Electronics Advice?

[bferg]

Guys- it’s time to upgrade my ancient electronics units.  In 2019 I bought an 03 ranger with old Humminbird Helix 7’s on it.  I’m not going to invest in FFS- I don’t want to dump all the money needed for that (batteries, new TM, plus the units) into this older boat… but it’s the boat I have and honestly I love it.  

So, I’m looking for the best options for “traditional” sonar.  Want the console and bow unit to network together, want side scan…. I mainly fish TR and beaver so I spend a lot of time in deeper water looking for schooling fish.  I know everyone has their own favorites here but would love to hear opinions.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

If your not wanting livescope, I think you have a lot of options. Pretty much all the big names do sidescan and 2 d really well now days. I would go to Bass Pro and see which one you like the best and fits the Bill. Not sure how the Birds and the  Lowrances link with each other, but Garmin is just an Ethernet cable. 

[Dutch]

I agree with Andy.  Go somewhere and get some hands on time.  Your learning curve will probably be shorter if you stick with Birds.

[Brennan]

Garmin customer service is great!

[Seth]

I'd look at used Humminbird G2N or newer gear. I bought a Helix 9 G2N with mega SI for for $600 off Facebook last year to replace my old 998 hdsi. The detail in my SI images are leaps and bounds above with the newer unit. For bow electronics, you could probably get by with a 2D unit if you're going to be fishing deeper water. For network two units, you would just need the ethernet cable and possibly some adapters depending on the graph model for humminbird. If you have more than two units then you have to add an ethernet hub. I believe Garmin is similar and I'm not sure about Lowrance.

[nomolites]

3 hours ago, Seth said:

I'd look at used Humminbird G2N or newer gear. I bought a Helix 9 G2N with mega SI for for $600 off Facebook last year to replace my old 998 hdsi. The detail in my SI images are leaps and bounds above with the newer unit. For bow electronics, you could probably get by with a 2D unit if you're going to be fishing deeper water. For network two units, you would just need the ethernet cable and possibly some adapters depending on the graph model for humminbird. If you have more than two units then you have to add an ethernet hub. I believe Garmin is similar and I'm not sure about Lowrance.

If you have a “Link”  TM you will want the hub…can run it from any of the heads or the remote in addition to the pedal.  Very useful.

Mike

[Champ188]

I spent 10 years trying to fall in love with my Humminbird 998s and it just never happened. I put a pair of new Lowrance Elite 9's on my 2013 Ranger and haven't regretted it for a single minute. The Lowrance 2D is just leaps and bounds above Humminbird --- they have owned this market for a very long time. Side imaging and down imaging work fine, too. The reason I don't have livescope is twofold ... 1. Not gonna sink thousands upon thousands of dollars into a tactic I don't even care for; 2. I enjoy finding my fish the old-fashioned way ... by using my noodle rather than my electronics. 

Again, wouldn't think of making a purchase before checking out the Lowrance offerings. 

[Seth]

On 11/6/2023 at 7:28 PM, nomolites said:

If you have a “Link”  TM you will want the hub…can run it from any of the heads or the remote in addition to the pedal.  Very useful.

Mike

That's a good point. I'm mostly a river rat so I don't utilize LINK, but I'd have it in a heart beat if I was spending most of my time on bigger water.