Advice on a new sounder

[Squid Inc]

Hi Raiders,

I'm  in the market for a new boat and I am having trouble on deciding which sounder I should get for it.

I currently have a humminbird 798csi which is about 4 years old and is starting to show its age.

Thinking of getting a Lowrance but would love some opinions and suggestions, especially from people who are happy with the units they are running.

Thanks.

[Squid Inc]

Due to the current boat, mostly estuary and a little off shore.

With the new boat I will be looking to do a lot more off shore bottom bashing and trips out to the fads.

[Croydon]

Hi mate,

All depends on your budget and intended use...................

Dave

[Squid Inc]

32 minutes ago, Croydon said:

Hi mate,

All depends on your budget and intended use...................

Dave

Hi Dave

Budget to about 2k

 

 

 

 

[PaddyT]

I reckon budget on about 10% of the boat purchase price-$40K boat, $4k on electronics-I run 2 HDS screens on my 5.4 M center console. For close inshore work H'bird is fine but for offshore i dont know anyone using their gear . I can easily pick up bottom over the shelf with a 600W 50/200 trannie. Spend as much as you can - you wont regret it

[JonD]

I run a Lowrance hds 12 gen 3. My reason for buying this over Simrad was that it had slightly more reselution, the more res or dots per sq in the more detail. Also after talking with several navico employees I was told the difference between their high end sounder plotters is marginal in both reliability and quality.

if you ever intend fishing the bottom say for blue eye etc then the more res in the down part of the screen will help for deep water. If it's going to be used mainly in rivers or shallow water with sidescan then a wide screen is fantastic ( the hds 12 has the best of both).

Even though these modern units have more features they are so much easier than the last few generations to use. With wifi mine simply keeps itself up to date with any firmware updates without having to do a thing, it even has Bluetooth so can be operated from phones or iPads etc. I can simply sit in my lounge chair and go through all my settings to set the unit up on my boat in the garage, this also means I can use an iPad as another monitor in a different position of the boat.

My mate has a hummingbird unit which he still struggles with its menu's, infact the last time we were out neither of us could get it out of demo mode untill we got back within phone range to search how to do it ( just try the demo mode to see for yourself).

As for transducers I've actually found on my last couple of boats that the standard 200/50hkz out performed airmars tm260 which ended up going on eBay.

Jon

this is from Montague island.

sidescan can be overlaid onto maps too.

Edited March 17, 2017 by JonD

[bluefin]

Lowrance Carbon.

 

[Squid Inc]

On Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 10:12 AM, JonD said:

I run a Lowrance hds 12 gen 3. My reason for buying this over Simrad was that it had slightly more reselution, the more res or dots per sq in the more detail. Also after talking with several navico employees I was told the difference between their high end sounder plotters is marginal in both reliability and quality.

if you ever intend fishing the bottom say for blue eye etc then the more res in the down part of the screen will help for deep water. If it's going to be used mainly in rivers or shallow water with sidescan then a wide screen is fantastic ( the hds 12 has the best of both).

Even though these modern units have more features they are so much easier than the last few generations to use. With wifi mine simply keeps itself up to date with any firmware updates without having to do a thing, it even has Bluetooth so can be operated from phones or iPads etc. I can simply sit in my lounge chair and go through all my settings to set the unit up on my boat in the garage, this also means I can use an iPad as another monitor in a different position of the boat.

My mate has a hummingbird unit which he still struggles with its menu's, infact the last time we were out neither of us could get it out of demo mode untill we got back within phone range to search how to do it ( just try the demo mode to see for yourself).

As for transducers I've actually found on my last couple of boats that the standard 200/50hkz out performed airmars tm260 which ended up going on eBay.

Jon

this is from Montague island.

sidescan can be overlaid onto maps too.

Thanks Jon

I've been leaning towards the hds 9 gen 3. The 12 looks impressive but it's a bit big for the dash, where as the 9 fits well.

Was looking at the 3d structure scan transducer but an additional  $1600 not sure if I can justify the cost?

 

[JonD]

56 minutes ago, Squid Inc said:

Thanks Jon

I've been leaning towards the hds 9 gen 3. The 12 looks impressive but it's a bit big for the dash, where as the 9 fits well.

Was looking at the 3d structure scan transducer but an additional  $1600 not sure if I can justify the cost?

 

I'm pretty certain you can get the 3D for about $1150. The 9 is also very good, I installed one in my mates boat, I do sort of have a 9 gen 3 which may soon be back in my hands.

I bought the hds 9 second hand from what I believed to be a reliable good bloke, Unfortunatly it turned out to be stolen. The police have held it for around 1 month so far and still not recieved any info back from Lowrance or the the supposed auction site it was claimed to of come from. Last time I spoke with the police they asked if I wanted it back, if I can get a release from the police document I will then be able to sell it on.