RayMarine v Hummingbird v Lowrance v Garmin

[Seaark1660]

With the Lowrance,I would give the nod towards the Elite Ti series.Layout seems similar to the Gen 2 units.


Friend I fish with has the Raymarine Axiom 9(touch),so far seems like a solid unit.The Elements would be similar.but without touch.


Garmin always made a decent user-friendly unit,the one you list is a good choice.


Humminbird Helix probably has the best DI/SI image quality,but seems more involved to set-up.Not even sure on if you can custom name waypoints on unit?

[srj]

I was very satisfied for many years with Lowrance. However, I switched to Bird because of Lakemaster mapping for the areas I fish is much superior to any other I'm aware of. The Birds have excellent side/down imaging (mega units) and excellent 2D by adding an additional transducer dedicated to conventional 2D. The birds are quite heavy if that is a consideration. The Bird units show everything under the boat very well.

I have a Garmin 93SV on a smaller boat. It has excellent 2D and shows fish very well. It comes with side/down imaging and that is ok but not great. Mapping on the 93 is pretty good too. The SV cannot be networked like the 93Plus. IF you can find one they are very inexpensive and a great fishfinder for the price. It is also very light.

All the newer units seem to be very good.

[B-man]

Garmin has new units out with improved imaging and mapping.

They feature new Ultra High Definition imaging and greatly improved mapping since they bought Navionics.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/69...n/010-02342-01

[sreding]

humminbird Mega SI will change how you fish/search for fish/structure. It's amazing seeing what is down there. Autochart live is also another plus (I think some of the other units mentioned may have something similar?).

[B-man]

Yes Garmin has the same thing, but the nice thing it's writes to a blank SD card, not a special $100 zero lines card like Bird's.

[Anonymouse]

LMAO, shoulda known asking this crowd was gunna get me a lot of opinions and only make the decision even harder.
So far each model has a couple of vouchers, so that's absolutely not helping.
(Thanks Seaark1669, for recommending all 4. )
Appreciated ltrain's image in his post but a 12" head unit is probably not in the cards for Anonymouse's intended mounting position on the top of the dash.
It's just too much real estate and probably wouldn't even fit, given the contours of this 1999 Starcraft 2212's console.
That's the reason why Anonymouse is looking at 9" head units & they'll be a tight fit even.
Might not even be able to go 9" and have to settle for a 7" head unit - but that's not going to figure into the actual electronic package inside and how it functions, as 7" & 9" are still the same circuitry hung on different screen sizes.
Also, there'll only be one transom-mounted transducer involved.
Anonymouse isn't THAT hardcore that he needs multiple transducers all over the hull bottom.
Fishing is SUPPOSED to be relaxing, not a 12 hour workout.
(Never understood bass freaks who stand up and cast their arms off all day.)
Anonymouse is more of a Walleye "Hunter", who prefers to park his butt on a known hot-spot and wait for the victims to find HIM !!


Let's try this another way.
Where Anonymouse fishes it can be dikafawt to determine if the fish holding at 35'-45' in 65'-80' are Walleyes, big cisco, carp, or 28"-30" pike/musky.
Heavy algae in the summer tends to make seeing fish in shalllow water (9'-22') much more dikafawt as well and it's almost incumbant to have to use the "fish" icon symbology to figure out what is fish and what is just distortion - and half the time it's doubtful even the computer knows for sure.

Some of the marketing videos show the images making it easy to "see" fin shapes, body contour, and behavior that looks almost as good as an underwater camera (which Anonymouse also has).
Are these marketing videos realistic - i.e. you can ACTUALLY see details that clearly - or just enhanced to look good in a sales pitch?

Cast a vote for the unit you believe is the best imaging for discerning species - the unit you believe Anonymouse should shovel a small fortune into to accomplish his goal of finding more Walleyes in 9'-60' of water.
(Particularly because Anonymouse doesn't want to be hauling up C&R throw-backs from more than 30' of water.)

1 • RayMarine Elements 9 HV w/HV-100 Transducer
2 • Humminbird HELIX 9 CHIRP MEGA SI Fishfinder/GPS Combo G3N (pricey)
3 • Lowrance HOOK2 9 w/ TripleShot Transducer
4 • Garmin echoMAP Plus 93sv with LakeVu g3 Charts and Transducer

Anonymouse will give it another couple of weeks and take a final talley, maybe ask more questions from those who recommended the voting-leading make, and then it'll be time to start shopping at the perfect time for buying a new unit to install for April's open water around here.

