Garmin ?

[watermen2]

Why all the love and Garmin switch over.  Curious because I am upgrading and have a long history with Garmin, furuno and raymarine.  I have had some runins with them over the years.  Is the new Garmin stuff that much better and is it more geared toward tournament fishing? TIA

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

They are just ahead of everybody. Lowrance and Humminbird are just now coming out with a Livescope system to compete with what Gamin has had for 5 years. Ive had all 3 of the big names and switched all the way over this year to Garmin.   

[Ketchup]

As Andy stated, Garmin has led the pack for years, especially in the GPS spectrum. I too have had the major brands, and always compare others to the Garmin. Switching over myself this winter, as current boat has Lowrance when purchased. 

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Right now for $599 you can get the 93UHD. I dont think you can get a better graph for the money

[Phil Lilley]

Got to remember, Garmin has a host of engineers working on aviation and other gadgets - fishing GPS and sonars are an off shoot of what they are already doing in others areas on industry.  They are knocking off the old guard in aviation - all the major plane makers are going with Garmin or at least want to.

[fishinwrench]

5 hours ago, Phil Lilley said:

Got to remember, Garmin has a host of engineers working on aviation and other gadgets - fishing GPS and sonars are an off shoot of what they are already doing in others areas on industry.  They are knocking off the old guard in aviation - all the major plane makers are going with Garmin or at least want to.

I've always been a Lowrance guy myself, but I sure don't have anything bad to say about Garmin units.   I've seen a ton of Lowrance/Eagle, Hummingbird, and Raymarine units swallow their @$*, but I can't recall a single Garmin unit that I have ever had to replace because the unit itself failed.    

Usually, with Garmin stuff, I am moving the console unit to the bow, and replacing it with the latest/greatest/bigger Garmin on the console.   

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

They all are really good, the Birds Mega imaging is pretty good stuff. Lowrance just came out with their Live Active Target which looks to be basically like Garmin's Livescope, and ive seen teasers for Humminbirds version of it too.  Make me think Garmin probably has something bigger and better they are going to release soon

[snagged in outlet 3]

29 minutes ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

They all are really good, the Birds Mega imaging is pretty good stuff. Lowrance just came out with their Live Active Target which looks to be basically like Garmin's Livescope, and ive seen teasers for Humminbirds version of it too.  Make me think Garmin probably has something bigger and better they are going to release soon

Have you ever used one in a river?

[jdmidwest]

I need one with a small puck for the jet boat.  Going to have to give up side image.

[fishinwrench]

9 minutes ago, jdmidwest said:

I need one with a small puck for the jet boat.  Going to have to give up side image.

Make a clamp on transom bracket for the transducer.  A set of those cheesy clamp-on 2 D cell running lights will provide all the materials needed to configure one.  

That way you can quickly pull it off and lay it in the boat when running sketchy spots.