Crappies at Lake Powell

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Man, you guys are killing me!

I remember dropping $400 for Lowrance X-70a back in '93 and thinking "what the heck am I doing! We just had a baby!"

Lol... I loved that thing (the X-70a)! My fishing buddy and I would make a 3 day trip bass fishing trip to lake Oroville but in the afternoons we would tie off by the dam and jig for the land-locked Kokanee Chinook salmon.

Jigging anchovie fillets at 70' and seeing them on the Lowrance was amazing!

Edit to add pic.
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2021 was off the hook good fishing partly due to 2020 uninterrupted spawn. Wasn’t a bad thing that the lake shut down when it did. Also saved these crappie from a slow imminent death and released them into grease. We caught over a 100 crappie this day and still did not keep our limit.
 
KYKevin said:
Where have you guys found the best buy on Hummingbird helix or Solix fishfinders? And tell me if this is a good buy. I can buy a Helix 12 and the Mega live for $4000 and get a $1000 rebate, so if I buy those and the 360 I'm looking at around $4300 after rebate, and that is with the mount for the 360. That is the best I have found, but if any of you guys know of a different place that is a better buy, please don't be bashful. I want to pull the trigger soon.
Thanks
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You might look at getting a Gen 3 Helix rather than a Gen 4, I don’t think there is much difference between the two and the Gen 3 runs both Mega 360 and Mega Live. I bought a new Helix 12 last year for $1500 new from Sportsman's Warehouse because they were clearing out the Gen 3’s.
 
cojoe said:
You might look at getting a Gen 3 Helix rather than a Gen 4, I don’t think there is much difference between the two and the Gen 3 runs both Mega 360 and Mega Live. I bought a new Helix 12 last year for $1500 new from Sportsman's Warehouse because they were clearing out the Gen 3’s.
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Thanks cojoe
I will be patient and hopefully get a good buy all so. Some body got a great buy on WWs not long ago, I just missed it, day late and a dollar short 🤣
 
Im
Not 100% settled yet but I’m looking at Garmin 10 in screen with down and side transducer and adding the pan optix “scanning” black box and transducer Lv34 can get the whole setup for about $2800
Little brother loves his set up
I’ve seen some guys that like the Garmin better or have both and prefer one over the other depending on what they are doing?
So many options it’s somewhat confusing
I’ve watched hours of videos tutorials and reviews still
Investigating?
 
Mildog said:
Im
Not 100% settled yet but I’m looking at Garmin 10 in screen with down and side transducer and adding the pan optix “scanning” black box and transducer Lv34 can get the whole setup for about $2800
Little brother loves his set up
I’ve seen some guys that like the Garmin better or have both and prefer one over the other depending on what they are doing?
So many options it’s somewhat confusing
I’ve watched hours of videos tutorials and reviews still
Investigating?
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I've been looking at Garmin factory outlet is there some where cheaper that you know of? Also would like to mount blk. box in a compartment and drill hole out to transducer like I have my power plug to down riggers ? I haven't been able to find a plug so I can plug and unplug at wall maybe you can't do with that wire don't know? Thanks
 
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I think you can do that with the black box , I need to run over and see how my brother rigged his, he did it himself and says it was not too tough and he got it set up great in just a couple hours .
 
Mildog said:
Im
Not 100% settled yet but I’m looking at Garmin 10 in screen with down and side transducer and adding the pan optix “scanning” black box and transducer Lv34 can get the whole setup for about $2800
Little brother loves his set up
I’ve seen some guys that like the Garmin better or have both and prefer one over the other depending on what they are doing?
So many options it’s somewhat confusing
I’ve watched hours of videos tutorials and reviews still
Investigating?
Click to expand...

This is what I have and works with panoptics.

9” instead of 10” though… but way cheaper
 
svivian said:

This is what I have and works with panoptics.

9” instead of 10” though… but way cheaper
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That set up would be about 300 bucks cheaper once you bought the pan optic on current deals,and a great set up. I’ve had a few people tell me get the 10” screen worth the extra cost? clearer picture supposedly and might be different controls, I’d have to double check .
 
Mildog said:
That set up would be about 300 bucks cheaper once you bought the pan optic on current deals,and a great set up. I’ve had a few people tell me get the 10” screen worth the extra cost? clearer picture supposedly and might be different controls, I’d have to double check .
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I’m not sure I went with this when they had them on Black Friday for $450 about two years ago. Been a great setup for me. I don’t have panoptics though so maybe the extra screen size makes a huge difference
 
Heres the skinny as I know it... Garmin forward facing sonar is steps ahead of Humminbird and Lowrance. So for live sonar go Garmin. As far as screen size... Go as big as you can afford there is a big difference between 9, 10, and 12 inch screens... Garmin black box and LVS34 can be wired up to 24v system which some say is a much cleaner picture. But honestly if you have dedicated power you're fine running it at 12v. The thing you need to know is that the black box and better screens will drain your power down so going lithium battery for it even if you need to dedicate a small 30Ah batter strictly for it. You need to think about where you want to mount it as well. Some guys mount it to their trolling motor however if you spot lock you will not want it mounted to the trolling motor. You can do a DIY pole mount but you will need to buy a zero degree mount for it which is another 29 bucks. In my opinion the best mount on the market is this one but its not cheap. I believe I paid nearly 400 for the mount. But its bullet proof rock solid and easy to swing into the boat and stow quickly which is key if you are tournament fishing. SeeFish Transducer Mount 2.0
 
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