Fishfinder/GPS Combo Help

[Rock]

Well My father and I finally picked up a nice and salty Campion to replace the 13 foot smokercraft, to try and get out on the Sound to slay some pigs. We currently have an older Garmin fish finder and are looking to upgrade! Pretty exciting.

Being that the old man doesn't know what a power button on a computer looks like, let alone knows how to use one. I am in charge of doing the research (just so much info online). I feel that I have gone through almost all the forums I can think of with learning a great amount of information about a number of brands and models. Now I am looking for a little outside advice from people that can look at our issue and I can weigh a purchase from this.

Currently looking at the Garmin 740s and humminbird 800 series and possibly... maybe a lowrance. Or possibly another model (would love to hear your opinion)

Really want to know what you all think about these and possibly what are the advantages to the downimaging/side imaging and is it actaully worth the extra money.

Also interested in thoughts on transducers, is upgrading to Airmar needed, worth it, or what.

If you can think of anything else that is great to know for this topic that I haven't asked about, I would enjoy hearing about it.

Fishing would mainly take place in washington, BC and the columbia river possibly....


Thanks so much for any help that anyone provides.
Cheers
Connor

[Jadeo]

I like the idea of airmar and it sems like it would be affective in our area for salmon . The fact is you need to get down to the boat show and realy look at the features that you want . I am a big fan of raymarine but have used many others and they do the job .

[Dan Carney]

In some respects that is a controversial question, such as politics, religion, or the best caliber to kill a deer (grin). I went through the same issue last spring. The best advice I could give you is decide on which features you want. Another factor is your budget. I am a Lowrance fan, but just couldn't justify spending over 1500.00 for a HDS unit with Structure Scan for my boat. I settled for the Elite-5 DSI where I was able to get down scan imaging but no side scan. I am very happy with the unit, saved a lot of money and caught a lot of fish last year. Garmin and Hummingbird make nice units as well. In an ideal world, I would have went with the HDS-SS package but it was not in my budget. I certainly agree with Jadeo's recommendation to go to the boat show. They are all there and you can talk to the factory reps and play with all of them (I did this last year also). Hope that helps.
L8R
Dan

[Rock]

Thanks so much. Well I will def, be down there on Saturday taking a look what all these units (in reality ones that the old man can handle). Have a great rest of the week.

[king me]

I installed the Lowrance HDS-10 w/structure scan, sonic hub and the 50/200 transducer. Its an amazing unit. They just released the Gen-2 which is supposed to be even cooler. The one thing I noticed about the Lowrance is that there is a lot of training, instructions and classes available online and at the shows. Tells me they really want to educate their clients on how to use them properly. All of the brands take some getting used to. They are all just so high tech and there is so much u can do with them now. In my opinion Lowrance gives u the most bang for your buck. I hope that helps a little and good luck

[Nelly]

C'mon down to the Boat Show Bro,
We'll show you what that Lowrance gear can do.

[quote="king me"]They just released the Gen-2 which is supposed to be even cooler. The one thing I noticed about the Lowrance is that there is a lot of training, instructions and classes available online and at the shows. Tells me they really want to educate their clients on how to use them properly.In my opinion Lowrance gives u the most bang for your buck./quote]

What ever unit you choose you'll get more out of it the more you work at learning how to operate it. Lowrance is the leader in product education and that says a lot!