I am weekend warrior fisherman but like midrange / nice stuff and im starting to save up to buy a pair of finders (gonna take a couple months at least) Any opinions, comments welcome amd appreciated. Leaning toward the garmins.
Fish finders
- Thread starter 416wbymag
- Start date
I have a friend that lives up on Douglas Lake. When the water is down, he is walking those bottoms and mapping structure standing right beside it. There are a bunch of old foundations, etc that hold a lot of fish once they are covered.
A few years ago, he went out with three different bass pros ahead of one of their big tournaments. One had Hummingbird, another Garmin, and the third Lowrance. All were top of the line units.
Surprising to me, he said in the quality of the underwater "picture", Hummingbird and Garmin were the best. He said the Lowrance was way lower quality than those two. IMO, Garmin has the best GPS capability, so I would lean that way.
YMMV
A few years ago, he went out with three different bass pros ahead of one of their big tournaments. One had Hummingbird, another Garmin, and the third Lowrance. All were top of the line units.
Surprising to me, he said in the quality of the underwater "picture", Hummingbird and Garmin were the best. He said the Lowrance was way lower quality than those two. IMO, Garmin has the best GPS capability, so I would lean that way.
YMMV
Thank you sir... leaning that way myself.
hard to beat the mapping on the birds, and side scanning. forward sonar they are all about neck and neck. i have birds and son has mix of garmins and lowrance.
I was very happy with my Furuno units and Lowrance but this was for saltwater applications. On my big boat I had Garmin for GPS and Furuno for sonar. I don't know if Furuno is even in the freshwater business though.
I have Hummingbirds and Garmins on my boat. I'd say the y perform about equal but the Garmins tend to be more user friendly to me.
since garmins gt56 and lowrance active imaging xducers were introduced, they are pretty much all equal in imaging now depending on which mfd you choose and which mapping is supported for the lakes you fish and the mapping features you want.
if you decide garmin, i would suggest at least an Ultra mfd with the gt56 or gt36/gt8 or gt15 with y cable if you going to run a seperated 2d skimmer/imaging setup.
keep in mind that these newest xducers are xtra long.
if you decide garmin, i would suggest at least an Ultra mfd with the gt56 or gt36/gt8 or gt15 with y cable if you going to run a seperated 2d skimmer/imaging setup.
keep in mind that these newest xducers are xtra long.
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- Jul 16, 2015
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There is a reason birds are more expensive. They're worth it.
I'm not trying to talk you in to it, but I will have two new Humminbird Helix 7's for sale around Dec or January. I'll give you a fair deal on them if you're interested and can wait that long. You may want something bigger/nicer… just offering.
Personally I run Lowrance for my main units and wouldn't run anything else.
I used to think I liked the Humminbird Mega side imaging, but I've been using it a lot lately on a borrowed boat with a Solix.. and I just don't like it. The lack of range (depending on your depth) is disappointing. I'll take Lowrance's SS3D over it any day. I run the Humminbird at 455 and it's not as good as SS3D in my opinion.
Touchscreen units are a must for me. For the price, the Solix is horrible in my opinion. I think the Helix performs better, but no touchscreen.
Lowrance just dropped prices on their HDS Live units, so they're a good deal at the moment. You'll probably be able to find even better deals in the near future.
Of course, that means they're probably getting ready to release a new model. We will have to wait and see what it is… which is exactly why I ordered my new boat without any graphs.
Personally I run Lowrance for my main units and wouldn't run anything else.
I used to think I liked the Humminbird Mega side imaging, but I've been using it a lot lately on a borrowed boat with a Solix.. and I just don't like it. The lack of range (depending on your depth) is disappointing. I'll take Lowrance's SS3D over it any day. I run the Humminbird at 455 and it's not as good as SS3D in my opinion.
Touchscreen units are a must for me. For the price, the Solix is horrible in my opinion. I think the Helix performs better, but no touchscreen.
Lowrance just dropped prices on their HDS Live units, so they're a good deal at the moment. You'll probably be able to find even better deals in the near future.
Of course, that means they're probably getting ready to release a new model. We will have to wait and see what it is… which is exactly why I ordered my new boat without any graphs.
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I'm a Garmin guy. I have 4 Garmin units and a Garmin Force trolling motor on my boat. One thing about Garmin, their tech support is awesome, and I've never had to send one of their units in for repair. That said, I've seen some Humminbird images that were very impressive. And their new Target Lock forward facing sonar is very interesting. Lowrance has never impressed me at all, but they have a huge following. You probably can't go wrong with any of them.
3 years ago I would have agreed about the mapping. Now C-Map is just as good as LakeMaster, and arguably better.
The only advantage LakeMaster has is the water level offset. I can do without that.
got to have the offset up here on this end of the state where the lakes get dropped by 20 feet or more in the winter.
RobDooley
Well-Known Member
Humminbird
lol even though i didnt say that, i see no problem. as long as you check depth with sonar and adjust.
fyi, on this end of the state c-map ran their surveys at winter pool in november. i forgot to ask the tech if they adjust that on the final tennessee map for summer pool or if they kept it at winter pool.
