I Have A New Yak But I Need Sum Help Deciding On My Electronics To Purchase. What Is A Good Fishfinder/GPS For A Kayak Out There in the market?

I have a Humminbird 597ci HD DI. But if you get GPS you will probably want to purchase maps as well. Not a trivial item.
Some of the cheaper units have GPS but do not have map capability.

I have seen people put just about every make and model on a kayak ...

you might get better info, if you tell us

-your budget
-do you have any experience with fish finders
-do you know for certain if you want Side Imaging or not, because side imaging bumps the price up.
-type of kayak and how much space you want it to take up.
-type of fishing .. black bass, crappie, whites etc ..
-what lakes / areas do you plan to fish ...
-what depth of water do you think you will be in... the shallower the water under the sonar unit, the smaller area it is reading for the 2D sonar and Downscan sonar.


The Lowrance 4,5 and 7 series have pretty decent built-in maps vs Humminbird when I looked last year. Bass Pro and Cabellas have running demo units, I highly recommend you go look at them and check out the built-in maps for your lakes.

I ended up last year buying a HB 998si for my tin boat because I got a great closeout price... before that I was very close to buying the Lowrance Elite 7 .. not sure If would want a large 9" unit on a small kayak.


The 500 and 700 series Humminbird units are very good units as well. ALSO I think Huminbird is still the only unit that combines all three sonar types into 1 transducer. Lowrance needs space to mount 2 transducers to get side imaging on the higher end HDS units.


Sometimes it will be a personal issue .. I didn't need Side Imaging, but I really like my 9" screen and the higher end HB units have programmable preset buttons, kind of like your car radio. So I can quickly change from my GPS/2D screen vs Down Image screen vs Full Side Image screen, by clicking one of the presets.

I can tell you, if you have never used Sonar, it can take some time to learn, especially the side image ... following the whites/hybrid forums alot of guys do just fine without side image.

For Crappie, the downscan really helps show distinction between brush piles and fish.

Shallow water hunting the Side Image reaches out nicely, also for scanning bridge pilings.

-good luck.

Well I have like a $200 budget and carppie and Catfishing is what I like doin so I guess maybe one that has side scan image will do fine.

I'd be very surprised if you can find any side imaging fish finders for $200. I'd suggest you keep an eye for the lowrance elite 4. It has down imagining to help find structure and a gps on it to be able to mark the location to easily go back to.

If your budget is 200 bucks, you may want to get the GPS on the next go around.

Or if you have a smart phone just download the navionics app. It does run your phone battery down quick though.

I got a 571 hd di humming bird just learning it but have had good luck with learning it only $300

Cabela's has the Lowrance Elite-4 Depth Finder/GPS Combo for $249 at the moment, at least online. Does anyone have experience using that particular unit on a kayak? I'm thinking of getting one for my PA12.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Boating/B...%3Bcat104588280

Cabela's had a Humminbird 571 in the bargain cave yesterday.

sidescan and downscan for $450. small screen tho. i have the 598sidi

http://fishfinders.factoryoutletstore.co...B8APA&nss=1