So, I'm a pretty smart guy in some arenas, but every single time I start trying to dwindle down to buying some electronics for my boat, I just quit because I'm basically clueless. There was a time I was pretty heavy into fishing, but I quit bass fishing years before electronics got so damn complicated and expensive. However, I want to put some decent graphs on my little cheapo boat and start learning. Do you guys know of a good tutorial of some kind (or could you write one!) that will give me an executive summary of what each capability does? WTH is downscan? Sidescan? Sonar? How do they differ and which ones are the MOST important for finding fish on structure? I'm not super serious here (IE I ain't spending thousands of dollars...that chit is out!), just a recreational fisherman that wants to do a little bass and crappie fishing and have some decent electronics to play with. I know I do want GPS functionality that is all I know for sure. What would your recommendations be (one unit for the bow and one unit for the console) if you had $1000 to spend? What about $1500? I am not scared to buy gently used if that is best approach either. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

I'd buy the biggest Humminbird Helix Chirp that is in my budget and then learn to use it. Side imaging is a must if you have the cabbage. You Tube has plenty of video to teach you.

plus sometimes bps has seminars on electronics.

We bought a raymarine pro 7 with navionics for our offshore boat. It has down imaging as well as chirp sonar. I think it was around $450 and it has been one outstanding little unit for the money and as clear as the more expwnsive models and one of the easiest to use gps map function ive ever used. I really like it and its high..but it aint super bad. I like hummingbird as well cause thats all ive ever had along with a couple lowrance models that were ok. There are alot of companoes out there makin electronics and ive ran raymarine, lowrance,furuno, and humming bird abd i have to say i really like the raymarine stuff ive played with.

1 unit is nice for finding stuff but without a 2nd unit networked together it’s tough to fish what you’ve found. Sharing waypoints is a must. SI is good for finding cover but not much else, I rarely use it on lakes I frequent. For structure fishing a good map and sonar is all you need.

I sure like my Garmin 73SV. Only thing it does not have that my Navionics chip in my Lowrance does is roadbeds. In fact, on my home lake Neely Henry, it has better contour detail than the navionics, IMO. It has a lot of buttons, but they go in a stair step fashion downward to the end result. Just my $0.02.

But hey, I am just an old white man...……………………….

I like my Helix units. I have down scan/sonar/GPS at console. Sonar only on front. About docided you can see as much with sonar as down scan. I was on a budget and bought Helix 5s. I’d get the 7s if I could afford it.

Just purchased a Helix 7 today. Now I also gonna need som advice on how to get the knowledge to run it. So I'm keeping my eyes on this post for any advice.

Chad

^^^ Side imaging is good for locating structure but down scan is much easier to identify bass on imo.

Hummingbird no doubt about it and it's not even close.

I would not get a unit smaller than a 9" save up for a yr or two if needed but the bigger the better.

I have learned and seen more with my helix 10's in a year than I did the past 4 years with lowrance hds 12's.

Watch Facebook, craigslist, and bassboatcentral. I bought 2 Helix 10s four a boat I was selling a few months ago for $1,300. That was both units, map card, and three transducers.

I’m running 2 Helix 10’s at console and a Helix 12 at bow. I like it as good as any set up I have had. I agree with Ben that I would not go smaller than 9 even if I had to save a while

I have a Helix 9 MEGA SI. at the console. I'm looking to get one for the bow now, and do not want to go smaller, I really want bigger unit for the bow. As mentioned above, I'd get something that can be networked, which if you're talking 'birds, that will be at least a Helix 7 G2N. SI is generally used at the console to locate structure, but I have also seen folks using them on the bow to shoot up under docks and such. You just have to know which way the trolling motor is pointed in order to know which way the transducer is looking.

Great info! Keep it coming fellas!!!

Is there a source online that beats everybody’s prices? A Bud’s guns for electronics, so to speak?

Not that I have found. Usually, you can expect to find stuff about $50.00 below MSRP. I will say though, one Sunday, I got REAL lucky. I had always searched for "Humminbird Helix 9 MEGA" and always came up with the same results ranging from $1,249.00 - $1,299.00. That day, I entered the exact model number I was looking for in the Amazon search bar and got 1 hit from a place called "Poorfish.com". I got the Helix 9 SI MEGA and RAM mount for $920.00 shipped!

After buying it, I got to thinking there had to be something I missed. Maybe it was a refurb or it didn't have a transducer or something. I went back to the same link to see if it was still available about 2 hours later and it was a dead link. Anyway I figured since I bought it through Amazon I knew I could just return it if it wasn't what I thought was. When it arrived, it was NIB w/transducer.


I don't know if it was a screw up or a flash sale, but I had been saving for one of those for a while, and the Lord smiled on me that day!

I have a Helix 7 SI/DI/GPS up front and a Helix 10 MEGA SI/DI/GPS at the console. The MEGA is amazing for what it will show. Still learning to use both. I don't bass fish so structure that holds crappie is what I look for.

Brian at BBG Marine electronics. Hard to beat his prices

I have a Raymarine pro 7 in my duck boat. It’s super easy to use and has great images.

I've got a 9 SI on my console and a 10 DI on my bow, but if I was buing a new one, I'd have to get a Garmin Panoptix Livescope for the bow. They've surpassed H'bird with that one. Jug you could buy the Garmin unit then buy the Livescope ducer later down the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUhAY29Z-qw