Depth Finder Advice

[Bassmaster21]

I am looking at purchasing a new depth finder for our older bass tracker. I decided that I am going to go with the Lowrance Elite 4 or the Lowrance Elite 4x DSI. They are the same thing except one has sonar and down imaging and the other has sonar and chartplotter (lake maps/ability to make waypoints) they are the same price. I am looking for advice/opinions on which to go with

[Dutch]

Only you can make that decision. If you want to get back to brush etc then you should buy the gps model. Is not then the down scan is really a nice feature as you can really tell what is below you.

[eagle1584]

I have the DSI/GPS version. I picked it up at Xmas time but haven't water tested it yet. Will be on Stockton this weekend and can give you more feedback after that. I can give you some of my initial observations though about the units.

It is a bit small and I would expect that you won't use it a lot in the split screen mode. In split screen with the GPS turned on the screen gets pretty cluttered by the speed, temp, depth etc. You can customize the screen pretty easily leaving those things on the screen that you need. I like the temp, depth and speed on mine since I troll a lot. It's pretty easy to toggle through the modes with 2 quick button pushes though.

The color screen is really nice and clear and really easy to read. I messed with the GPS quite a bit when I installed last weekend. It found satellites really quickly which I've had issues with on a previous unit. The preloaded maps have decent details of Stockton and many of the other lakes. Mine also came with the Lake Insight Map for the US. It has a lot of detail and honestly maybe more detail than I need in a map. On that small screen you have to zoom in pretty tight not to clutter the map with contours. I'm sure there is some more settings that will allow me to customize that piece of it as well but I've not looked that hard for them. I was able to easily download all the brushpiles from the MDC site on my pc and add them to the unit using a micro SD card. It took all of about 3 minutes of my time.

It also seems really easy to quickly store a waypoint if you want by just pressing "enter" twice. There is no "man overboard" type button like some of the larger units but it's pretty simple to do.

All in all the unit exceeded my out of the box expectations. I put it on the front deck with the transducer on the trolling motor as I have a larger unit on the console. Mine came with a trolling motor mount in the box.

I have no experience with DSI but I thought this was a low cost opportunity to try it out. I was lucky enough to pick it up with a $100 Lowrance rebate so it cost me $169 out of pocket. I'm not too concerned with the DSI because I concentrate on structure more than looking for fish other than bait shad. I always seem to get frustrated when I'm marking fish and can't catch them anyhow.

I'll update you after I try it out but so far for what it cost me I'm optimistic

[waterpossum]

I have the Elite 4 and like it. My biggest complaint is the screen size and glare. I have to get off the trolling motor and bend down at times to read it. Take in mind I'm 70 and my eyesite is not as good as most people, but that said back off of a demo model 4-5' and see if you can read it properly.

[REDSOXWSCHAMP]

Whatever new depth finder you get, i would recommend using a ram mount. they are a little pricey, but i feel they are worth it.