Alright guys, I rigging up my new (to me) Hobie PA 14 soon and wanted some opinions on which fish finder to use. My old rig had a Hummingbird 345 kayak edition and I am looking to upgrade a lot from that. My questions are : which brand, size, SI/DI?, is SI worth it in a kayak?, what would you get if you had to do it over again. Thanks for any tips and time you have!

Josh A.

Yes SI is worth the money, IMO. I also use my GPS mapping a lot.
I'm running Humminbird but Garmin and Lowrance also make very good products, it gets into the Ford vs Chevy debate.

Which SI are you running ?

This is a good thread! I'll be interested in seeing what these guys input is!! I have been looking at the Helix 5 SI/GPS looks like a good all round set up for under $500!

My , I have had a lower end Lowrance that was very basic but extremely reliable and user friendly, I currently own a Raymarine Dragonfly 5 that is fancy and HD screen. I have had issues from the start with the Raymarine and will be going back to old faithful Lowrance, but a new model.

I'm running a Humminbird 999ci HD SI Combo

Helix 7 on a PA. Look on hobie forums and there is thread how a guy installed the si ducer and how to rig it to pull it up when beaching. Good stuff.

Link to this Hobie forum please? Thanks

Most bang for buck IMO. Hummingbird!
call around. you might find a better price locally.

IMO, go as big as you can, bigger is better. Don't forget to size your batter to the power draw of your FF and how long you plan to be on the water.

So you guys all think SI is worth it and has become a must feature?

Not a must but a game changer.

It is a must for me, but I am totally spoiled. It just makes me look like a lot better fisherman than I really am.

I want the biggest screen I can afford, but if faced with the choice between a larger screen without SI and a smaller one with SI, I would definitely go with the smaller one and SI.

If you go to humminbird's forums on their website you can get a lot of insight on what folks do with it. There is a stick in the crappie section on this forum also that holds a lot of info: http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...tur#Post7550468 it is at the very top of the crappie page. there are a lot of regular graph pics also and you can get an idea of the advantage.

Best of luck, Phill Pittman

What ZoMbiE and Carver said.

If you plan on fishing tournaments, having SI can be a huge advantage--finding structure/beds/deep vegetation much faster and easier.

Others like to keep things simple: not having ram mounts and things hanging off the kayak everywhere.

I know the PA 14 has the transducer shield on the bottom and I've read reports that SI works just fine in there; but to get the best possible image from SI, the transducer should be just below the lowest part of the hull=hanging it off the kayak or the rudder. Also, if you don't get a Lowrance ducer, you might have to modify the transducer shield and/or the mounting tree.