A depth finder with mapping capabilities?

[AJ Hauser]

Hey guys! I hope all is well. I wanted to ask for your expertise with something - I am currently using a Humminbird 899 CI HD side imaging unit from several years back. While it works well on the water, I'd like to be able to create my own topo maps to essentially "record" the trips, so I can go back and look for things like structure and spots that I missed while on the water. I did pick up a Deeper Pro+ Sonar that does this, however, this unit is a bit sketchy and in order to work it has to connect to my phone... well, yesterday the phone overheated in the sun, shut off, and I lost about 75% of my trip. 

 

So I'm using two clunky things to do what I hope one unit can do. 

 

Do any of you have experience with a unit like this, or know of a company that has this functionality built into a unit that would be worth the investment? I'm ready to upgrade and simplify. 

 

Please advise - thanks very much! 

[MN Fisher]

Garmin Strikers can create contour maps...I do it with my 7CV every time I'm out on the water. They have the 7SV which has down and side-scan.

[AJ Hauser]

Hey what's up @MN Fisher! Long time no talk  

 

You getting out at all lately? Missing the Midwest at all??

 

I'm still here... for now. Looking to head to Arkansas in about 18 months... after seeing the water in Bull Shoals I better figure out how to fish these clear pits by me with spooky bass right away. 

 

I'm going to check that unit you mentioned - when you want to review the maps, can you pull them up on a computer screen at home or do you have to do everything from the unit itself?

 

Thanks again - much appreciated. 

 

EDIT: this looks like a similar, recent unit?
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/739043
 

[Tennessee Boy]

Humminbird Helix and Solix units have this capability.  They call it Autochart Live.  I think some of the older Helix models require the purchase of a Zero Line SD card.  I think all of the current models come with everything you need.   All Solix models has the capability built in.  

[MN Fisher]

27 minutes ago, AJH said:

Hey what's up @MN Fisher! Long time no talk  

 

You getting out at all lately? Missing the Midwest at all??

Not lately - things have been a little crazy around here...but I do have a tentative outing scheduled for this Friday

 

Not missing it - still here in MN - probably die here.

 

28 minutes ago, AJH said:

I'm going to check that unit you mentioned - when you want to review the maps, can you pull them up on a computer screen at home or do you have to do everything from the unit itself?

 

Thanks again - much appreciated. 

 

EDIT: this looks like a similar, recent unit?
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/739043

I think there's a way - but I don't know how...check Garmin's site or maybe some other forums for how to do it

 

The Vivid line replaced the Plus line - I have a Striker Plus - all it added was some new color schemes...otherwise it's the same as what I have.

[AJ Hauser]

Got it - I will check those out ASAP - thanks @Tennessee Boy, and thanks again @MN Fisher - good luck on Friday! 

[12poundbass]

I have two Garmin 93SV UHD and I’ve been utilizing QuickDraw on the lake I live on and another small lake we fish quite a bit that has no mapping. All you need with these units is a simple micro SD card. I’ve enjoyed mapping my lake and I’ve found a couple nice spots. 

[MN Fisher]

7 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

I have two Garmin 93SV UHD and I’ve been utilizing QuickDraw on the lake I live on and another small lake we fish quite a bit that has no mapping. All you need with these units is a simple micro SD card. I’ve enjoyed mapping my lake and I’ve found a couple nice spots. 

That's the Echomaps which come with maps

 

The Strikers don't have maps or even a SD card slot - all mapping is stored internally. Though with the Active Captain app on your phone or tablet, you can upload those to the Garmin Community and others can download them.

[12poundbass]

8 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

That's the Echomaps which come with maps

 

The Strikers don't have maps or even a SD card slot - all mapping is stored internally. Though with the Active Captain app on your phone or tablet, you can upload those to the Garmin Community and others can download them.

Correct 

[AJ Hauser]

Alright boys - not to beat a dead horse here - but @12poundbass and @MN Fisher it sure looks like this unit has everything I need: contour mapping, ability to transfer & store those maps, internal GPS and side imaging with a transducer in the box: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/739043/pn/010-02554-00#overview

 

I have it in my cart - but the only thing I can't figure out is the mapping. This unit doesn't accept a maps chip (maybe it doesn't need one?) or have a port for an SD card I don't think, but the Echomap does and it has some maps pre-loaded: U.S. LakeVü g3: Detailed mapping for lakes in the U.S.

