Fish Finders Again....

[Quillback]

Sounds like a good deal to me.  I have no experience with Lowrance, so can't comment on that unit, but sounds like it is feature rich.  If you get one, I'd be interested to hear how it works for you.

[shrapnel]

1 hour ago, Stump bumper said:

how someone scoots across a lake at 50mph at night without a good GPS track to follow is beyond my skill set.

 

1st:  I'm not doing 50 mph at night no matter what.

2nd:  No way I'm trusting electronics to tell me where I'm at while under power.  In fact, at night I either shut it off or tilt it down til I can't see it to get the light out of my eyes so I can focus on whats in front of me.

[Dutch]

I run Lowrance and my friend runs Birds.  After lots of time in both boats my opinion is Lowrance 2d sonar is better than Birds but their down and side scans are better than Lowrance's.

[nomolites]

45 minutes ago, shrapnel said:

1st:  I'm not doing 50 mph at night no matter what.

2nd:  No way I'm trusting electronics to tell me where I'm at while under power.  In fact, at night I either shut it off or tilt it down til I can't see it to get the light out of my eyes so I can focus on whats in front of me.

Agreed. ( especially when there is a much deserved Speed limit)

I turn the brightness down to 3 or 4 at sunset or after dark; improves night vision dramatically and I can still get info from the unit.

Mike

[nomolites]

2 hours ago, Stump bumper said:

I guess the point that Cabela's had this at $200 under list price was not any interest to anyone. How people use fish finders are as different and varied as to how many colors and sizes a plastic worm comes in, but how someone scoots across a lake at 50mph at night without a good GPS track to follow is beyond my skill set.

Also if you troll on a lake like Beaver in 75-150 of water there are trees that stick up to within 15 feet of the top and watching my fishfinder is the ONLY way I know how to keep from loosing an umbrella rig when I am after deep fish.

To each his own, but I started this thread about the how Lowrance had lowered prices on a NEW unit for 2018 instead of raising prices that had been the norm. This was in response to the Helix and now I am wondering which is the better per dollar spent.

I am buying a new bigger unit mostly for the color mapping but would also like side scan just to know what is on each side of me without having to run over the area and watch it on my down scan all the time.

If you just have one unit I think either is a good product - with multiple units or the newer trolling motors you really need to stay “in house” for compatibility purpose - it gets to be “change one, change all”.  For that reason I won’t be making a switch unless it involves a new boat...and then I will likely stay with what I know anyway.

I troll a lot as well and it sure helps to have all those shallow treetops and brushpiles marked and be able to “tickle” the top of them but not get hung up every time.  Many a fish ends up in my belly that way...

Mike

[dan hufferd]

On 1/1/2018 at 3:47 PM, Stump bumper said:

I am a Hummingbird fan, but I just got the Cabela's sale email for the new year and here is the Lowrance  Hooks 2 7X triple shot for $400. That is a 7 inch screen, down image, side image and GPS with 3,000 lakes pre loaded .

That just sounds like fish finders are finally getting reasonable. Anyone have any feed back on these new units?

I didn't think the X models had gps.

[dan hufferd]

I have an elite 7. I have caught a ton of fish with it.

[Stump bumper]

20 minutes ago, dan hufferd said:

I didn't think the X models had gps.

You could be right and the Cabela's discretion is wrong, that would explain the $200 difference. Thanks

I just thought that triple shot meant GPS, Down and side scan according to the description.  After looking at the Lowrance web sit I figured out that Triple shot only refers to the transducer not the unit. I almost pulled the trigger on the wrong target.

All these choices are getting confusing......

[dan hufferd]

8 minutes ago, Stump bumper said:

You could be right and the Cabela's discretion is wrong, that would explain the $200 difference. Thanks

I just thought that triple shot meant GPS, Down and side scan according to the description.  After looking at the Lowrance web sit I figured out that Triple shot only refers to the transducer not the unit. I almost pulled the trigger on the wrong target.

All these choices are getting confusing......

Funny I have been looking at it just now. I would have probably go to the store, try it, then say, how much for this one? 

[Basfis]

On 1/4/2018 at 12:21 PM, Stump bumper said:

I guess the point that Cabela's had this at $200 under list price was not any interest to anyone. How people use fish finders are as different and varied as to how many colors and sizes a plastic worm comes in, but how someone scoots across a lake at 50mph at night without a good GPS track to follow is beyond my skill set.

Also if you troll on a lake like Beaver in 75-150 of water there are trees that stick up to within 15 feet of the top and watching my fishfinder is the ONLY way I know how to keep from loosing an umbrella rig when I am after deep fish.

To each his own, but I started this thread about the how Lowrance had lowered prices on a NEW unit for 2018 instead of raising prices that had been the norm. This was in response to the Helix and now I am wondering which is the better per dollar spent.

I am buying a new bigger unit mostly for the color mapping but would also like side scan just to know what is on each side of me without having to run over the area and watch it on my down scan all the time.

Verifying the description is what you are after or being persistent to have them sell what they described for the $ is key. 

I am a tightwad and finally coming around to the benefit of quality graphs. I “saved” on a couple of units (helix 5) that only convinced me to buy a bigger graph later. Savings gone... That said I’ve bought a couple off eBay that saved me a ton. I do wish mine networked and I don’t think I’ve ever bought a graph too big. 7” is, IMO the minimum for side imaging, 9” is better. 

Look carefully at the transducer and allowable mounting.  To have depth at speed, eg navigating creeks, you have to shoot thru or glass in which is only usable for sonar not imaging.  To run my helm unit I have 2 transducers and a y cable.  The additional pieces add up quickly