Fish Finder

[210 FSH]

I agree and disagree. I think as we age, we don’t like to learn new things. Therefore, we tend to buy what platform we are used to working with,
I-phone, Lowrance, etc. But it does help to have friends that have different brands and sometimes we are lucky enough to see them first hand and want to venture out of our comfort zone. I used to buy Motorguide trolling motors, not because I liked them, I knew how to work on them. I switched to Minn Kota, and haven’t had to break one open yet. Fingers crossed.

For me, I’m brand new to all of these electronics ( first time boat owner) which are nothing short of amazing to me. The only experience I had with fish finders was my Dads old round fish finder that had little blips on the dial. I had to learn from scratch how to operate the electronics that I have which took some time and a fair amount of experimentation. I watched all the video’s I could find on youtube. Many of the video’s I watched were from other manufacturers, each video that I watched said that all the brands used the same technology, it is mainly just the difference in the GUI or graphic user interface. Within each brand, as far as I can tell, there are different tiers of graphic quality. When I bought my Solix, it was the top tier graphic, then a few months later the Apex came out which offered even better graphics and even larger screen size. Again, I was new to this at the time of my purchase a little over a year ago, and I wanted the best I could get with the most expandable platform as well as having the most configurable interface. It has taken me some time to learn how to use my unit, and I still don’t exploit all of the features of the unit I have. But it has been well worth the journey on how to use not only the control head, but the trolling motor and its link with the control head.

As far as deciding which brand to buy, I relied upon the dealership to set me up with the best unit I could get based on what I wanted the unit to do. The shop foreman is very knowledgeable of the different brands and had been to each companies training classes, based on his experience and preferences and my list of wants he suggested the set up that I now have on my boat and I am very satisfied.

I believe that each manufacturer has training classes that one can attend, but due to the situation last year those classes were not available. However, I will be attending those classes when they become available again. I agree with @BZeg in that people would rather use a particular brands’ new equipment as the interface will remain familiar albeit with newer features and the inevitable changes to the interface. I have / had no desire to learn another system within the same brand in the future, so I bought a unit that I would be able to use conceivably for the rest of my days. The unit I bought has the ability to interface with other devices like shallow water anchors, electric downriggers and radar units, of those devices I could see myself getting a radar unit at some point in the future to expand the navigational and hazard avoidance of my system. But for now, just having the fish finder, down / side imaging and the ability to fully interface and operate my trolling motor in addition to the hand held remote, mapping that has even greater detail with the lake master chips has left nothing for me to desire in expanded functionality.

My advice would still be the same to anyone buying new equipment, buy the best unit with the most features that you can get and work your way into learning how to use it. No one is here on a second tour…get the best no matter what brand, and enjoy it fully.