Newbie looking for info about fish finders

I am taking delivery of this beauty next week. I am really excited to graduate from pond fishing to lake fishing. I have never used a fish finder in my life, so I might be in a little over my head.

The boat comes with a Hummingbird 197 cDI installed on the dash. I also intend to buy a Humminbird Helix 5 SI GPS so I can have one unit on the bow, and one on the dash.

Two questions, 1, would I have to have two different transducers installed for both units, or would I be able to just leverage the one from the Helix?
2, Would it be best to mount the Helix on the dash, and the 197 on the bow, or visa versa?

Helix on the dash. You'll want the GPS driving the lake and although you can use the SI on the trolling motor it'll be more useful at the console looking for an area to fish. Looks like your trolling motor has the universal transducer. You can get the connector and use it if you only want 2D or mount the transducer on the trolling motor. Check out youtube to see how to mount it and how to operate the FF. You'll still need to buy a map card for the Helix to get the most out of the mapping.

Nice looking boat!

There are a couple options out there for mapping, but I would recommend doing a little research and seeing what offers the best for the areas you Navigate. You can check out all available mapping from Navionics for free on the Navionics Webapp.

http://webapp.navionics.com/#@6&key=omvvDnjx%7DP

I would recommend the Navionics Nav+ card for the units you have installed on the boat.
http://www.navionics.com/en/navionics-plus-2

If you have any questions feel free to ask away.

For mapping with any of the GPS versions of the Helix 5, get the Navionics+ so you can delete all the data on the card and only load the locations you need map data for. The Navionics+ cards are customizable.

The Helix 5's have slow processors and a lot of data bogs the unit down.

Like the 197, the Helix 5 and Helix 7 series cannot share any data, sensors, or accessories. They are standalone-only units.

If you want to use the US2 transducer in the trolling motor, the Helix 5 Sonar GPS is the unit for that.
That transducer cannot do Down Imaging or Side Imaging.

I've actually changed my mind about the Helix 5. About $800 is my max budget for the fish finder. I am leaning towards a Humminbird 409150-1 899ci SI HD for it now. The boat has a MinnKota ipilot trolling motor already installed. The 899ci SI seems like the only one that I can afford that is going to be compatible with the ipilot.

Good choice, better jump on it while still available. Those are discontinued models. The Helix 9 SI GPS replaced it.

I have a HB999, like new, used for 1 year for that price. Where are you located. Went to a garmin system.

Hopefully you aren't paying $800 for the 899. Look online you can get them for around $699. Good units. I have one paired with an 898. The 899 comes with the compact transducer. If you send the transducer in unopened, they'll swap it out for the HD transducer for around $80. Amazon has 91 new listed for $698 with free shipping.

SI?

Yeah, I am looking at the one on Amazon, and was planning on sending it back for the good transducer

Yep

http://www.humminbird.com/Products/999ci-HD-SI-Combo/

PM Sent

Got the 999 SI from Cactusflyer and am good on placement. Thanks Cactusflyer and TFF!

That looks like a Galaxie 2100 and if so I had a 2006 Galaxie 2100 I bought new in 06 and that is what I had on it was a 998 at the console. They are really good boats and well made shame they don't make them any longer. Sold mine in 2012.

Awesome! Great to know that they are good boats, I was not able to find much info on them on the internet. This one is a 2004, but, has a 2012 5.0L Mercruiser in it, only has 66 hours on it. Hoping I dont have to "bust out another thousand" till next year.

Had mine for 6 yrs and never had a problem. What I liked it was easy to load being such a large and heavy boat. Very well made trailers. Mine had only one fishing chair at front and one at the back. Must have changed them up little bit in 06. Good luck with it