[Peckhead]

Originally Posted by srj

I was very satisfied for many years with Lowrance. However, I switched to Bird because of Lakemaster mapping for the areas I fish is much superior to any other I'm aware of. The Birds have excellent side/down imaging (mega units) and excellent 2D by adding an additional transducer dedicated to conventional 2D. The birds are quite heavy if that is a consideration. The Bird units show everything under the boat very well.

I have a Garmin 93SV on a smaller boat. It has excellent 2D and shows fish very well. It comes with side/down imaging and that is ok but not great. Mapping on the 93 is pretty good too. The SV cannot be networked like the 93Plus. IF you can find one they are very inexpensive and a great fishfinder for the price. It is also very light.

All the newer units seem to be very good.

I was the same. Then I decided to get a Minn Kota Ulterra for our bigger boat for the auto deploy feature. Then I decided that follow the contour would be really cool on Ft Peck as the contours are really sharp and manual steering was a pain. The Humminbird Helix 10 and 8 fit the bill perfectly especially with mega SI and DI. The other thing was Lakemaster, as Navionics still does not cover most of Fort Peck while Lakemaster does cover it all. Nearly cost as much the boat! But as I am retired and getting lazier all the nice little gadgets are worth it to me.

I still run a Lowrance with the Yamaha cable for gages. I like the touch screen but the Humminbird features won me over. The only issue I have with them is all of the nickle and diming based on tiny differences within various models (such as NEMA and ethernet).

[Anonymouse]

FYI update, Anonymouse settled on the Lowrance Elite-9 Ti2.
Thank you for all the advice.
End note, it took 3 more months to find a $150 deal on the unit & another 3 (CoVid-19) months to get in to get it mounted on the cuddy.
5 shop hours and nearly $700 later Anonymouse has a working Elite-9.
Cuddys are always a PitA to fish wire for a locator and Anonymouse is getting too old and lazy to do it hisself anymore.

Overall it's a good unit, though not worth the sick $850+ they charge for new locators these days.
At first it blew the mind how detailed the downscan was - until Anonymouse realized the same image loop kept repeating itself.
Once out of "Retail Mode" it ACTUALLY began working. LMAO

Trust that all those ads for fish locators are NOT real shots of the screen in action - they are greatly digitally manipulated for sales purposes.
The Elite-9 is a better graph than the older Lowrance units we used a decade ago but not THAT much more improved beyond more screen area and color vs B&W/Greyscale back in the day.
Overall it is a satisfactory unit and probably will be even more so as Annymouse better understands it's capabilities.
Fer sher sidescan is a DEFINITE must-have.
INCREDIBLY useful for mapping the sides of those contour lines on paper maps & Navcharts - you can ACTUALLY see the boulders and such and fish shadows behind them.

[Husker525]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

FYI update, Anonymouse settled on the Lowrance Elite-9 Ti2.
Thank you for all the advice.
End note, it took 3 more months to find a $150 deal on the unit & another 3 (CoVid-19) months to get in to get it mounted on the cuddy.
5 shop hours and nearly $700 later Anonymouse has a working Elite-9.
Cuddys are always a PitA to fish wire for a locator and Anonymouse is getting too old and lazy to do it hisself anymore.

Overall it's a good unit, though not worth the sick $850+ they charge for new locators these days.
At first it blew the mind how detailed the downscan was - until Anonymouse realized the same image loop kept repeating itself.
Once out of "Retail Mode" it ACTUALLY began working. LMAO

Trust that all those ads for fish locators are NOT real shots of the screen in action - they are greatly digitally manipulated for sales purposes.
The Elite-9 is a better graph than the older Lowrance units we used a decade ago but not THAT much more improved beyond more screen area and color vs B&W/Greyscale back in the day.
Overall it is a satisfactory unit and probably will be even more so as Annymouse better understands it's capabilities.
Fer sher sidescan is a DEFINITE must-have.
INCREDIBLY useful for mapping the sides of those contour lines on paper maps & Navcharts - you can ACTUALLY see the boulders and such and fish shadows behind them.

And you should explore the Fish Reveal option. You will now be able to see fish and not have to turn on the Fish ID. For Walleye, I find myself using Downscan and Fish Reveal more often than not. You will see fish buried in the bottom that do not show up all the time on regular sonar.

[Anonymouse]

Originally Posted by Husker525

And you should explore the Fish Reveal option. You will now be able to see fish and not have to turn on the Fish ID. For Walleye, I find myself using Downscan and Fish Reveal more often than not. You will see fish buried in the bottom that do not show up all the time on regular sonar.

3 days on the road and I'mma coming home tonight.
Yeppers Husker, already all over that on 3 outings & yer absofarkinlutely right.

Amazing what a little science can do, ain't it?

Still like the fish ID thingy when I'm just lazy-ing around and the bite ain't happening.
Kinda like watching a video game. LOL