Hummingbird Vs Lowrance

[Trolling For Walleye]

TFW, well the Platinum maps are really nice, but you need to move up to the units that I use.. 997 and 1197 units.. And really are made for chart plotters.. The sat overviews are really neat to play with. Say you are coming into a port and have never been there, the overview will give you detailed information and a sat view of the opening at that port.. Seen them working last year at a boat show, really cool.. Now unless you are planning on fishing just about every lake in the US and inland waterways the Gold will be more than you know what to do with. But if you have the money go for it..

Now the Garmin may use the platinum chips but they are know for there Plotting and GPS, but not know for there Sonar... Humminbird and Lorwance will give you a better shot at both.. Here is what Humminbird say's abou tthe gold mapping Nav's..

Navionics Gold and HotMaps Premium is a huge library of electronic cartography on easy-to-use plug and play memory cards or preloaded on select models. You get paper chart detail, including bottom contours, structure, reefs, and drop-offs that will help you catch more fish. For coastal and Great Lakes anglers there’s navigational data, including spot soundings, buoys, beacons and more. Other features include a wreck and diving database, tide and current data and user-selectable depth contours. For the inland angler, HotMaps Premium includes data on more than 8,000 North American lakes including exclusive high-definition surveys.

Choice is yours, units do go up alot in price to run these maps the 997cSI starts at retail 2200.00 for the NVB and 1197cSI retail for 3100.00 with the NVB.. And that is only the Gold, Platinum is extra...

Well take my advice go look at all units, see which one you feel will work the best for you.. Then go for it..

Good Fishing and Good Luck find what you are looking for..

Don

Thanks for the additional advice.

I think based on what you are telling me, i'm ruling the Garmin OUT

and i'll just have to decide between that Lowrance 527 and the Humminbird.. i really think that Platinum Maps thing sounds cool, but you do have to buy a nice unit to get it..

the Lowrance 527 is compatible with those platinum maps....

Time to actually head over to bass pro to look at them live instead of just online..

and maybe there will be a display at the KC Sports Show in a few weeks.

[Trolling For Walleye]

Appears Humminbird already has the 788 out

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...0003000_250-3-2

I wonder how it's different from the 787?

Good price from what i can tell

[Trolling For Walleye]

Hey, i've got a dumb question..

when you buy one of these things, does with come with the transducer, or do you have to buy one separately?

I don't know much about the transducers or which one i'd need...

Would the one from my old LCR 4000 Humminbird hook into a new Humminbird? (backwards compatible?)

[Don House]

Hey, i've got a dumb question..

when you buy one of these things, does with come with the transducer, or do you have to buy one separately?

I don't know much about the transducers or which one i'd need...

Would the one from my old LCR 4000 Humminbird hook into a new Humminbird? (backwards compatible?)

TFW. ok first the big change in this unit compaired to the older model is from 640x480 to the new of 640x640 resoultion.. Big change!!! Also I will check with Humminbird but I think these new units will work with the platinum cards, I know these units have room for two SD cards now where the old ones only had one.. That will give you room for a Nav card plus a S/D memory card for video playback, or snap shots or saving waypoints to the S/D card.. So for that price pretty dang good!

Also Yes these do come with the transducer and you want to use the one that comes with it.. Your old transducer will not work.. It is only single beam, the new is dual beam.. That makes a big difference for vertical fishing. Now if you want to place this on the front or the trolling motor Humminbird has an exchange program for free. You send in the new unit and they will replace with the one you want like a trolling motor transducers. If you are going to run it on the console you are good to go out of the box..

Ok, go look them over and Yes stop by the KC Sport Show I think that there will be some places displaying these units.. Bass Pro in SpringField would be my first choice they have the newest on the market..

Good Fishing

Capt. Don

[techo]

When is the KC sport show this year?

[Don House]

When is the KC sport show this year?

Techo, I it is Jan 7 - 11th 2009.. Enjoy it for me.. I will be in Novi MI doing the show up there..

Don

[Don House]

Thanks for the additional advice.

I think based on what you are telling me, i'm ruling the Garmin OUT

and i'll just have to decide between that Lowrance 527 and the Humminbird.. i really think that Platinum Maps thing sounds cool, but you do have to buy a nice unit to get it..

the Lowrance 527 is compatible with those platinum maps....

Time to actually head over to bass pro to look at them live instead of just online..

and maybe there will be a display at the KC Sports Show in a few weeks.

Did alittle checking on on your question about the platinum mapping.. Found that most will work with them but they are VERY large and need at least a single processor to run them right, that is why humminbird tells you to use the bigger models, so the lowrance will support them but may be very slow to load them. Also spoke with a Nav team guy, he told me that the Platinum will only give you the 3-d mapping and a lot less map's information and he said the best for the money is the Premium Mapping that is the way to go..

There you go

Don

[J.E.]

We'll be doing a seminar the first week of January at Center City Marine on the sonar's - GPS - Side Imaging Humminbird units. When the final times are set I'll post it up for you.

[J.E.]

Here are the links for unit compatability on Premium 08 & 07 versions along with the Platinum product.

http://navionics.com/HMPlatinumCompatiblePlotters.asp

http://navionics.com/HMPremium08CompatiblePlotters.asp

http://navionics.com/HMPremium07Catalog.asp