Total Electronics Overhual

Rocking some 1995 B&W 2D fish finders and wanting to get involved as a high school captain and feel like the electronic situation puts me at a huge disadvantage. However, wasn't looking to drop $5k.

Really want to jump into something with Side Scan so I've been looking at the Helix series which seem to offer Side Scan at the lowest price point and trying to research to compare to the Elite TI and HDS series.

Really just looking for two units, bow and cockpit. Want something big enough to make SideScan actually useful to identify fish and not just seeing structure.

I did see that cabelas offers an HDS 9 boat package that seems like a heck of a deal but that is on the top end of what I am wanting to spend at $2K

advice?

If you want a unit with the side looking imaging technology, get the largest display you can afford.
SIZE matters since the size of displayed subjects is based on the RANGE setting, not the depth like 2D sonar is.

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I agree with Wayne here and I do use a 10 inch side scan on my big boat.

But I have a Helix 5 SI GPS on my pond boat and I gotta tell you that that little
rascal has amazingly fine detail on side scan and a bright screen. As long as I get my face close to it I can see
pretty much everything that I can on my big unit. The pixel density on the
Helix 5 is very dense. Amazing little unit, especially for what I paid for it.
But I must add that I did do the transducer swap with Humminbird for the HD
transducer. I think that helps.

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I will be selling my 999SiHD & 899SiHD. They have 148 hrs on the 999 & 130 on the 899. They WILL both come with the HD transducers,transducer Shield Savers($90 each) included,gimble mounts,cable collectors, power cords,& hard covers. Always removed from boat for road travel,carried in cushioned box. Have the 899 at console & 999 at bow. No dings,scratches,or scars. Used very little & well cared for. Will not sell separately. These are great units without spending an arm & a leg. Lakemaster Midsouth cards included. Both have dual card slots. $1600 for both & all included. All you have to provide is the type of mounts you want. I used a Ballzout at console & a Deckit mount at bow. They will NOT be a part of the package. Let me know if youre interested.

Even if you can only afford one unit at a time, bigger is better. I have two Helix 12 SI units on my boat and it's like watching big screen TV. If you are going to be standing on the bow looking down, I think a 10" screen is going to be minimum. If you are looking at used core units, remember a 8xx is only 7" diagonally and a 9XX is 8" diagonally. After looking at them in the bright sun all day, they are going to seem even smaller.

Depends how much a man is willing to spend. OP stated he cant afford to drop $5K. Ive upgraded to Helix Mega units myself. I was just offering a complete package on TWO solid, low hr units that were meticulously cared for,including Shield Savers. Just an option/offer for him to consider for starting out for a boat captain of high school youths. Good units & accessories that WONT break the bank.

Thanks Bob Landry. Are you saying my barely used (2) core units arent what he needs for entry level affordable($1600) application $800 per unit average. I have no problem explaining what they actually ARE to a person in his poaition.. I REALLY dont appreciate you putting a negative spin on my offer to sell something that is a good price for 2 complete units plus cards &,accessories,except mounts I also have a Helix 10 Mega G2N I may offer also . Just seems like you're trying to discourage him from looking at core units because an 8xx is only 7" & 9" is only 8", &will seem even smaller after looking at it all day. I havent had any problem with it. It may not be what you meant but it seems that way to me.

I really am amazed sometimes how we all caught any fish at all 15-20 years ago. The first boat I owned had a portable green box that the lid lifted up and had a circle with numbers on it and a light that flashed. When I bought my newest boat in 2001 I had it equipped with the best at the time then. I replaced seems like only a short time ago added a X-125 up front and a LMS 522 on the side of the console. You know what I do now when running use the 522 as full screen map and still use the original X-75 graph in the dash running FOT all you really care about is direction and depth right. Doubt your really going to see a lot of side imagining detail running at 60mph. Even at idle I've been around long enough to be able to read and understand what's on a black and white screen. I will some day upgrade but that will be when technology catches up to itself. What comes out this year is obsolete next year, I'll wait a bit. The fish are still in the same type places they've always been. Still gotta figure out what menu item they are interested in.

In all honessty, you sir are 100% correct. I remember when Lowrance Paper graphs came on the scene also. We ran strips of the structure we found with flashers, glued those strips in notebooks, made notes on strips as to landmarks for triangulation so we could find that " rockpile " again. Then labeled notebook "Sam Rayburn","Amistad","Toledo Bend", Travis, Buchanan, LBJ,Georgetown, etc etc etc. nowadays its satellite GPS Waypoints. We even went so far as to get PADI open water dive certification & dropped materials in an area then took an entire weekend, lots of tanks & actually constructed habitat aa deep as 50' on some of the clearer central texas lakes. Funny, ive actually seen some of thise structures "out" of the water during droughts. Some are still there some arent. Progress in technology rolls on.