 

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/690363/pn/010-02523-01#specs

 

Can you please let me know what the deal is with the maps and why there is a $500 difference in cost? I don't mind paying it if it's worth it but I'm having a difficult time differentiating between the two... if the Striker has GPS and maps and the ability to create contour maps... I might just be in business and I'll pull the trigger on this today. 

 

Any help would be appreciated - thanks so munh fellas!!!

[MN Fisher]

The Striker does NOT have pre-loaded maps, that's the Echomap. No SD card slot in the Striker either.

 

How you get maps into the Striker's internal memory is to create them using the Quickdraw feature of the unit. You can also link the unit via Wi-Fi to your phone or tablet, join the Active Captain community and download maps others have created using Quickdraw.

[AJ Hauser]

19 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

The Striker does NOT have pre-loaded maps, that's the Echomap. No SD card slot in the Striker either.

 

How you get maps into the Striker's internal memory is to create them using the Quickdraw feature of the unit. You can also link the unit via Wi-Fi to your phone or tablet, join the Active Captain community and download maps others have created using Quickdraw.

 

Ok, that makes sense - so if I wanted to go to a new chain of lakes in Wisconsin I would only be able to prep with pre-drawn maps if someone else had created and uploaded their own contour map, then I download and sync with the unit? 

This seems like it would be fine since most of the lakes I'm hitting around here are off the grid, so to speak, little lakes that are not popular and in a few years we're headed to Bull Shoals so I would imagine a popular lake like that in Arkansas would have some maps uploaded - your thoughts, good sir?

[12poundbass]

Another reason for the price difference is the transducer, they are two different transducers. 
 

If you do some digging around you might be able to find an Echomap UHD with the GT-54 transducer for around $650.

[AJ Hauser]

37 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Another reason for the price difference is the transducer, they are two different transducers. 
 

If you do some digging around you might be able to find an Echomap UHD with the GT-54 transducer for around $650.

 

Interesting - thanks again guys, I really appreciate the help!!

 

Have a great weekend. 

[king fisher]

The big disadvantage of the Striker series compared to the Echomap series is the Striker not only does not have any contour maps included, or SD card, but doesn't have any kind of map at all.

      When you get to a lake the screen will only show white until you make a quick draw map of the lake.  The Echomap will show the outline of the lake in blue even if the lake is not one of the lakes mapped on the card you have.  It is nice to at least be able to see the shoreline of the lake on the unit while you are mapping the lake with the quickdraw feature.    

[AJ Hauser]

1 hour ago, king fisher said:

The big disadvantage of the Striker series compared to the Echomap series is the Striker not only does not have any contour maps included, or SD card, but doesn't have any kind of map at all.

      When you get to a lake the screen will only show white until you make a quick draw map of the lake.  The Echomap will show the outline of the lake in blue even if the lake is not one of the lakes mapped on the card you have.  It is nice to at least be able to see the shoreline of the lake on the unit while you are mapping the lake with the quickdraw feature.    

 

Thank you very much for the added information - this isn't what I thought (unfortunately), although I'm not too upset - I'll still put the unit to good use, but that seems odd to me that no lake contours at all are included? It does seem like I can download maps if they have already been created & shared? 

 

On 8/7/2021 at 10:28 AM, MN Fisher said:

You can also link the unit via Wi-Fi to your phone or tablet, join the Active Captain community and download maps others have created using Quickdraw.

 

Still seems like a lot of bang for the buck considering I'm going to be fishing less popular lakes and ponds in my jon boat. What do you think, @king fisher? Thanks for your input - it's very appreciated! Best, - AJ

[king fisher]

2 hours ago, AJH said:

Still seems like a lot of bang for the buck considering I'm going to be fishing less popular lakes and ponds in my jon boat. What do you think, @king fisher? Thanks for your input - it's very appreciated! Best, - AJ

Yes you do get a lot of bang for the buck.  Even with an Echomap some small ponds and lakes do not show up on the map.  I fish a small lake near my home that didn't show up on my Echomap plus.  Just a white blank screen when I first fished the lake.  First day I fished the entire shoreline with the quick draw feature on outlining the whole lake.  After a few trips I had almost the whole lake mapped and color coded.  A Striker unit would been exactly the same only the map would be saved on the unit instead of an SD card.  Here are a couple pictures of the lake.  One a screen shot off of the unit, the other from Garmin connect.  You can share maps off of both units on Garmin Connect.

[AJ Hauser]

Awesome, thank you so much @king fisher - very helpful!!!

