Help me pick a new fish finder

[IneedAnewScreenName-98161861]

Hey all,

 

My dad and I are looking to upgrade our fish finder and maybe on Black Friday depending on the pricing. 

 

We have an old aluminum boat, nothing fancy so we're not looking for the biggest screen, latest technology. We are looking for something of good value and does a decent job for a couple guys who go out once a week or something like that. 

We do want it to be able to connect to a trolling motor (we currently don't have a trolling motor that is compatible with a unit but that's in the future plans). We want GPS and mapping, and a good view of the lake contours. We live in Canada so I think we have to buy a seperate card with lakes on it, seems like most units are only made with US lakes built in. 

 

Anyways let me know if there's anything else I need to provide to help narrow my search. Our budget is hopefully around $750 CANADIAN.

[DaubsNU1]

Lots of options out there.

 

I outfitted my old 1960's aluminum boat with a Garmin Echomap 7sv on sale for ~$500...had the GT54 transducer...this was three years ago. Mounted the transducer on my trolling motor...20 year old Minn Kota 40lb all terrain cable steer.

 

The Garmin was a good unit, I really appreciated being able to map and mark spots...down and side imaging was good. 

I think there are lots of options out there from Garmin, Humminbird, Lowrance, etc. Look around and search out a good deal.  GOOD LUCK!

[Tennessee Boy]

If you want to connect to a trolling motor in the future you probably need to start by deciding what trolling motor you want.   A trolling motor that integrates with a fish finder is pretty expensive and will only work with the same brand of fish finder.  Minn Kota works with Humminbird as they have the same parent company (Johnson Outdoors).  

[IneedAnewScreenName-98161861]

36 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

If you want to connect to a trolling motor in the future you probably need to start by deciding what trolling motor you want.   A trolling motor that integrates with a fish finder is pretty expensive and will only work with the same brand of fish finder.  Minn Kota works with Humminbird as they have the same parent company (Johnson Outdoors).  

Yea we are going to most likely go for the Minn Kota, so we are currently looking at the hummingbird helix 7 seems to be at the top of our list. Neither of us really know what to look for in terms of technologies included that make one version a better value then the other. Feels like there's multiple versions of a hummingbird helix 7, so it's hard to know what's the best unit for what we want now and possibly in the future. 

2 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

Lots of options out there.

 

I outfitted my old 1960's aluminum boat with a Garmin Echomap 7sv on sale for ~$500...had the GT54 transducer...this was three years ago. Mounted the transducer on my trolling motor...20 year old Minn Kota 40lb all terrain cable steer.

 

The Garmin was a good unit, I really appreciated being able to map and mark spots...down and side imaging was good. 

I think there are lots of options out there from Garmin, Humminbird, Lowrance, etc. Look around and search out a good deal.  GOOD LUCK!

I know there's tons of options out there, that's why I'm asking for help! 👍

 

[FishTax]

I'm far from an expert, but from what I've gathered in recent research, hummingbird seems to have the best side imaging (mega side imaging), Garmin seems to have the best forward facing live imaging. If not looking at the highest end of those, it seems all brands are pretty competitive. 

Another thing to note is whether you want one that networks to an additional unit or not. For my kayak, I don't, but if I had a boat I'd personally be thinking long term about a technology platform I could continue adding to. 

[Choporoz]

Best of luck.  Comparing fishfinders is hard...at least it is for me.  The manufacturer web sites are no help.  If you have decided on Hbird, you have already eliminated a lot of water.  TW used to have decent charts that compared features of a brand, but the new site design screwed that up, too.

I suggest watching some videos of guys that compare Hbird units ....like Clear Water Fishing....there are others.  If you have a bass boat dealer nearby that does a lot of installs, they might know enough to help.  If you can maintain your budget, I think you will have few enough choices to narrow it down pretty quickly.  I haven't used Humminbird in years, so I can't much...but I do sympathize and know that videos can help.  

[casts_by_fly]

2 hours ago, IneedAnewScreenName-98161861 said:

Yea we are going to most likely go for the Minn Kota, so we are currently looking at the hummingbird helix 7 seems to be at the top of our list. Neither of us really know what to look for in terms of technologies included that make one version a better value then the other. Feels like there's multiple versions of a hummingbird helix 7, so it's hard to know what's the best unit for what we want now and possibly in the future. 

