I am a country boy trying to decide on an affordable fish finder /GPS setup. I just get lost with all the models. The Lowrance website makes my head spin. I would like to talk to someone knowledgable to guide me in electronics purchase. I have been to BPS and the hummingbird crashed three times during a demo.lol. I was not inclined to buy that Hummingbird. Is it possible to get a decent unit for less than 1k?

Lots of good units out there for under $1k. I have been using Humminbirds for over 7 years, no problems at all. The new Helix series appears to be a good bang for the buck. I would not base my decision on what happened at BPS, who knows what the guy was doing the day before or who set them up on the display. You will get lots of advice on here! Good luck.

look at all the videos you can, youtube is full of videos on fishfinders.
and yes you can get some great units for under 1K..

Thanks to all.

I just bought a humminbird 688ci hd di kvd edition. Spent about $500 after the rebate. It came with a Navionics plus card. I like the screen size better than the Helix model. It has a bit larger viewing area. Have yet to use it on the lake. It was a hard choice between it and the Lowrance Elite-5 CHIRP Fishfinder/Chartplotter as each had some distinct features. I liked to Bird because it had the 3 favorite buttons that made it easier to find the screen view that I would use the most once set. The installation and setup on my boat was easy.
If I were to get a side scan it would probably have been the Humminbird 899ci HD SI Combo. It comes with everything for just under a grand. The comparable Lowrance models cost a bunch more and I think you still have to buy extra stuff to make them work like the Humminbird 888

I just got out of the military and decided to cash out my military retirement and put the money towards a boat and a graph. Boat came with a very cheap hummingbird 165 grey scale. It was worth the $90 but that's definitely not saying much. I can relate to the head spinning on the web sites but I ended up going very high end lowrance hds 9 gen 3 bundle and quickly found myself overwhelmed with all kinds of crazy cool but confusing stuff. I def don't recommend doing that either lol unless you wanna spend a ton of hours on YouTube and emailing lowrance. If I could do it all over Id definitely go with a elite chirp series lowrance because it'll handle all your fishing needs and at a very reasonable price. Also despite what I originally though size doesn't matter as much as I thought a 4-5" screen will still get you on em in a hurry. Hope this helps ya out in your search.

On a side note looking at all the graph pics on here it sure seems the hummingbird units seem to look a lot clearer than my lowrance but that may well be operator error.

I've always used Hummingbird with no complaints and recently traded boats that came with Lowrance units. I upgraded to a touch screen Lowrance and really like it. It's like a Ford or Chevy, they both do the same thing, it's just that some like one over the other. While you looking don't overlook the Garmin. They've also got some nice units for under $1000. I will suggest this, get the largest screen you can afford.

I went from Lowrance to Humminbird I liked it better. However both are good units.

I have a Humminbird SI DI Im very happy with, also have a Lowrance that I run my lakemaster map card on, it does not even have a transducter hooked to it anymore, and take a look at the Garmin also, all the pics Ive seen they look awesome,

Yes, you can get a nice unit for under$1000. As far as brand, that's more of a personal choice. I went with a humminbird 899 that I found on sale for 899 I think. I choose that brand because I was running the terrova trolling motor and I might want to use functions that needed that brand.

I would suggest that you buy the largest screen that you can afford. When you get into DI and SI, the larger screen really helps especially if you put up multiple screens on the unit at the same time.

It's basically the old Chevy vs ford debate

Might look at the brand that Tommy Horton uses also. Just watched his show and he gave a electronics lesson and seem his brand was easy to use. Just can't remember the brand name.

I bought the 899 hummingbird as well. I've only been out once with it and it will take awhile for me to learn what im doing.

Guys , after you buy it , call Slade, and set up a appointment to let him set it up and explain all the ins and outs , its well worth the money.

+1
I called him and did the half day trip on my boat. He taught me everything that I needed to know about how to use the units. Now it's just water time to get better. Everyone I go out I see improvement on my reading the units. I want seeing that before Slade.