Let's talk Fish Finders

Last year I went from the Eagle one that came on my Tracker to a Humminbird 596 CHDI. I was tempted by the color and the down imaging. Now I know the DI is something I almost never use and I would happily trade it for some chartplotting abilities. I'm starting to think about getting off my home water (Skinner) and visit Silverwood and DVL so it would be nice to have some built in maps so I can troll with some confidence that I won't run aground on some hidden high spots. Marking waypoints for hotspots I find would be great too.

Soooo for under a grand what make (HB, Lowrance, Garmin) ond model would you choose and why? Thanks guys!

You need to look at the new Lowrance Elite 7 it's the most bang for your buck.

How about a good ff for rental boats ... will it work on a Pontoon?

Yes, any portable FF will work on any boat or even a dock as long as the transducer is in the water. There are some decent ones.

I just picked up a Lowrance HDS 7 Gen 2. It's amazing what it can do. I got the HD structure side scan also. Check out the specs. Maybe I'll see you at Skinner in April.

The HDS7 goes from $699 all the way to a couple grand. Lots of options. In the sports car world they say "Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?" I neeed to do a bunch of research as to which mapping software I should use. There seem to be at least three to choose from.

I chose the HDS7 because of the side scan feature and the GPS. The Hummingbird that I have from the early 90's had the side scan feature which worked great. But no GPS. Your right you could go crazy on the optitions on this unit. I'll be trying it out in April at Skinner to see how good it really is. When I was replacing the outboard motor my friend said how fast do you need to go. I said 10 MPH (Skinner).