im looking for a new fish finder. pretty much have it narrowed down between a Lowrance Elite-7 Ti Touch Combo w/TotalScan Transom Mount Transducer and Navionics+ Chart and Humminbird Helix 9 SI GPS KVD. i have a lowrance elite 4x on my trolling motor and have never had a high end fish finder. i want the full spectrum of si, di, 2d and quality maps for the gps. the lowrance has the navionics maps but the humminbird has a larger screen. i might be pressed to find room on my boat for a 9 inch screen (its a fish ski) but could make it work. is there any advice out there? any other suggestions in a similar price range?

Watching this closely. I�m in the same position you�re in. I�ve narrowed my search down to the Hummingbird Mega 10� with side scan for the console and the Bird 10� Mega downscan for the bow or the Lowrance Elite 9� with Totalscan for the console and the same in downscan for the bow. I�m leaning towards the Bird units but I like the touchscreen of the Lowrance units. To get the touchscreen on the Birds I�d have to jump to the Solix models which take it above my already stretched budget. To get the screen size the Birds offer I�d have to jump to 12� Lowrance units which are just too big for my boat.

Humminbird offers the Solix Mega SI in a 10" display now.

Humminbird SOLIX� 10 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS Combo
410490-1

It's a Ford vs Chevy comparison between brands. Generally speaking, for a SI unit, the bigger the screen the better. You are going to be running the SI probably between 75-90' out either side of the boat. That's a lot of data to intemperate on the fly so naturally, the 9" screen will stretch it out further than a 7" screen. You should also check on the Helix 10 and see if you could find one of them in your budget. The first generation units are pretty cheap now. Not only does it give you a slightly larger screen but you also get the benefit of more pixels so a better quality picture than the 9. You'll still need a navigation card for the humminbird but you will have the choice between lakemaster and navionics on that unit.

I went from a two 7" screens to a 10 and 12" and would never go back again.

Thanks for the advice. My biggest problem is there are so many features i can't sift through to determine the differences (beyond the obvious) and even if i could i don't know which ones i would want outside of the side and down imaging. These things have come a long way in 10 years.

Most all imaging units do not come with High speed thru hull transducers. Skimmer type transducers on the transom or jack plate normally will not read depth on plane. The ones that will read are subject to being knocked off. Just something to consider.

These screen shots are of the same brush pile.

A Side Imaging unit would have regular sonar, Side Imaging and Down Imaging like this:



A Down Imaging unit would have regular sonar and Down Imaging like this:



Either version would come with a transom transducer that does all of the sonar features the unit has.

Wayne is the humminbird expert on here. Anything that you want to know about them, take his advise on.

Wayne, I noticed you have fish id on and marking a fish. How accurate is that?

PM sent with explanation and examples.

Another thing to consider. Example, I have an aluminum boat and I loose depth reading at hi-speed. I can not utilize an in-hull transducer on the aluminum boat so I simply watch my charts as I run across the lake. I utilize LakeMaster Charts exclusive to Humminbird and the only charts that allow anglers to make adjustments to the maps such as low water level feature. If your lake is lets say 5' low you would put that data into the chart command and your chart/map will aromatically adjust for the low water level. I can run across a lake with confidence knowing my depth by reading my charts. Even if I had the ability to see my depth reading I would still have my chart pulled up as I am running. I find it to be much safer....

Wayne P. Can you pm examples and info on fish ID to me also? Thank you

You can utilize a shoot-thru 2D transducer in an aluminum hull----Alumaducer.