I know there's tons of options out there, that's why I'm asking for help! 👍

 

 

I can help with humminbird. If you’re connecting to a trolling motor, you’ll need an ‘N’ model. G3 and g4 are basically the same with minor updates to the 4. 
 

from there, you have three levels of increasing price/capability. The first is the gps model. It will have gps, mapping, and 2d sonar. Then you add on down imaging (DI). Then you add SI.  Each level will have all the levels below it.  So all you have to do is decide what features you need and what you want to spend. 
 

 

[gim]

Definitely keep an eye out for upcoming Black Friday sales on marine electronics. Some are ridiculously good deals.

[Boomstick]

Hummingbird has the best side imaging quality on the market bar none, and the sharpest down imaging although there are some things often missing from Hummingbird's down imaging (hence why a lot of the serious Hummingbird guys also double up with a Garmin). Garmin in my opinion has the second-best imaging, the best interface and probably the best maps and also you don't have to make a lot of adjustments when going from clear water to dirty water, which is nice. Garmin also seems to have the best live scope, if you plan on adding that. Garmin's screens are definitely sharper than the Lowrance without going to the HDS.

 

I would keep an eye out for Black Friday deals. I am not sure if you have westmarine, but they tend to offer some good deals and go all in on Garmin every year. The GT54-UHD transducer is pretty solid, the GT-56UHD will offer maybe 66% more range in sidevu which is it's biggest advantage. You should definitely be able to find an older version of the EchoMap 73sv with the GT54 in your price range, and with any luck, you can get a 9". The newer 9" model offers more pixels, but the older one is nice when you run all three sonars together so you can really see each section much more clearly. The EchoMap 73sv or 93sv would ship with freshwater maps, the 74sv or 94sv would have offshore maps and the Striker doesn't include maps although you can make your own.

 

I have ran a Garmin EchoMap 93sv the past few years with no complaints.

[casts_by_fly]

9 hours ago, Boomstick said:

Hummingbird has the best side imaging quality on the market bar none, and the sharpest down imaging although there are some things often missing from Hummingbird's down imaging (hence why a lot of the serious Hummingbird guys also double up with a Garmin). Garmin in my opinion has the second-best imaging, the best interface and probably the best maps and also you don't have to make a lot of adjustments when going from clear water to dirty water, which is nice. Garmin also seems to have the best live scope, if you plan on adding that. Garmin's screens are definitely sharper than the Lowrance without going to the HDS.

 

I would keep an eye out for Black Friday deals. I am not sure if you have westmarine, but they tend to offer some good deals and go all in on Garmin every year. The GT54-UHD transducer is pretty solid, the GT-56UHD will offer maybe 66% more range in sidevu which is it's biggest advantage. You should definitely be able to find an older version of the EchoMap 73sv with the GT54 in your price range, and with any luck, you can get a 9". The newer 9" model offers more pixels, but the older one is nice when you run all three sonars together so you can really see each section much more clearly. The EchoMap 73sv or 93sv would ship with freshwater maps, the 74sv or 94sv would have offshore maps and the Striker doesn't include maps although you can make your own.

 

I have ran a Garmin EchoMap 93sv the past few years with no complaints.

 

I would agree with this and also add one thing.  The Helix 5 and 7 units from Humminbird use the compact transducer.  Its only about 2".  It gives good imaging and is definitely better than the Lowrance units my dad has on his boat (an elite and a newer one).  That said, the images you see in Humminbird literature are from the larger transducer found with the Helix 9 and up.  It has double the piezos inside (hence 2x power draw).  On the Helix 5/7 units they have side imaging piezeos only.  The down imaging uses the side imaging data and interprets it to make a DI image.  That's why they are only Di/Si and not Di+/Si+ imaging.  The bigger transducer does give better imaging yet.  

 

In a like for like cost point, I would still take the Helix 7 over the Garmin GT54, but if you're getting the 9" with lake maps and at a better price point then it would be hard to pick against the garmin.

[GaryH]

You stated your going with a MinnKota TM then I would be going with Humminbird. Good luck on your search and try not to pull too much hair out.

[12poundbass]

The best thing to do is research research and more research. Learn was 2D, down imaging, side imaging, and mapping do. The more you learn the better of a decision you will make about what features suit you. Asking here is a good resource but, some don’t need all the features and some do, so the responses will be all over the place.

 

Hope this helps.

[FishTax]

13 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

I would agree with this and also add one thing.  The Helix 5 and 7 units from Humminbird use the compact transducer.  Its only about 2".  It gives good imaging and is definitely better than the Lowrance units my dad has on his boat (an elite and a newer one).  That said, the images you see in Humminbird literature are from the larger transducer found with the Helix 9 and up.  It has double the piezos inside (hence 2x power draw).  On the Helix 5/7 units they have side imaging piezeos only.  The down imaging uses the side imaging data and interprets it to make a DI image.  That's why they are only Di/Si and not Di+/Si+ imaging.  The bigger transducer does give better imaging yet.  

