Upgrading Electronics - Educate Me

I'd like to upgrade my electronics. I'm currently running a Lowrance Gen 2 touch at the console and an elite 5 up front. The two units are not linkable which causes a lot of issues. Plus they are just old. From what I read online the newest Lowrance HDS Live's are not compatible with units older than Gen 3. So basically I need to start from scratch and upgrade both the unit at the console at the bow. Expensive, but here I am.

So if you were starting from scratch what would you go with at the console and bow? It's tough for me to keep all these new technologies straight. Garmin Panoptix, Hummingbird 360, HDS live. What say the forum?

You had to open this can of worms didn’t you?

Yeah I know. It gets talked about with some regularity, but new stuff comes out so often it's hard to keep up with all of it!

First, if you're a Lowrance touch user, it'll be an easy transition to HDS Live or Elite. Most vendors offer way more features than the average bass fisherman will ever use. Don't get hung up on single features such as livescope. Look at the whole package and get the best you can afford. With Simrad buying Lowrance, they've made their screens similar and now you can get screens upwards of 24 inches. (I have a friend with twin 24 inch Simrads on his offshore boat...we watched the golf channel while reeling in amberjacks this season)

What trolling motor you have or plan on having would be a factor.

Personally, I'd want Garmin Livescope Panoptix up front.
Then, to minimize wiring/keep things simple an Ultrex with built in MEGA DI transducer to Humminbird up front.
I'd just keep the Lowrance Gen 2 at the console if no problems with it.

Lowrance, Garmin, and Humminbird will all show you what’s down there. Humminbird has the best imaging but you can still see plenty on Garmin and Lowrance. If your a perch fisherman, panoptix is the way to go. For bass fishing, 360 is more useful imo. But the main advantage is mapping. For most lakes in Texas, Lakemaster blows Navionics out of the water. That alone would sway me to go humminbird.

that's a great point. If you're a Lowrance guy, you'll need the Motorguide Xi series to have integration. I like Motoorguide's gps better than Minn Kota but Minn Kota has a MUCH better remote control in my opinion. Motorguide bought pinpoint several years ago and pinpoint was the inventor of gps on a trolling motor.
I will say that if you don't have the need to control your trolling motor from your graph, this is a moot point and either will work.

hummingbird helix g3 units 12" and a garmin 126sv for live scope. You can run a 360 also at the same time as live.

I have an ultrex. I really want my bow graph and console graph linked. My big complaint with my current setup is that I'll idle close to a spot, and then drop my trolling motor to get right up on it. However, since my two graphs aren't linked, I can't see the way points I have marked on my console graph on my bow graph. So I end up walking back and forth like a knucklehead trying to get on my spot.

Also have ultrex, 2 - gen 3 helix’s 10” - 1 at the bow and 1 on a ram mount at the console. I have an 1198 in the dash for gps and maps. Everything is linked together. Views on gen 3 are great and got even better after Slade dialed them in. Love having the dedicated unit for maps. So much easier for old eyes to see. My brother has lowrance touch screens and he likes mine better.

I just went from bird 998s console and bow to garmin 93sx, going to add the garmin trolling motor when I can then the panoptix.

garmin tm has the chirp/si/di ducer already in it and will bluetooth to my graphs which bluetooth to each other. (a bunch less wiring in the way). shopped bird and garmin and this came out the best overall choice for me. only problem I have is no boatlanes for fork so I have to keep one of the 998s at the console for now for the lanes.


nothing else I looked at came close for compactness and compatibility.

I say 8-page thread with Hummingbird taking a majority of the reply bumps

For me I'd run 2 humminbird mega's, 1 upfront with 360 added and 1 at console for mapping mega SI. Also a lowrance at console for sonar and fish id on side scan