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Ok I have a huge question and need some serious experienced fishermens advice.
I am looking fo a fish finder sonar plotter down scan. I am stuck between lowrance 7 chirp and hummingbird 859c ds. I was at cabellas today looking at both and the down scan on the bird was way way better then the lowrance. I was shocked because the lowrance was the new chirp and the bird was not chirp.
This will be my first and prolly last finder I buy so I need serious feed back with which one to go with and why. Pleas tell me why go with one vs the other.
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Ford/Chevy. Barbed/barbless.
One thing though, how can you tell the Down Scan was better on one when you didn't even have it on the water? You can't! It may be, it may not be. You can't tell in demo mode though.
I'm from the Lowrance camp. However, I had a HDS with Down Scan, and re-sold the Down Scan transducer/box because I found such a narrow cone useless. There was nothing Down Scan showed me that I couldn't see with 2-D, and usually better with 2-D. I don't have a chirp unit, but I've seen one, and gotten feedback from some who do have it, and they say there is little noticable difference between chirp and single-frequency @ 83 and 200 khz.
I spend approximately 800 hours a year staring directly into my sonar.
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I'm in the same boat so to speek, looking for a finder I mean.
I can't find the exact Hummingbird model. Is it a typo? 859c ds?
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Yes that's it
I just want to know who has the best down scan, and best sonar?
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Tarponjim what fish finder do you use?
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I've used Lowrance since the 70's, nothing else, so can't tell you anything about the others. Currently have an HDS-8, and LCX 25's.
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What type of applications are you using it for ?
Trolling ?
Vertical Jigging ?
Bass fishing ?
Trout fishing ?
Lowrance for me HDS 5 on the console and HDS 7 at the bow ( Bassboat)
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I troll for trout at the berry in the fall and bass fish most of the other time. Pineview is closest to my house so that's mainly were I go. If not I go to a pond for largies.
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Do you think the hds is better then elite or chirp? I want to get the best one with the most features at the 600 ish range.
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I view them all pretty equal what really matters is that you spend the time learning to understand what your electronics is showing you, brand is not that important they all make very good units.
Buy the unit that has all the features you want and then spend the time to dial it in (youtube can be very helpful )
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If you want the good chirp it will cost you alot
check this out.
thehulltruth.com
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Lowrance is now owned by Garmin. All the service advantages that you had with Lowrance are now gone. Garmin is putting a great deal of innovation into their units. I have been using Lowrance for 40yrs, just bought a new HD8 Gen 2 . Know lots of guys that use Birds and love em. My sense is that find a unit that has what you want, in the price range you want and go with it. Check Cabela's Spring Sale flyer. They have the unit I just bought for an incredible price. Remember that the changes in the technology is so fast, what is the cat's meow today will be replaced by something mo'better in a few months. You won't be able to keep up unless you have very deep pockets and can replace your unit yearly !! Down Scan, structure scan, 360 scan, etc, etc. All of these have come out in the last 2-3 years along with increases in speed, clarity, and ease of operation. I doubt that there is much difference in overall performance between any make !!!
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One feature I want that favors Humming Bird is system integration with I-Pilot to be able to cast or jig to the fish in coordination with seeing fish and structure on the fish finder while the trolling motor control is mostly done for me without it feeling like juggling, so my focus can be mostly on fishing and maybe, one day, a single young lady fishing partner.
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Hummingbirds Side Imaging sure looks like a sexy whistle. Is anyone using one?
The Helix 5 si gps looks affordable at around 5 bills or upgrade to the 998 HD SI combo with 7" display for around a grand.
Wonder how that Helix 5 would perform at Willard?
What to do?
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Humminbird, best money I ever spent. Don't know anything about lowerance.
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Reelfast has a Hummingbird with Side Imaging, I've fished with him for several years using it at Willard and all I can say is, you just would not believe what is under the water there, that lots of folks call a bathtub. I believe he has the 998 HD SI combo with 7" display. On one of our first looks at what was under the water there, we were looking at what we thought was an underwater hump, turned out to be a road and you could see it so clearly that you could even see the claw marks from where the backhoe removed material to form the dike in the 60ies when the lake was formed[crazy]. If you can afford to get it, you will be amazed. I think the 5" display will work almost as good, except you get the smaller screen. The newer models they are selling today are even better than the one Reelfast has.
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I have a humminbird 998 DI SI and the Onix and they work good for me . this is from the 998. Flaming gorge lake trout
the right is 200 k with sensitivity turned up left is 83 K you can see a line come down.
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Wow, that is a stack of fish but I can't say I have ever seen a stack like that when you have a single fish being displayed with fish ID depth. If all those arches are fish why isn't the fish ID calling them out, is this something Onix does? Did you use the down scan/side scan as well? If so did you get a pic of that? So is the line going down, your jig?
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Rather than a line coming down, more likely a lure being Dropped down. Beautiful display with lots of fish, looks like fun stuff is about to happen.
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humminbire uses a 200/83
kHz DualBeam PLUS sonar system with a wide
(60°) area of coverage. DualBeam PLUS sonar has
a narrowly focused 20° center beam, surrounded by
a second beam of 60°, expanding your coverage to
an area equal to your depth. In 20 feet of water, the
wider beam covers an area 20 feet wide.
The 200 kHz frequency has a narrow cone angle, and provides high-precision information about water depth and objects that are in the narrow sonar cone. The 83 kHz frequency provides much wider coverage than the 200 kHz beam,
so the fish you are seeing are over a 100ft in the cone angle and may not be stacked.
The left side shows more fish because of the 83 khz wider angle cone.
this was last oct when the lakers were moving in.
I would not buy a fish finder that did not have DualBeam.
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