Looking for a fishfinder

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Ty Gray

Ty Gray

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I currently do not have any sonar/gps on my boat, and looking to add something. At this point, my budget is max of $500. I am leaning towards Garmin 5DV or 7SV. What's the opinions about side view or side imaging? Does side view work on deep lakes like Powell? Any videos I watch are on lakes that are relatively shallow compared to Powell or the other lakes I fish around home. Thanks for all input. Happy fishing!!
 
The Japanese are still mad at us for WW2. When the fishfinder says there are fish there are none and when it says there are none you are over a school. He who laughs last laughs best.
 
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Those Garmins are not a real GPS Chartplotters, as I recall (I was looking into a new fishfinder/GPS last year) . You can mark a waypoint, but there is no "Chart" or map to speak of.

For $500 I would go with the Humminbird Helix or Lowrance Hook. I went with the Lowrance Elite Ti 7, which has the DI and SI funcitons. Honestly I do not use them much, but others who take the time to figure them out seem to really like the features.....
 
I just bought a Humminbird Helix 5 GPS/DI unit. Happy with it and easy enough to operate that my little kids can use all the functions. My budget was $350. For $500 you can go up to the next size screen.

The Garmin 7SV compares to the Hummingbird Helix 7DI/GPS and I think both are great units. I've had many Garmin GPS's and liked them.


My deciding factor was just playing around with them at the store and I just liked the Humminbird a little more than the Garmin.

I think the charts available for the Humminbird were easier to obtain than the Garmin charts (but I can't remember now the exact issue).

I did not care for the Lowrance units even though I had used Lowrance radar units in the past and was familiar with them, but I know they are good units also.



I think sometimes I should of bought a fish finder with side imaging...so maybe others can chime in and say if that feature is worth it or not..............
 
Id also suggest what Dorado said, we have a himmindbird helix 5 DI/GPS, we've still yet to really use it to find fish but love the other features, still learning it. Seems that the actual sonar for finding flashing Stripers is more important on Powell than the side imaging. But I am a complete novice on electronics, some very astute experts on finders will chime in I'm sure, this site is amazing.
 
im cheap, I upgraded the boat to used 1st gen HDS 5's at the helm and bow for under $400 with units and new transducers off ebay.
got the internal GPS of the HDS functions and all lake view charts on both.
 
Thanks for the quick responses. I would be much happier spending less than $500. I am not set on any device yet and side view/down view I am curious about. Watching videos about side view, I am not sure if I would use it or if it would work very well at Powell. I just don't want to buy something w/o DV or SV and wish I had it later. (The flasher is pretty cool looking too:)
 
In my opinion any major brand is fine and going to be comparable. One feature that only humminbird has is the lake offset function where you can adjust the map to the current lake level. I wish my lowrance had this. It's not a huge deal but a nice to have with the maps and the constant fluctuations at powell
 
TYme2Fish said:
In my opinion any major brand is fine and going to be comparable. One feature that only humminbird has is the lake offset function where you can adjust the map to the current lake level. I wish my lowrance had this. It's not a huge deal but a nice to have with the maps and the constant fluctuations at powell
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Actually, at Lake Powell, the lake level offset IS the most important feature. That alone has saved my bacon more times that I can count. I am completely amazed how accurate the Lakemaster chip is finding whales, or showing where they are.
I was surprised how lucky I was navigating the lake, for 30 years without it. Sq
 
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Squirrel said:
Actually, at Lake Powell, the lake level offset IS the most important feature. That alone has saved my bacon more times that I can count. I am completely amazed how accurate the Lakemaster chip is finding whales, or showing where they are.
I was surprised how lucky I was navigating the lake without it. Sq
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I agree 100%! Being new to fishing powell, my helix 9 with lake master makes me feel safe. With the water level offset I know where to start looking for walleyes before i even leave my house. Not to mention, if you had to come back at night you know exactly where you are just by watching the screen. Best investment I've added to my fishing arsenal
 
I have to agree with the offset adjustment of the lake master chip. I used it this spring in the lower end of the lake and found it to be very accurate. I used it much more than the di or si function.
 
I'm cheap also Roscoelab. haha I bought a used Lowrance GPS Chart plotter/fishfinder off E-bay also. It's an older model with no color screen but it works awesome. Love the lowrance reliability.
 
TYme2Fish said:
In my opinion any major brand is fine and going to be comparable. One feature that only humminbird has is the lake offset function where you can adjust the map to the current lake level. I wish my lowrance had this. It's not a huge deal but a nice to have with the maps and the constant fluctuations at powell
Click to expand...
Is there a certain card you have to buy that has Powell loaded on it to use the offset function? Are there other cards for maps or other functions that I need to be considering? I will mainly be in Powell, and a couple lakes in southern Colorado.
 
Lake Master Plus Western States has most lakes in the west. The ones that i fish that aren't available on the card i use auto chart live and the unit records data as you troll or drive around and makes you your own map. Purty slick in my opinion
 
I have the Helix 5 DI/ GPS on my console and Helix 7 Sonar / GPS on bow, I think it's a really great combination.
 
I bought a Lawrence Hook 5 for my console and a Hook 7 for the bow this spring. Both work fine. The key is to setting your sonar correctly as the general setting won't work well. These units have gotten some bad publicity, but I think it's because the users did not set up the sonar properly. Both have GPS units but only the console unit has a map card which gives the topographic features of the lake. It does not compensate for lake level changes, however. Nevertheless I'm quite satisfied so far. :)

Ed Gerdemann
 
I have the Lowrance Elite 7ti. Great unit. If you spend some time with down and side imaging, I think you will really appreciate it.
 
Lakemaster Western States Plus or Navionics for Lake Powell. I thought there was already a thread for this discussion, but I could not find it.
 
Ty Gray said:
I currently do not have any sonar/gps on my boat, and looking to add something. At this point, my budget is max of $500. I am leaning towards Garmin 5DV or 7SV. What's the opinions about side view or side imaging? Does side view work on deep lakes like Powell? Any videos I watch are on lakes that are relatively shallow compared to Powell or the other lakes I fish around home. Thanks for all input. Happy fishing!!
Click to expand...

You want the Garmin EchoMap 73sv not the Striker 7sv. Like Dorado said the 7SV is not a mapping unit. I have the Echomap 73sv and love it. I got it at Cabella's for $489. Be aware that the transducer that comes with the 73sv is almost 9 inches long. So it works great off the stern but if you want to put it on a trolling motor there may be some modification required.
 
Ty Gray said:
Is there a certain card you have to buy that has Powell loaded on it to use the offset function? Are there other cards for maps or other functions that I need to be considering? I will mainly be in Powell, and a couple lakes in southern Colorado.
Click to expand...
It's not the map it's the fishfinder software that has the offset.
 
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