School Me On Fish Finders

[highside74]

I will be buying my 1st Jet Sled here fairly soon. Lots of options from the big 3. Garmin, Humminbird and Lowrance. The sled will be multi use. From lakes to rivers and the puget sound. Bass/Crappie, Steelhead, salmon and Kokanee. Doing some research starts to make your head spin. Where it really gets jumbled is when I try ro figure out best option to cover most of my bases. It will be a tiller sled so rear helm but bass happens up front mostly and salmon happens at the rear. Can I have 1 screen that I can move and plug in up front? Do I need 2 screens and 2 different setups. Garmin seems to be the pack leader with the other 2 making big strides lately. Garmin is definitely tops in price also. What I've found so far is the new Garmin Ultra 2 126sv unit that can run a gt56 transducer and or the LV34 livescope. Can I mount the gt56 on the transom and mount the LV34 to a moveable pole from front to rear depending on bass or trolling? Can I move the screen up front when bass fishing and leave it at the helm if I'm trolling and then later down the road add a second screen or do I need 2 screens right away? Is the Garmin that much better than the mega live 2 and the active target 2? Do I need a 12in screen? I plan to run a salt water bow mount motor upfront like the Kraken or the Riptide. I definitely would prefer not having to upgrade down the road after learning more so I'd rather try and figure as much out now. But also don't want to spend big money just to spend big money. Thanks.

[storyteller]

12 inch screens are nice, I went from 9 inch only  to a 12inch and 9inch , actually 12 is my main screen, I also run a 9 at the same time.

I have Lowrance hds12 live and lowrance Elite 9

I am not super tech savvy but it has wifi so you can download the app and run off your phone , on what is on the screen.

I had WhoDat towers install all of it, with a radar arch and Lowrance Halo radar.    Radar is real nice for the foggy times.

[fishngamereaper]

Can't help on brand. I've been running Simrad for years and love it. But I spend most of my time in deep water/ offshore.
I will say you'll never regret two screens. My boat has a rear steer station. My primary screen is 12" at the helm and my rear steer has a 9". It's nice regardless of wherever I'm at I have a screen at my fingertips.

[HntnFsh]

Lowrance is pretty well known for lousy customer service
 Garmin is just the opposite.

I would go Garmin myself but Hummingbird would be a consideration also.

I know with Garmin you can l8nk to your phone or table with a lot of their devices so you can monitor a 3nd screen

[Crunchy]

I went from Lowrance to Garmin.  No issues with either.  Currently running two Garmin 8610xsv.  I am thinking of a third somewhere on the stern but not sure yet.

[Kola16]

Garmin or Lowrance are usually good units. Humminbirds are not, especially for saltwater. You have a lot of questions on mounting, too many to answer. You can mount a unit wherever you want, but you need your power cable and transducer hard wired to the unit. If you want a second screen, you can bluetooth one head unit to a tablet screen. You do not have to buy 2 units right away.

[30.06]

I run 2 Garmins.

[Stein]

Garmin or Simrad for sure.  I would prioritize transducer power over screen size if on a budget, but that's my preference.  I have a 9" Garmin and it's plenty if you can't afford a 12.  If you go Garmin and want to ever use Garmin autopilot, make sure you get the xsv so you can control it.

[Angus]

If you want to be able to move the head unit to the bow you can buy a second station kit, don't have to buy a separate head unit.
When I bought my boat (18' Raider) the original owner bought it to use for bass fishing, definitely not a bass boat, but he had the dealer install a second station on the bow and another 1 on the transom as well as the helm station. He put 37 hours on it before realizing it wasn't a bass boat, I got a smoking deal on it.

[MADMAX]

Garmin
Easy to use and works well

[highside74]

Learned a lot this last few days. The new Garmin Echomap Ultra 2 series now has wifi/Bluetooth connectivity that allows you to view and control the main unit from anywhere on the boat using a phone or tablet. So unless I find out that Humminbird and the new mega live 2 is a while bunch cheaper I am leaning towards Garmin echomap 126sv with LVS34 Livescope transducer, gt56 transducer for rear and kraken trolling motor with the built in gt56 for upfront. Then purchase a 14.6in Galaxy S9 tab ultra in a waterproof case for upfront.

[deerlick]

if you're going to use live scope you're going to want 2 head units, one for 2d and map and the other dedicated to livescope otherwise you split screen and cant see well

[highside74]

if you're going to use live scope you're going to want 2 head units, one for 2d and map and the other dedicated to livescope otherwise you split screen and cant see well

Don't be mean

[highside74]

Thanks for giving something extra to research

Frim what I can tell the new unit using active captain app can work with 2 tablets at once both showing different things. Plus the Galaxy S9 tablet is only $500ish and has 14.6 screen and way better resolution than the Ultra 2. I'll keep digging but if thats the case 2 tablets up front is still way cheaper. Probably won't get 2 giant screens though. Maybe a 14.6 and a 10. We shall see.

[Stein]

Are you sure you can run two tablets at once doing different things?  I've never tried so don't know but when I use my tablet in the back it changes the main screen realtime so both screens are showing the same thing.  Now I have something to try, two different screens would be handy.

[highside74]

Are you sure you can run two tablets at once doing different things?  I've never tried so don't know but when I use my tablet in the back it changes the main screen realtime so both screens are showing the same thing.  Now I have something to try, two different screens would be handy.

I called Garmin customer service. The guy had to put me on hold for a few minutes to speak with some of his associates. He came back and said 2 screens, yes 2 different things on those screens, no.😭

I told him they should add that to a future update.

[EnglishSetter]

I'm a salt guy and nothing current.  I run Furuno gear, but Simrad was similar.  Garmin was just coming onto the scene when my gear was produced, but been on a few boats with Garmin and it's nice and more user friendly/intuitive.  Garmin really excels on human interfaces.

IMHO Lowrance and Humminbird were lower consumer grade.  My limited personal experience is they change/update models more frequently and drop support for older models.  The only recourse is a modest discount on a new unit.