Best bottom walleye sonar

[Lake Wisconsin]

For bottom fish seperation, it is hard to beat the structure scan from Lowrance. I use both, and there is simply better definition on the lowrance products.

[LWinches]

Originally Posted by DW

I am seeking recommendations regarding a sonar/ chartplotter that provides the best capability for identifying walleye on the bottom and able to best distinguish walleye from bottom irregularities.

It is not a matter of Humminbird vs Lowrance or any other brand. Let's start by assuming that you are looking to find fish on the bottom and the bottom is flat. In that case, a tight cone will do better than a wide cone. The Humminbird standard 200 kHz 20 degree cone is quite a bit tighter than the Lowrance 200 kHz 20 degree cone. They don't use the same way to measure the cones. Even so, the difficulty is in distinguishing a fish from a bottom irregularity or an isolated rock or stick. Now I have read from several in the past of the merits of different units able to show you fish on the bottom. My experience does not confirm those claims. It could be that I am not expert enough in the fine tuning. I've tried hard to fully explore every unit I've used but it doesn't mean I know what I need to. I have conducted experiments on this. Here is a link to part of that.
https://www.walleyecentral.com/forums...xilar+genetron

The short of it is I have not found the unit of any brand that will show you something on the bottom and reliably give an indication that it is a fish as opposed to something else unless you see it move. I have not tried the new CHIRP units. I do think it is possible if the software was sophisticated enough. The side imaging/structure scan and down imaging/down scan software is more sophisticated the regular 2d sonar but it is not in color. That sophistication combined with color could possible do this. I tried the Hbird 777c2 on 455 kHz, using color, connected to the side imaging transducer. Didn't work because the software was not up to the task.

So, I've said all this to end with I hope you find one. Tell me when you do.

[392erik]

Here are a few pics of some walleye on lake Oahe I took with my HB onix.

[LWinches]

One more thought. Very often we see what we can identify as a fish on the screen and say "It's laying dead on the bottom". I do it myself at times. It's hard to remember about the dead space in the cone. Keep a W9 Rapala Jigging Rap handy. It shows up well on all FF's I've used. Drop it to the bottom, slack line bottom. Now tighten up and measure how much line you retrieve before you see this lure. You just measured the dead space of your cone. Plenty of room for a nice size fish.

IMHO, the best bang for the buck out there right now that will show you the most you can hope for is the Lowrance Elite 7 or 7X. It's got 200 kHz and 83; separately or together, ping speed control. auto or manual adjustment. The downscan has 455 and 800 kHz and is top notch. Very tight cone front to back. If you are on an incline and turn perpendicular to the slope you can see very very close to the bottom.

If you absolutely must see fish that are dead on the bottom you'll probably need to go with the high end Humminbird. It takes a lot of fine tuning of the adjustments and Hbird offers you more control and adjustments to do that. You'll have to readjust as you change depths and locations to get that picture perfect view and invest some heavy time on learning how to do it just right.

When you start getting picky about what you are looking at on the screen, that means turning off auto adjustments and controlling the settings manually. I am that picky. Lowrance does a much better job than Hbird on auto settings, but when finding fish gets tough everything goes manual.

If I ready your question right, you'll be choosing between the Lowrance Elite 7/7x low cost or the best Humminbird offers-big bucks.

[TommyB]

Originally Posted by rotaxmandan

Here are some screenshots from my HDS-9 with LSS-2 A great sonar unit is a must and so is downscan! Downscan has much better target separation but I always look at my sonar to determine fish size and species. If you want the best 2d and downscan my opinion is Lowrance by far!

Winner, winner, walleye dinner

I made the switch this year from HB to LOW and found it a very easy transition with huge improvement to finding fish on the bottom.

[DW]

Thanks for all of the replies! I learned a lot.

There seems to be a consensus that Lowrance provides the best detail in 2D sonar for bottom fish. I also appreciate the comments about the added detail provided by structure scan. This tends to lead me to the conclusion to go with Lowrance. Otherwise, if all things were equal, my bias favors Humminbird because I have an ipilot and would like to preserve my option to buy ilink. Comparing the advantages of ilink vs achieving optimum bottom clarity, I see bottom walleye clarity is my first priority for my style of fishing.

[garage_logician]

Originally Posted by DW

Thanks for all of the replies! I learned a lot.

There seems to be a consensus that Lowrance provides the best detail in 2D sonar for bottom fish. I also appreciate the comments about the added detail provided by structure scan. This tends to lead me to the conclusion to go with Lowrance. Otherwise, if all things were equal, my bias favors Humminbird because I have an ipilot and would like to preserve my option to buy ilink. Comparing the advantages of ilink vs achieving optimum bottom clarity, I see bottom walleye clarity is my first priority for my style of fishing.

I have to say ILink is fantastic. I am not so critical about the 2D but based on the screen snaps posted I did not see that much of a difference. It would be more informative to see images from units mounted side by side. Based on what I saw, both will indicate fish. But only one has the ability to control your trolling motor. 😉

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[LLewellin]

Just food for thought...... I would get Doc Samsons DVD video on how to read sonars. They are very enlightening and as far as the video I believe the info would pertain to both HB and Lowrance. Very good Video!IMHO

[2sac]

Hb 1198 on the trolling motor. The fuzziness is algae

[LWinches]

While this thread appears to be another one of those Lowrance vs Humminbird debates there is much more to it than that. When looking for fish NEAR the bottom but still in the viewable zone a STANDARD Lowrance 200/83 transducer HST-WSBL will show you more fish than the STANDARD Humminbird 200/83 transducer XHS-9-20T when used on the units they were designed for. The Lowrance 20 degree cone is considerably wider than the Hbird 20 degree cone. This gives you bigger prettier arches and the mistaken impression that the Lowrance is out performing the Hbird. It's not. It is simply performing to specification. A wide cone compared to a narrow cone will give you the same results regardless of brand. On the other hand the Humminbird XHS-9-20T will have a smaller dead zone and allow you to see closer to the bottom. Now keep in mind that I fish mostly deep water 50-150' deep. At those depths I cannot say that one unit/transducer combination outperforms the other. It depends on where you are fishing, the depth and the terrain. I have this Hbird transducer hard-wired through a transducer switch to my HDS. This is so that when I want to look closer to the bottom I just flip the switch. It also gives a look closer to the bottom if there is any kind of incline. Yes the downscan/downimaging can give a closer look than that but the transducer/boat has to be positioned perpendicular to the incline or you get a really huge dead space at the bottom. If you are on flat ground, nothing beats it.

Now what I say may sound contradictory. Nobody, absolutely nobody has software that looks at and shows on the screen fish in the side lobes as good as Lowrance. Apparently they have this patented. This performance is legendary. Now we are talking shallow water and an even wider cone. A wider cone means a larger dead space at the bottom and fish on or near the bottom was how this thread started. So this great performance for suspended fish does nothing for finding fish on the bottom.

I have 5 units on my boat, both Lowrance and Hbird and I fish extensively, exclusively for walleye. For finding fish dead on the bottom, especially in water under 60' deep, I defer to Humminbird side imaging on their best units with instruction from Jason Halfen on precisely how to do it. Then, most likely I would take the newest latest Lowrance structure scan transducer and hard wire it into that Onix unit. IMHO that would be the best side imaging, best software, most fine tuning adjustments and a void warranty.