 

I am very excited to start mapping some lakes

[AJ Hauser]

Hey boys - I had a quick follow up on this one - thought of it when I was talking to you about the batteries, @MN Fisher - I mapped a few small lakes with a Garmin Striker 9sv. I like the unit, I like that I can add community contours to the unit from my phone using the Active Captain app. 

 

That is neat. 

 

However, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get my contours sent back to my phone, so I can review my trips / lakes after the fact. Do you know of any way to do this? @12poundbass do you have any idea? I believe you had the same unit. 

 

I currently do not have uploading to the Quickdraw Community enabled, if that matters. 

 

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks guys. Have a great evening. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Tag....we have a similar setup, and I really love this 9sv unit.    I purchased it solely on recommendations here.   The lake I was buying it for is several hundred acres, but is private, not going to show up on a maps package.  Perfect unit for me in a Jon boat.   

 

Had to upgrade to a real smartphone recently that is the size of a footlong sub, but now I want to do this stuff with my unit.

[12poundbass]

I am no help to you unfortunately. Last year was my first year with my Echomap units and didn’t get much time on the water with them last year and zero this year. I did map the lake I lived on and a partial lake, but the rest of the lakes already had contours. I’ve yet to dabble in the QuickDraw community or really even use the ActiveCaptain app. 

[MN Fisher]

I'm not sure how to get the maps to my phone...I'm just doing maps on my Striker of a lake that's already mapped in Navionics that I run on my tablet.

[AJ Hauser]

Got it - thank you for the feedback @MN Fisher and @12poundbass. I appreciate your time and help!

 

So @AlabamaSpothunter... it does sound like we have similar setups. I'm not sure if I can link to personal stuff here, but I was writing about the 'ol jon boat not too long ago. If you click on the link under the picture of the jon boat, it will open even more before and after photos.

 

I've kind of come to the conclusion that the Quickdraw Community is useful for grabbing popular areas... although I question how accurate the downloaded areas are. I feel like some people left the offset on... but, after download I can check contours on my phone and create some waypoints that look good, then upload (sync) those to the Striker and create my own contours while I inspect the areas when I'm on the water.

 

(FWIW: I hate reviewing downloaded contours on my tiny phone screen, it's faster than trying to do it straight on the Garmin / unit, but I wish I could open all of this data on my computer screen... I'll have to look and see if the app can work on a tablet. You'll have to tell me more about your footlong phone situation ?)

 

I'm going to check on Thursday to see if I create contours in an area where I have already created contours previously, if it merges them or overwrites the old contours or what. It looks like I have to stay within the 3 GB of available internal memory, too.

 

Once I personally map a lake though, I'll go into the menu options when I'm looking at a screen with the location / quickdraw function on, select contours and turn off Quickdraw Community - so I only see the contours I have created. This seems like the best way for me to use this unit, which is still going to be extremely valuable on the little lakes I'm exploring. 

 

Love to hear more about what 'cher up to! Happy Monday. -AJ

[AlabamaSpothunter]

3 hours ago, AJ Hauser said:

Got it - thank you for the feedback @MN Fisher and @12poundbass. I appreciate your time and help!

 

So @AlabamaSpothunter... it does sound like we have similar setups. I'm not sure if I can link to personal stuff here, but I was writing about the 'ol jon boat not too long ago. If you click on the link under the picture of the jon boat, it will open even more before and after photos.

 

I've kind of come to the conclusion that the Quickdraw Community is useful for grabbing popular areas... although I question how accurate the downloaded areas are. I feel like some people left the offset on... but, after download I can check contours on my phone and create some waypoints that look good, then upload (sync) those to the Striker and create my own contours while I inspect the areas when I'm on the water.

 

(FWIW: I hate reviewing downloaded contours on my tiny phone screen, it's faster than trying to do it straight on the Garmin / unit, but I wish I could open all of this data on my computer screen... I'll have to look and see if the app can work on a tablet. You'll have to tell me more about your footlong phone situation ?)

 

I'm going to check on Thursday to see if I create contours in an area where I have already created contours previously, if it merges them or overwrites the old contours or what. It looks like I have to stay within the 3 GB of available internal memory, too.

 

Once I personally map a lake though, I'll go into the menu options when I'm looking at a screen with the location / quickdraw function on, select contours and turn off Quickdraw Community - so I only see the contours I have created. This seems like the best way for me to use this unit, which is still going to be extremely valuable on the little lakes I'm exploring. 

 

Love to hear more about what 'cher up to! Happy Monday. -AJ

Ol Jonnie boy ?