Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Looking to buy a fishfinder gps unit,Just checking to see what everyone has and how they like it

I have a Humminbird i365 and it's to damn confusing to use. They load so much crap in it that it's to much work.
Go to a boating store and try some out before you buy one.

I've got a humminbird 998 and love it. The navionics chip is great for coastal waters but the one for lakes is too busy unless you need the bottom contours fishing.

HDS 8 with side scan but I fish a lot. What you want it for really determines what you may need.
Are wanting to use it for depth only or fishing?

Garmin 431s which I installed about 1 1/2 months ago. It works great. There's a thread on the install somewhere.Here ya go. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13601

Here is a few screen shots you may want to see.
Sonar--


Structure---

I will be using it for fishing at KY LAKE. THE boat has the basic depth finder

steveiam wrote:HDS 8 with side scan but I fish a lot. What you want it for really determines what you may need.
Are wanting to use it for depth only or fishing?

I was looking at the hds's a while back, when I was thinking about getting one. Looks like it does have a lot of bells an whistles on it. Just wondering how long it would take to get familiar with how to use most of the options. I would be willing to devote some time to the learning curve,but probably not as much as I would have five years ago.
doc

As much as I love my HDS but if I were buying new it would be a hummingbird-
I go out with a buddy that has a new one and it seems to be
More user friendly and only uses one transducer where the HDS uses two.
It isn't too hard to learn I don't think though.

I have been looking at 3 models 587ci hd di 597ci hd di and thr 788.Im not sure if i need or will used the di

Get the biggest screen you can afford. I had a 1198 on my Ranger 620, now thats a big screeen. My Southbay has the 385 ? I can hardly see that damn thing. I will probably put a 998 on it .

smoker62 wrote:Get the biggest screen you can afford. I had a 1198 on my Ranger 620, now thats a big screeen. My Southbay has the 385 ? I can hardly see that damn thing. I will probably put a 998 on it .

+1 on this---
If you get anything with sidescan I think 7 inch screen would be minimum i would want, i know a few guys from another forum that got the HB597 and really want a bigger screen.

FWIW -
My grandfather was a guide on Lake Okeechobee - always used Lowrance.
I own and have used both Humminbird and Lowrance and personally prefer Lowrance.

I have always bought my fishfinders off Ebay with good luck. Buy the largest screen you can afford and GPS is nice but I don't use GPS personally as I don't fish large enough waters to take advantage of the GPS features.

cwag911 wrote:Garmin 431s which I installed about 1 1/2 months ago. It works great. There's a thread on the install somewhere.Here ya go. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13601

I did a lot of research and ended up with the same one and love it. I just have the regular G2 charts but the G2 Vision charts look awesome. The unit will show the shortest, safe route based on your boat's draft and clearances. Way cool and it's an entry-level unit.

The other one I was looking at was a Lowrance (can't remember the model). The Lowrance was cheaper, but less user-friendly and I felt more comfortable with the Garmin charts.



LC.

Honestly, if you are trying to find a hump or creek channel in deep water, you can do that with a good quality depth finder. GPS is great for night fishing but if you find a hot spot that produces consistently you won't need a GPS to find it again. If you are fishing a tournament on a new lake and have gps coordinates to the hotspots then GPS is great.
A good quality depth finder will show shad balls at any depth and when you find shad or any bait fish the predator fish will be close by.
Bottom line in my opinion is unless you fish a lot at night a good quality depth finder is all you really need if you get to know it well.