 

In a like for like cost point, I would still take the Helix 7 over the Garmin GT54, but if you're getting the 9" with lake maps and at a better price point then it would be hard to pick against the garmin.

This is great info, thank you!

[IneedAnewScreenName-98161861]

Thanks all for the words of advice! 

Definitely helped me. Search continues but I think I've found my path!

[WRB]

Whatever you decide on think about getting a tutorial on the model you purchase. No need to waste money on a unit you can’t interpret. It’s been my experience visiting these forums that about 90% of the new sonar users don’t know how to interpret what the see on the screen and only use the unit to it’s factory set default settings. You need to study and use what buy to it’s full potential and that is manual settings.

Tom

[Koz]

I have the Humminbird HELIX 7 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G4 on my kayak and I like it. I previously had a 5" Lowrance Hook2 with side imaging, but the side imaging on the Humminbird is much better.

 

I also suggest getting the biggest screen that you can afford, especially if your an old guy. For me. moving from a 5" screen to a 7" screen made a huge difference. I would have preferred the 9" screen, but that's pretty big for the side rail on my pedal kayak. Because I could see it better, I took a deeper dive into getting the most out of it. I strongly suggest not only watching videos on how to use it, but also spending hours on the lake tweaking things.

 

One conclusion that I came to recently is that the base maps included on my unit are just adequate for fishing and that I need more detail and features. So just this morning I ordered the Lakemaster Premium mapping SD card. It's normally $200, but the Humminbird store on Amazon has it for only $140. The Lakemaster Premium has the SmartStrike mapping capabilities built in so you don't have to buy 2 separate cards anymore. 

[IneedAnewScreenName-98161861]

On 11/23/2023 at 6:17 AM, Koz said:

I have the Humminbird HELIX 7 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G4 on my kayak and I like it. I previously had a 5" Lowrance Hook2 with side imaging, but the side imaging on the Humminbird is much better.

 

I also suggest getting the biggest screen that you can afford, especially if your an old guy. For me. moving from a 5" screen to a 7" screen made a huge difference. I would have preferred the 9" screen, but that's pretty big for the side rail on my pedal kayak. Because I could see it better, I took a deeper dive into getting the most out of it. I strongly suggest not only watching videos on how to use it, but also spending hours on the lake tweaking things.

 

One conclusion that I came to recently is that the base maps included on my unit are just adequate for fishing and that I need more detail and features. So just this morning I ordered the Lakemaster Premium mapping SD card. It's normally $200, but the Humminbird store on Amazon has it for only $140. The Lakemaster Premium has the SmartStrike mapping capabilities built in so you don't have to buy 2 separate cards anymore. 

Awesome tips man thank you!

So I ended up getting us the humminbird helix 9 mega si+ g4n. It was seemingly the best deal for me where I live. It was $800 off so it was more then we wanted to spend but it was only a couple hundred more then the 7 so why not get the bigger screen. 

 

Now my question is should I get the humminbird map card or go with navionics? I was told by the guy at the store navionics is slightly better in that they update there maps more frequently (keep in mind I'm in southern Ontario Canada).  Anyone wanna weigh in on what mapping card I should go for?

[gim]

4 hours ago, IneedAnewScreenName-98161861 said:

Anyone wanna weigh in on what mapping card I should go for?

I am pretty sure that the cards best suited for Birds is Lakemaster.  Humminbird bought Lakemaster years ago and made Lakemaster exclusive to be used with their products.

[RipzLipz]

I own 2 Birds. Lakemaster is nice & offers coverage regionally but it’s expensive (IMO) if you’re traveling out of state to a different region & will require another card for that region. They used to offer pay per lake (pay $X for maps of one lake, via download) called ChartSelect but I believe that’s been discontinued. Not all Lakemaster lakes have been surveyed in HD (1 foot depth increments). Anything with VX is their latest & greatest. Older stuff is called Legacy, I believe. You can check list of available HD surveyed lakes in advance on HBird’s website.

 

Navionics (owned by Garmin) offers coverage all over the US for about the same price as a single regional Lakemaster card. You can go to Navionics website to view their Chartviewer to get an idea of what their mapping looks like onscreen. Make sure you select Viewers -> Chartviewer. Once map comes up, tap the 3 arcs in lower left & make sure SonarChart is selected which turns ON HD surveys (1 foot depth increments, where available). I believe this also turns on user edits for users who choose to send in soundings & waypoints off their cards. Click/tap any icons on lakes & the the question mark for additional info about each icon.

