Is the Side Imager worth the $?

[icctolson]

Do you think the SideImager from Humminbird is worth the money? or could a guy get by with haveing a good gps and a lakemaster chip for 1/3 the price. After all the chips give a good representaion of what the bottom is like, right?

[Da Beak]

Yup! Love it.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Do you think the SideImager from Humminbird is worth the money? or could a guy get by with haveing a good gps and a lakemaster chip for 1/3 the price. After all the chips give a good representaion of what the bottom is like, right?

I just got a very good deal on hsolist for the Humminbird 797 c2 si and put the 2008 Navionics chip in.

We're leaving for Park Rapids area in about 30 minutes, and am going to be fishing for 3 days on different lakes.

My dad grew up there, so he knows alot of the back lakes, not the well known ones, but I've always been nervous to fish them, without knowing exactly what's under the surface.

We'll watch the screen now, and if I can get some pics of the screen shots, I'll post them for you.

Also, a guy or two has said there's a yahoo group dedicated to teh side imaging with some good pics of what's really under the water that you may or may not know is there.

[eyebjim]

The side imaging is pretty cool. The lake chips and sonar will do the job for the most part. There are a few things I like about the side imaging. You will find things the maps chips don't show. You can also find suspended baitfish and fish out to the side mark them on the GPS and then go over the gps mark and see them on the verticle sonar to verify and fish them. This has allowed me to catch fish I am pretty sure I would not have found. For the most part I use the verticle sonar and GPS, but for searching the side imaging is nice. It is also nice for finding pockets in structure. It is not the end all of fishing electronics but it is nice to have. There is a HSOforum besides the yahoo gruops that has a forum about the side imaging. Do a google search of side imaging and you should find something called the unofficial humminbird forums. You will get more feedback there.

[LwnmwnMan2]

I spent the weekend looking at my side imaging views....

I'll be honest with you, I had a hard time picking anything up.

One issue would be that we were fishing a lake where in the length of our 18' boat, it would go from 4' to 20', with the depths beyond the 18' distance from shore going to 40+ feet.

So, it would have been hard to pick anything up on the one side, obviously.

However, even when we were trolling along the weeds, it pretty much just looked white and black to me, nothing else to really tell from it.

Again, this is just one weekend, on a lake I'd never fished before.

[ice-man/vexilar-king]

Quote:

Do you think the SideImager from Humminbird is worth the money?

YES!!!!!!

I have only had this for one season but the more i use it the less i find myself looking at the other 10 screens the unit has. One major thing to keep in mind is that the SI is made for finding structure not fish. Don't get me wrong it does both, but is amazing at depicting structure.

First thing first if you don't have it set right you will have problems. I have mine set to shoot 100' feet out to the side and never change it. The benefit here is i know what things should look like on that scale. Some people use 150' but I don't know any one that shoots beyond that. Also keep in mind the cone angle. If you dont have your motor trimed up you could get the SI shooting off of it.

Speed I have found 3mph works best, but again find one you like and stick with it. I will only make you better at reading it. You need to also track at a fairly straight line the farther you try to soot out to the side or the SI image will blur. Drive for 15' then turn sharp you will see what I'm talking about.

Think of a rooom full of objects. Now cover each of those objects with sheets. Shut the lights off, and shine a flash light at the objects. High objects or objects with flat sides are light and the back side of those objects are dark. You can relate this to the bottom becase rocks will have bright front with shaded sides to dark backs. Depressions will look darker yet because the light or SI isn't getting there.

The only thing I have found to show up almost perfectly white is weeds. I couldn't emagine trying to cotour troll the edge of a sunken weed line with out it. Drive next to a weed line you know and the go button in your head will go nuts. It's awsome.

If you like fishing for Bass or Walleye's this unit will pay for itself the first time you see a rock pile. Basically mow the lake untill you have every ones secret spots on waypoints. See one off to the side on your screen, dont turn just move the curser down over or off to the side and hit mark. You can project your waypoint 150' off to the side without ever driving over the spot. That one feature alone is worth $1000.

This unit also locks on the GPS faster than any unit I have ever run. I have ran Lots of Lowrance(112,113,520) and some Garmin(map60, rino) and this is amazing. The pixel count blows even the 520 away at that screen size.

Almost forgot, U mentioned a chip. The Bird can shade any depth lines you want. Benefit. Say you are trolling in and out of depths and nail a fish at 12'. you can now shade 12' on the whole lake and look at other possible area's to check. Musky fishing you can do the opposite and shade the lake humps. This unit is a revolution in fishing in my mind. The more I play with it the more I love it. Good luck with what ever you buy, but don't be affraid of the Bird it is worht every penny!

[blueroof]

Humminbird SI is awesome, well worth the extra $ IMO.

LB

[harvey lee]

I have heard the pro's and con's of this unit from a few users. I will say this, follow what the users tell you and not really the salesman tells you. They are selling the unit and the end user will really give you the skinny on this unit.

[ice-man/vexilar-king]

Quote:

I have heard the pro's and con's of this unit from a few users

What Con's?

[icctolson]

thanks for all the replys. i guess its about time i start saving some $. i am going to get it.