Which Garmin? Inquiring Mind Wants to Know

[KYRANGERMAN]

New member, but unfortunately an OLD fisherman.  I've got a 2000 Ranger R83 and I still have the original Garmin 160 fish finders.  To say the least the technology has advanced (I know it's like I have a bag phone instead of a smartphone) so with the gift card the kids got me for Fathers Day I'm going to upgrade the unit at the bow.  Having done some research I've decided to stay in the Garmin family and I've found 3 units that with sales, etc. are all the same price ($499)  They are:

 

Garmin ECHOMAP Plus 73sv Chartplotter/Fishfinder Combo

Garmin Striker Plus 7sv Fishfinder/GPS Combo

Garmin Striker Plus 9sv Fishfinder/GPS Combo

 

About 99% of my fishing is on lakes that I have fished before so I generally know where I'm headed.  Marking waypoints, which is something I can't do on the current units will come in handy.  So my question is . . . If I was handing you $500 to buy one of these units, which one would it be.

[Dens228]

I have the 73 SV and love it.  My only regret is not going with the bigger screen as I tend to use three views at once now that I have SideVu.

 

[12poundbass]

How big are your lakes? As you probably already know the Striker units don’t have preloaded maps but have QuickDraw so you can make your own, which if your lake is huge, could take you quite a bit of time to do. 
 

On the other hand if your lake is smaller in size or your spots you fish you know pretty well you could use QuickDraw and make your own and have a 9” screen to boot! 
 

I have two 7” Echomap units and I can’t wait to upgrade to 9” units. Hope this helps. 

[KYRANGERMAN]

1 hour ago, Dens228 said:

I have the 73 SV and love it.  My only regret is not going with the bigger screen as I tend to use three views at once now that I have SideVu.

 

Which is why I'm sort of leaning to the 9sv.

52 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

How big are your lakes? As you probably already know the Striker units don’t have preloaded maps but have QuickDraw so you can make your own, which if your lake is huge, could take you quite a bit of time to do. 
 

On the other hand if your lake is smaller in size or your spots you fish you know pretty well you could use QuickDraw and make your own and have a 9” screen to boot! 
 

I have two 7” Echomap units and I can’t wait to upgrade to 9” units. Hope this helps. 

The biggest lake I would fish would be Barkley or Kentucky, and then I really only fish a small portion of them.  Most of the lakes I would be on are 1,000 - 5,000 acres, and again, on the larger of those I generally stick to areas that are more known to me.

 

You guys are starting to convince me to go with the Striker Plus 9sv.

[KYRANGERMAN]

Well I went to order the Striker 9sv and of course it's out of stock.  Now it's down to the ECHOMAP 7sv and the Striker 7sv.  

[12poundbass]

2 hours ago, KYRANGERMAN said:

Well I went to order the Striker 9sv and of course it's out of stock.  Now it's down to the ECHOMAP 7sv and the Striker 7sv.  

Are your gift cards for a certain place? 

[KYRANGERMAN]

Bass Pro Shops.  Sounds like you two are happy with your 73sv's, so I'm leaning that way.

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, KYRANGERMAN said:

Bass Pro Shops.  Sounds like you two are happy with your 73sv's, so I'm leaning that way.

Happy with them yes, wishing and wanting bigger absolutely. Any chance you can wait until they get more 9’s? The Echomap units are absolutely great, but I don’t want you to be wishing a couple months down the road you got a bigger unit. 

[KYRANGERMAN]

51 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Happy with them yes, wishing and wanting bigger absolutely. Any chance you can wait until they get more 9’s? The Echomap units are absolutely great, but I don’t want you to be wishing a couple months down the road you got a bigger unit. 

Good point.  The Garmin 160 I have on the bow is working so there's no rush in that area.  I've just got the hankering and the gift card.  As they used to say on Kung Fu, "Patience grasshopper".

[kayl.]

I run the 9" Echomap plus on my kayak and love it. I had the 7" before and the 9" is so much better when running a splitscreen. Plus Livescope is insane.

[KYRANGERMAN]

I did some measuring and with it going to be mounted on the bow it couldn't interfere with the switches for the lights and tilt switches and the ECHOMAP 9 would have been too large so I ended up going with the 7sv.  Got it installed and it looks great.  

 

Filed under the ingenuity folder, The old 160 was mounted flush in the bow plate so they had drilled about a 4" round hole in the plate.  I was searching to try and find something to cover the hole yet be strong enough to mount the new unit.  Was about to give up when I walked into Wal Mart and was going past the housewares section and it hit me.  A 1/4" thick plastic cutting board.  $1.88 later it went home with me.  Cut it down to size, painted it black and drilled needed holes and it almost looks factory.  Sometimes I amaze myself. ?

[SC53]

On 6/28/2020 at 10:33 AM, kayl. said:

 

[pdxfisher]

I fish out of a kayak and my FF sits on the front about 4' from where I am seated. I had an Echomap 73SV chirp, which I really liked, but recently upgraded to an Echomap Ultra 106SV. That was a big upgrade in screen quality. The 10" screen is so much easier to read - even in the sun. It just seems brighter and crisper. It may not be the best bang for the buck (that would probably be a 93SV)  but my old eyes thank me every trip out.

 

The other upgrade I would recommend is a heading sensor. That has made a huge deal in my success. I have all the places I fish pretty well mapped out (that maps that come with the unit are good but nothing beats homemade). I can set up exactly as I want with respect to the structure I am fishing and make sure I am casting where I want to be casting. 

 

In the kayak this may be more of a problem but it is really easy for me to get rotated or even be sliding sideways with a slight breeze. With the heading sensor line on and the gps heading line on I can see which way I am moving and which way I am facing and that is really helpful.

[haggard]

I have the EchoMap 93SV Plus and my buddy has two EchoMap 73SV (one of them a Plus). We can't say enough good about them. Highly recommended. While I love the small (4 inch) Lowrance on the kayak, the Garmin beats the pants off it (I know this isn't an apples to apples comparison...) The "Plus" version adds a touch screen, which is very convenient. I don't have experience with the other models you listed.

 

[Fin S]

Cabelas has the 93sv for $600 on clearance, if you can up your budget just a little. 

 

The BPS gift cards may work for Cabelas since they're owned by BPS now.

[KYRANGERMAN]

On 7/29/2020 at 10:17 AM, Fin S said:

Cabelas has the 93sv for $600 on clearance, if you can up your budget just a little. 

 

The BPS gift cards may work for Cabelas since they're owned by BPS now.

They would work but I ended up with the 73sv up front since the 93 would interfere with my bow panel electronics.  I also decided to upgrade at the helm.  Found the ECHOMAP 63cv on a really good sale so I'm adding it.

[Boomstick]

On 6/23/2020 at 2:04 PM, Dens228 said:

I have the 73 SV and love it.  My only regret is not going with the bigger screen as I tend to use three views at once now that I have SideVu.

 

I do that a lot on my 93sv but to be honest I fish a lot of smaller lakes so I will spend a lot of time in sonar and downvu split and sometimes in just sidevu as well - on a smaller lake (on a kayak), I often prefer sidevu full screen or the sonar/downvu split. At the end of the day though, they do have the same pixels so while the 93sv has more real estate, it will look sharper on the 73sv but it's just smaller.

 

I have a Echomap UHD 93sv and I will say it's a great unit and very easy to pick up as it's my first fish finder and I don't have to spend a lot of time in settings, occasionally I will turn up the sensitivity in clearer water and that's it.