Genetron GT-9 vs Humminbird 777c2 vs Vexilar Edge 3

[GoldenStriper]

Originally Posted by LWinches

I finally got a Genetron. It sure is a big box. Tried it out today. For the most part today was uneventful. This was my first experience with the Genetron so I’m a novice with it. That needs to be taken into account. I’ve very experienced with the Hbird and Vexilar and know how I want everything set to fit the conditions. The fish I was seeing were up off the bottom and all three units marked them well, working water from 20-40 feet deep. The 83 Khz on the Hbird works well at this depth as does the 107Khz on the Vexilar and the 120 Khz on the Genetron. The 107 Khz on the Vexilar and the 120 on the Genetron produced interference for each other. I expected that so I only used the 400 Khz on the Vexilar if they were both on at the same time.

Now getting to the point. I’ve never had a unit that would mark fish dead on the bottom. My experience is that all of them have a dead spot from the bottom up for a distance that increases with depth, incline, and cone angle. Well, I accidentally caught a 17” largemouth bass and this gave me an idea. I went over to the bank and got a flat rock. I took a plastic drink container and cut the top off, then cut it into the shape of a “U”. Using some string I strapped this to the flat rock and put the bass into the “U” and strapped him in. This was to assure that the fish was in his normal position and not laying on his side. There would not be any space between the bottom, the rock or the fish. Prior to doing this he suffered brain damage and so was immobile, but his air bladder was intact. I gently lowered this contraption to the bottom and placed a buoy marker. The water was 40 feet deep, 56 degrees.

For the next hour I made pass after pass using the different fish finders, varying the settings to determine if any of these would show this fish. I knew he was there and I new where he was. I tried Zoom, bottom lock, varied the sensitivity. I could find this fish with all three units using Zoom. The problem was, the only way that I knew it was a fish was that I put it there. Otherwise I would have just thought it was a rock on the bottom. Fish symbols, alarms, etc did not indicated it to be a fish.

I’ll repeat this later and experiment some more trying some additional settings. Vexilar has a Clean Line control that I did not use. Suggestions from any of you are welcome as to what settings would give the best chance of showing a 16-18 inch fish ON THE BOTTOM. More important than showing it is knowing what you are seeing is a fish and not just a bulge on the bottom.

L.Winchester

I was thinking about replacing my Genetron because it is so big. So I ran a fishfinder comparison between the two. The noticeable difference was that the Genetron would detect many more fish in the top of the water column 1 - 10 feet. I like the Humminbird a lot , but the Hummingbird got smoked in this one area. I am keeping the GT-9 and Humminbird. I did not do a mud test as I fish higher up.

[acar555]

You should get a different Humminbird, or see if the 777c2 can be updated, with the new software that allows you to turn TVG off. I think you will notice a difference.