Hummingbird 360??

Would like to hear opinions from some of you that have them. Good or bad? I have read lots of good things about them but one guy told me the transducers leak the liquid inside and don’t last long.

I’ve only had mine about a month. I kept delaying buying one hoping they’d come out with an updated version. I finally went ahead and bought it and really like it a lot. You’ll see stuff around that you had no idea was there. My son and I just fished Conroe in an area with lots of rocks and you can see exactly where to cast and the exact distance. I’ve also noticed lots of brush around docks and other areas that I would not have known was there. The image isn’t near as clear as SI but it’s plenty good enough to see the target areas.

I looked at used ones for a while and came very close to buying a used one. But, if you shop around you can buy a new one for not much more and you have a warranty.

I've had mine a year, it seems to take a lot of the battery life(my opinion only) but the first time I saw a brushpile in front of me I was sold. I don't use it to try and see fish but just to make an accurate cast on the rock, grassline or wood in front of me for that I will always have 360 or at least until they come up with something better.

Hahaha! C130 Spell check.

I noticed that too haha

Thanks, I was afraid to look and see what I had screwed up. You have to watch out for that brush around dicks.

I've had one for a year and a half now. It was faulty on arrival. I sent it to Humminbird for service on a Monday and I had a new one back that Friday covered by warranty. It has worked properly ever since.

It has made a massive difference in how I fish, both shallow and off-shore. You can literally hit your brushpile or rock on every single cast and know that your lure is in productive areas at all times. I have even followed schools of fish in open water on occasion; it's not great at that but it can be done. I've absolutely loved it; may be the best tool on my boat behind the trolling motor.

Only buy new. Mine leaked and Humminbird covered it under warranty.

Awesome. Thanks for the responses. I wish I knew someone that had one.

Here is an area with brush, 2nd is an area scattered with lots of rock.

After looking at this pics glad I went With Live Scope

Live scope is nice no doubt but for $900 the 360 is pretty nice and it’s very easy to pick out brush, rocks, timber, etc. Those aren’t the best pictures but like I said it’s not as clear as SI but to me it’s a great tool to use alongside SI. We were fishing a deep dredged out dock Tuesday and noticed on the 360 that someone had placed about 10-15 tires out about 20 yards from the dock, caught several fish off the tires. We had fished this dock several times and had never noticed the tires, maybe they were new. But, we immediately noticed them on the 360. We have also seen lots of brush located around docks, just makes it easy to see some stuff I wouldn’t normally see.

Two boats fishing the Conroe Tuesday night tournament came up to fish the same rocky area and I didn’t see either catch a fish. My son caught 4 decent fish in a fairly short period by casting directly to the rocky areas. I’m not saying it’s going to make one magically catch fish but it sure makes it easier to cast exactly where the target areas are. We found the area with SI then fished it with 360.

They do 2 different things.

They do 2 different things. [/quote

Agreed

I started using the bow 360 when it first came out using a 1198c SI Combo. Other units I have used with it are ONIX 10 SI, Helix 12 CHIRP SI GPS, SOLIX 12 SI, Helix 12 CHIRP SI+ GPS G3N, and Helix 10 CHIRP DI+GPS G3N.
It was the Fortrex model adapted to a Motor Guide Tour and I have converted it to the Ultrex now.

A building foundation made of rocks with 360 and SI:





Spawning shellcrackers:



Brushpile waypoint without 360 Navigation turned on:

Wow. Nice pics

Never used live scope but do have the 360 and it was a big factor in the tournament I just won. Being able to know where the brush is at without using a marker and being able to see where the fish where on the brush was key

I fish brushpiles alot and am trying do decide on the 360 or Panoptics. ???

When I’m spot-locked down and have my 360 on, I don’t have to worry about which way the transducer is pointing. It’s always pointing the same way. I don’t believe that’s the case with livescope as the transducer is mounted differently. I could be wrong though.

I actually own and use both. I am not nearly as capable of getting the pristine 360 images that Wayne P is able to dial in despite having in person lessons with Wayne. He is truly a master. Even so, I get images that make it crystal clear where I need to cast.

With the LiveScope, seeing the fish actually move around is addictive. It feels like I’m cheating; however, at least for me, seeing them swim around hasn’t translated into more bass boated.

I think that a crappie guy would want LiveScope over 360; but for me, because I just chase the green fish, I would chose 360 over the LiveScope if I could only chose one.

Thanks

I've had 360 a few years and would not go without it. Fishing grass and brush piles much more efficiently and seeing targets that would be missed.
Friend showed me video of him puling crappie out of a brush pile on Garmin LiveScope and that looks amazing but I don't have it. At least not yet.

What's the best unit to get if your just using it for 360?

I'm sure you've heard this before, but I'd say the biggest screen you can afford. It's more important for the 360 than side-imaging for two reasons; 1) the circular, or half circular, image of the 360 doesn't fit well inside a rectangular screen so its view is naturally smaller than your side-image view. 2) you'll be standing looking down at the 360, not shoving your face inches from the screen like you can in the driver seat.

For functionality, I see little benefit in a Solix 10/12 over a Helix 10/12. However, there is, obviously, a huge difference when you go up to the Solix 15 simply for the much larger screen, but that's a massive jump in price and amp draw too.

If you just want it for 360 and 360 only, price wise a Gen 1 helix 12 sonar/gps( if you can find one) or any helix 12 would be best and least expensive route. You can plug the 360 directly to the Ethernet port.

I agree with everything said here, Helix is perfectly fine to dedicate for 360, and there is no need to get a mega unit for it. The only note I will add is that if you have a case of the OCD like myself then the more square shape of a Solix fits that circle image a little more attractively, plus marking a waypoint is step faster with the Solix.

Your OCD must be broken-----the SOLIX and Helix have the same rectangular 16:9 ratio display.

The 1100 series and ONIX have the more square display shape of 4:3 ratio.

Love mine. Had it for a year or so paired with a Helix 12 up front.

I have a helix 10 upfront and a 12 at the console. I also have the ulterra so I can deploy the tm while in the driver's seat and drive around while watching the 360 but even when I go up and am look 6-10 feet away it works great on the 10" screen. If you only want to see forward there is a setting that moves the circle down and only shows a little more than the upper half of the circle which helps a bit. I can't get mine dialed in as well as Wayne so I'm not looking specifically for fish, I am looking for submerged structure. If i see fish that's just a bonus.

I like the panoptics and it looks cool but it is going to point in a certain direction unless you do something different for mounting and then you have to manually sweep it to search. I like that the 360 is always sweeping so I just fish and glance down. If I want to key in on a brush pile, I can then set it to just sweep back and forth in that cone to get a quicker refresh rather than waiting for it to make the 360 turn but I rarely ever feel that is needed.

Front is the view you related to.
Isolate Sweep is the windshield wiper effect.

Front View



Isolate sweep is this:

Thanks for all the feed back, very helpful. HB told me today the reason they had issues with the transducer leaking was the unit needs to be run through a switch or it will have power going through it all the time and overheat. Good to know! Again thanks for all the help.