ranger364]

I have a couple of humminbirds on my Ranger and they are really bad, (Wouldn't recomend to my sister in law). However I have owned Lowrance products in the past.

Coming from an aircraft point of view Garmin is a wonderful product, but is more GPS suited (sonar isn't to whoopie) The X113 has the internal hard drive which will allow you to store info ie hot spots without having to buy the little memory cards. I would recommend the X111 or X113 to any one.

I think you can get a reasonable price on X111 because it has been replaced by the X113.

[Wayne P.]

Humminbird 997- A REAL FISH FINDER. (copied from another site)

[acar555]

If I was asked which brand to get 5 or 6 years ago it would have been an absolute no brainer for Lowrance.  But times change and Humminbird has come a long way in that time period and there current products are better price point for price point than Lowrance/Eagle and once you figure in Side Imaging there is absolutely no comparison.  Humminbird is leading in innovation and features right now and Lowrance has some major catching up to do.

[ecarl357]

I appreciate all of your help. Is it true that the side imaging only works at low speeds.....or should I say works properly at low speeds? Don't get me wrong, I am not looking to scan the shore at 70mph, but does it work well at trolling speeds? I have always liked the Lowrance units, but since I fish the banks and structure 99% of the time, it really seems as though the Humminbird is the way to go. I would think you could find all kinds of structure you never even knew was there. I guess I just wanted to make sure they work as well as advertised. I see all of these pictures with unbelievable detail and wonder if it really is that good, or if it is just a big marketing campaign.

Has anyone tried to mount it to the trolling motor? This seems as though it would be a good spot, unless the transducer needs to be stationary.

How does the map detail campare to the lowrance hard drive units. I am going to look at all the models again this weekend, but I will probably only become more confused. I guess in a perfect world  I would buy both units and call it good, but I can't see spending that much money on fishfinders......actually having a hard time spending it on one. With that being said, I want to make sure my purchase is a good one.

Thanks Again,

Eric

[acar555]

I had the oppurtunity to spend 2 days at Humminbird in Eufala, Alabama, and the demo's on the display units don't do them enough justice.  We scanned a sunken barge and you could count the bolts holding down the docking cleats.  You will get your best results, as far as the sharpest detail goes, in the 2-7 mph range.  It does need movement for the side imaging to work.  I have seen good results at speed up to about 20 mph or so.  For it to work the best the transducer needs to mount stationary.  A trolling motor mount would produce inconsistant images depending on how much steering you do with it.  The Navionics Premium Hot Maps are very comparable to the Lowrance hard drive maps.  You will actually get more maps with the Navionics, close to 8,000), than what Lowrance offers and a bunch of them have 1 foot contour lines.  For an extra $200 you can get all of the Navionics in land lake and ocean maps preloading into the unit.  http://www.humminbird.com/productLines_wide.asp?id=1089.  

[ecarl357]

I just wanted to say thanks for the input. I am going to buy a 997 with all the maps loaded into it tomorrow night. Are there any do's or dont's, as far as the installation goes? Just basically looking for some useful tips since the first time I will be using it will be in a tournament.

Thanks Again

[acar555]

The owners manual does a good job of laying out how to install the transducer.  If you need some more help or some pictures of how others have installed theirs check out the yahoo group site I linked to before.  Have fun with it you will love it.

[Ozarkie]

Stay away from Lowerance and Eagle, their repair dept sucks and in two years they will not fix it!!

I have owned several of each over the years, get a GPS with mapping abilities, these will show you where to go instead of having to find the waypoints.

I just bought a Humminbird 565 for the front of my boat and I like it!! I did some research and even though its black and white it has details!!!

Thats what you want and for under $200.00

[reellife]

I just bought a used boat (99 G III) that came w/ hummingbird PROANGLER units at the helm and the bow. My job has only allowed 2 trips since the purchase and I'm not sure if I like them. I have the lowrance x 85 from my old boat but I don't know if I'm ready to change them out.  Anyone know about the proangler