I have been fishing for years but always in someone elses boat. Last week I bought one and I am looking to put a fishfinder/GPS combo on it for walleye on Lake Michigan.

Any suggestions or comments. I would love to get one of the Side imagine one from Humminbird, but is it really worth it?

I am also looking for a larger sized screen.

Any help would be great thankyou.

[quote=Yooperman;1044706] I would love to get one of the Side imagine one from Humminbird, but is it really worth it? [quote]

I've been running a Hummingbird 1197, with QuadraBeam option (this is an add on extra) since the beginning of this season.

The things I have found are:

If you ONLY fish in water that is over 50 feet deep, the Side Imaging won't be doing a lot for you. The dark blue portion of the screen that shows you your water column (water depth) right under the boat takes up so much of the screen, that it's very hard to squeeze in much detail of the bottom off to the side when in deeper water.

Under 30 feet the side imaging is really super, and can't be beat for showing structure and fish !
Don't forget, these units were mainly targeted for Ba... B... Bas... B (I can't even type the word ) fishermen that cruise the shores in shallow water casting under brush and docks. They work super for shallow water work like that.

With the wide screen and the QuadraBeam, the unit is unreal for drifting for perch or walleyes. Here's exactly what I do (I took these screen captures to show a friend how mine works).

First I slowly search an area that I think perch are in, looking for a school.

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/20005931/323856380.jpg

Here I'm using the QB screen, and you can see some perch. A couple are even chasing some shiners right under my boat.

Going a little farther, you can see the same ones that were under the boat, but you can also see there are more fish off to the right of the boat.

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/20005931/323856241.jpg

In 68 fow, the center top screen is showing me a 68 foot diameter circle right under the boat, and the two bottom screens are showing me 34 MORE feet to the right and to the left. A normal 20* transducer would only show a circle of about 29 feet right under the boat. This is illustrated below..

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/20005931/323999474.jpg

After seeing the fish off to the right, I mark the spot on the GPS and set up with the wind to drift over the main school, and here's what I had in this area (My favorite perch place !!).

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/20005931/323856417.jpg

It works somewhat the same when trolling for walleyes, when you see the fish are more concentrated to the left or right, just start your turn in that direction. By the time your lures get there, they should be in the main part of the school.

If your sure you only fish deep water, they have another unit (1157C) that has the big screen, but no Side Imaging, which would save you some cash. I would defiantly suggest getting the QuadraBeam option (You would have to order the transducer and a transducer switch from Hummingbird).

In all I like the unit a lot, and would order the exact same unit again (even though I fish mainly 40 to 100 fow).
The last 2 times I had the unit out trolling for walleyes at night, in shallow water (under 25 feet), I limited out... whats to say???

Very nice. Thanks for taking the time to write that up. Just got a 997 si and was wondering whether it was worth getting the Quadra Transducer or not. You helped answer my question.

I'm trying to not make it sound complicated ('cause it's not), but it actually shows even more than that.
I think this also applies to the 997....
You have the 3 buttons for your "Favorite" views. I set the top button for the QuadraBeam, and then set the 2nd button for the "Split View" that even separates the signals from the 200, and the 83 Hz beams.
That way all the fish on the screen are separated into these groups(lets continue with a 68 foot depth):

1)split vision 200 Hz = the fish in a 29 foot circle near the boat are shown in orange.

2)split vision 83 Hz = the fish in a 29 to 68 foot circle near the boat are shown in blue.

3)QuadraBeam = the fish off to the left and right from 68 to 102 feet are shown even to which side they are on, and all the fish in the 68 foot circle are shown together.

All this info just by pushing one button!

I set my 3rd button for a combo of the GPS map, and regular sonar.

Another thing I like about the unit is that in ANY sunlight there is never a problem reading the screen. At night it's so bright, I have to turn it down below 1/2 it's brightness to keep my night vision.

How about this one?

Humminbird 967c 3-D - Six Beam 3D Sonar Combo (http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat21276-cat602012_TGP&id=0044062018997a&navCount=2&podId=0044062&parentId=cat602012&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=8IS&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat602012&hasJS=true)

That is a sweet unit too. So many choices, so little money............................................. .......

Any other suggestions?