 

Navionics+ Large gets you all US, some of CA & coastal waters.

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I am pretty sure that the cards best suited for Birds is Lakemaster.  Humminbird bought Lakemaster years ago and made Lakemaster exclusive to be used with their products.

That is true. I don’t even know you could load navionics on a humminbird. But it appears that you can and I would be tempted. Navionics online is very good. I don’t know how much control hbird gives with it (depth shading for instance)

[RipzLipz]

2 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

That is true. I don’t even know you could load navionics on a humminbird. But it appears that you can and I would be tempted. Navionics online is very good. I don’t know how much control hbird gives with it (depth shading for instance)

I think that is either exclusive to Lakemaster or you need a more expensive option on Navionics which I’ve not tried. Once you get to the Platinum option, your coverage decreases to regional. Prices on Navionics mapping is per year, meaning if you wish to update your card you have pay that price yearly (not just a one time fee) however you can use your card forever, just without updates.

[Koz]

6 hours ago, IneedAnewScreenName-98161861 said:

It was $800 off so it was more then we wanted to spend but it was only a couple hundred more then the 7 so why not get the bigger screen. 

 

Now my question is should I get the humminbird map card or go with navionics? I was told by the guy at the store navionics is slightly better in that they update there maps more frequently (keep in mind I'm in southern Ontario Canada).  Anyone wanna weigh in on what mapping card I should go for?

$800 off? That's a no brainer!

 

The other day I ordered the Lakemaster which also includes Smartstrike. You can also order a less expensive version of Lakemaster without Smartstrike, but I figured I would go all in.

 

I used to look at the Navionics maps before I set out, but I think having them onboard is going to make a big difference since the standard lake maps did not provide enough detail.

 

I'm hoping it arrives by the end of the week since my new Old Town Autopilot is also due at the end of the week.

 

[casts_by_fly]

2 hours ago, RipzLipz said:

I think that is either exclusive to Lakemaster or you need a more expensive option on Navionics which I’ve not tried. Once you get to the Platinum option, your coverage decreases to regional. Prices on Navionics mapping is per year, meaning if you wish to update your card you have pay that price yearly (not just a one time fee) however you can use your card forever, just without updates.

 

here’s the chart from navionics.  I don’t know what you get with either package but it looks like both work for the modern helix. 

 

https://www.navionics.com/media/wysiwyg/docs/Compatibility_Guides/GPS_Plotter_Cards_Compatibility_Guide.pdf

[RipzLipz]

4 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

here’s the chart from navionics.  I don’t know what you get with either package but it looks like both work for the modern helix. 

 

https://www.navionics.com/media/wysiwyg/docs/Compatibility_Guides/GPS_Plotter_Cards_Compatibility_Guide.pdf

Sorry - I was only referring to depth shading regarding it being possibly exclusive to LM cards. Yes, Navionics is 100% compatible with HBird & for the most part looks like the online Chartviewer does.

 

I have Solix units & under settings, after the Navionics card is inserted, there should be 2 choices, basemap or Navionics. Solix’s have 2 card slots, so I am assuming if I inserted a LM chip in the unused 2nd slot I would get a third choice as to which map is displayed. Not sure how it would be with Helix. Last one I fiddled with had 1 SD slot so I am assuming the unit would either give you a choice in your settings or just automatically make that your map.

[RipzLipz]

@casts_by_fly In addition, they have something called safety depth. If you set it to say 10’ then everything 10’ or less will be blue. Everything greater than 10’ will be white. Not to be confused with using different colors to define different depth zones (color shading maybe - don’t recall the specific term). You can also see the safety depth feature using the online Chartviewer. Click/tap Menu in the lower/middle area of screen, a menu will appear on left. Choose Map Options & you should see Safety Depth. I’ve set it to 15’ so you can see the blue/white differences on the map shown below.

 

My apologies if this is confusing towards your original question. So many different terms between one brand & another. Watched some YT videos & 95% sure the ability to color different depth zones with say, red, green, blue, etc. is limited to Lakemaster cards only, as is bottom hardness via colors on a map. Hardness can be determined/guesstimated using red/green palette & side imaging, from what I have gathered. That’s how guys can find shell beds on southern lakes, where shell beds are often targeted, without having true bottom hardness capability, so to speak, in combination with other sonar output.