Need to learn about fish finders?

[bassquatch]

Whatever your choice, check out HodgesMarine.com, they usually have excellent sales! The bargain cave at Cabela's is good for a few as well... Every year at the Puyallup Sportsman Show they have a Lowrance seminar, even if you do not buy Lowrance it's a good place to get oriented to how they work.

Good luck with whatever you choose

[Sneaky]

I've had good luck with my humminbird 597ci HD combo. Once you learn to use the GPS you can find smaller, overlooked places that hold fish and drift over them with pinpoint accuracy. 

[NRA4LIFE]

I just did a ton of research on this subject along with getting the opinions of a dozen or more boat owners and settled on the Lowrance HDS-5 Gen 2 with Nautic Insight (you would probably want the Lake Insight if not using in the salt very much).  Just picked it up over the weekend and will give it its first test Saturday.  West Marine had them on sale, $50 off right now. 

[TheHunt]

I know of a few guides who fish the Columbia.  They use a GPS which you can buy chips for rivers.  I am not sure how it works but those chips show the channels of the river.  Both of them kill the fish hands down.  So you might want to consider the additional functions of a chipped GPS.

[lokidog]

I know of a few guides who fish the Columbia.  They use a GPS which you can buy chips for rivers.  I am not sure how it works but those chips show the channels of the river.  Both of them kill the fish hands down.  So you might want to consider the additional functions of a chipped GPS.

You can get detail chips for a lot of areas.  They will work in any newer gps that has an SD slot. 

[bearpaw]

This is all great info, sounds like Hummingbird fits my style since it's US made and excellent service. Now I have to determine which one? 

Most of my fishing will be inland streams and lakes, I know where to find the walleye, but a little help never hurts. I mostly want to find lake trout and large rainbow in some waters I'm not very familiar with. I also want GPS ability to go out from Neah Bay for halibut and out from westport for salmon and rockfish.

I tend to like large screens and good detail but also like easy to read. The SD chip sounds perfect for loading lake and river maps in areas I may go that I don't already know. I also want to be able to read my boat speed as I plan on some very speed specific trolling. I might be fishing from very shallow to as much as a few hundred feet.

There are numerous terms some of you used that I do not know the meaning, with all this in mind, which hummingbird models would be the best for me to check out?

Thanks again for the help... 

[bearpaw]

It also sounds like maybe I should consider two units, can someone explain why that works better?

[oldcamper]

I say to think about wether you plan to add aditional features in the future (radar, etc.) You don't want to have to purchase a new model/brand everytime you step up to a new feature for the boat. 

[bearpaw]

I say to think about wether you plan to add aditional features in the future (radar, etc.) You don't want to have to purchase a new model/brand everytime you step up to a new feature for the boat. 

Are you saying that's why two units work best together? That I can add options to units?

[Wacenturion]

Beawpaw....perhaps you got the two unit idea from one of my posts.  I was referring to the fact for the price of the 10.4 Lowrance unit plus adding the  black box for another $600 to get SI, one could buy two Humminbirds...a 10.4 model and then a smaller unit with side imaging and down imaging (SI & DI), thereby having a back up unit with all the capabilities including GPS.

May have changed somewhat now, but a year ago when I bought mine I thought why would I want to spend x amount on a big screen Lowrance and then add a black box for SI for another $600?  Instead bought a 10.4 Humminbird and for not much more than the cost of that Lowrance box I picked up a si and di Humminbird 798 c si.

The advantage to me is I have the larger unit at the helm while I'm running but when I go back to the kicker and troll I use the smaller unit which is mounted on the side near the transom.  I only use one at a time, even though they have separate transducer and share a GPS antenna.

The newer units now have Ethernet ports.  They make it easy to connect your system to other components.  Unfortunately my 1157c which is not a si and di unit has an Ethernet port, but will not except the new Humminbird radar.  That's technology for you.  Oldcamper's recommendation is right on.

Give Humminbird a call and describe what your needs are and see what they recommend.  Give you an opportunity to check out their service and answer questions better than most here.

[Ripper]

My boat came with a Garmin 788i gps/ff and the first thing I did was mount my Lowrance next to the Garmin. I was going to throw the Garmin away but decided not to. The Lowrance took a crap on me so I contacted customer service and asked what my options were since the warranty was up. They had me send it in to check out then called back and said that mine wasn't fixable, but if I wanted to I could upgrade to the new HDS-5 Lake Insight for $350.00. It sells in the stores for like $1200. I did and it is far and away the best unit I have ever owned. With the Lake Insight I also get great mapping out in the sound, off the coast and in the Columbia river. It shows bottom contour like nothing I've ever seen. I know where all the edges and drop offs are out off Possession Bar. If I had the money I would have loved to have to HDS 10, then I would have thrown the Garmin away. Now I use the Lowrance on GPS mode when I'm running, and the Garmin for depth, then switch when I get to trolling/fishing. I've used it on Lake Roosevelt, Rufus Woods and Banks Lake. I love the thing!

[lokidog]

The advantage of two units is that the screens are not so small they are hard to see.  Depending on your boat dash, Two medium sized units may work better than one large one.  Also, as Bearpaw mentioned you can use two in different locations.  I have a Lowrance gps that I can network a fish finder radar, engine guages, etc. into, but as mentioned I have not been real happy with Lowrance.  I do like the fuel flow meter that I networked in so I can figure out the most efficient trim for the conditions.  I use my Humminbird 788ci mostly as a depth/fish finder but have the gps as a backup to the other one. 

I have been on two boats that have the Lowrance HDS 10's and find the depthfinder lacking in detail and intuitive use.  The same with the gps on these units, it is a lot more complicated than on my smaller Lowrance or the Humminbird (I have not spent a lot of time goofing around with them though).

For a single unit, dual purpose, the Humminbird 858c looks great for 999.99, then you could step up to the 858DI for 1199 or 998c SI for 1999.