Humminbird 798ci

[ryanmitchell]

Anyone have this unit? I am looking to upgrade from a Humminbird 565 this winter. I have not even looked at the Lowrance units. I want to stick with Humminbird. We have not doen a very good job of learning the 565, but I thought it was fairly worthless anyway. I am just wondering if for $500 more should I get the 997 for the bigger screen. I have a 16 foot crestliner with a 40hp merc. Ideally I would like to mount the 565 up front just for depth and structure. I would need to have the wiring rerouted and the transducer remounted somehow.

Any help would be great.

[MN Mike]

There are a few that have the 798 on this forum. I bought mine last March, fished all summer with it and loved it, as always, the bigger screens are always nicer, I just don't know if I need to make that jump yet.

I probably run in SI mode 30% of the time, the rest of it was the std. 2D view, still LOTS of info on the 5" screen. There were times when I would download my snapshots and look at them, in one picture I had over 20 nice archs that were probably fish, I didn't even know at the time I took the snap shot that many were there! Information overload for sure.

At the moment, I'm lining up a Ice Transducer and a Mount to use the 798 in the Perm. fish house this winter.

You should be able to get a ext. cable for your 565 and leave the transducer mounted where is at if it doesn't interfere with the SI transducer.

You're going to have a BLAST with the sideimaging!

Mike

[ryanmitchell]

Beauty call on the extension for the front display. I guess there really isn't a hole lot of differnece between the front and back of the boat, maybe a few feet at the most, the was the only reason for the trolling motor mount for the smaller 565 hummingbird. I guess the more i think about it the most important thing to me is the maps and GPS. Being able to run down a breakline, mark spots on the map to come back to(the SI would assist in finding good spots).

The current 565 model we have is about the same size as the 798 (5" diagonally). The wider screen on the 9 series would be great for GPS sonar and the SI. Goes without saying I guess. I just don't want to regret not getting the bigger one in a couple years the way I wish I had gotten a better unit from the get go. Money is an issue, but I enjoy fishing so much I just want to make my time on the water the most enjoyable and productive for me and the other anglers on the boat.

[fishwater]

Humminbird is releasing a 800 series next year also. I think the si model will retail for 1499.

[ryanmitchell]

I am also concerned about the possible interference from 2 transducers. All the wiring for the throttle, lights and transducer run down the right side of the boat,a nd the current transducer is on the back right.

[MN Mike]

I figured I will stick with the 798 for a couple years and then see what happens.

Here's a couple pics off of the 798 this summer, basically stock settings, very few tweaks on these. They show up more grainy on the computer screen than they look on the 798.

Couple big boulders, 32.6 feet off the left hand side, missed them completely with the 2D, wouldn't have known they were there. I'll be back this winter!

This one is of a break from 10 foot to 17 feet of water, darker part of the image is 10 foot, the lighter ( left ) is 17, the dark line on the left is the drop off itself. The rounder white marks are rocks, the longer skinny white marks would be fish.

Theres lots of pics on the web if you do some searching.

Mike

[MN Mike]

I am also concerned about the possible interference from 2 transducers. All the wiring for the throttle, lights and transducer run down the right side of the boat,a nd the current transducer is on the back right.

I thought I had troubles with that earlier this year, turned out to not be the case, since I have a Lund, rivets were the culprit, I'm going to lower the ducer for next year unless someone has a better idea.

I only have one ducer.

The 800 series is a good call, I completely forgot about that, might be a good fit!

[ryanmitchell]

Cabelas has the 997 for $1500 right now??

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0044062018998a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Product_liberal&QueryText=997&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

I heard HB is coming out with a 998 soon.

[ryanmitchell]

How critcal is the tranducer placement and how close can you put 2 transducer next to each other? Nice pics btw Mike. Those are fun.

[ryanmitchell]

How critcal is the tranducer placement and how close can you put 2 transducers next to each other? Nice pics btw Mike. Those are fun.

[ryanmitchell]

There are slots in the front of the finders for insertable media from the differnt map companies. What cards are compatible for the 798 and 997? I have navionics on my iPhone and it is very basic, bust since I dont have a gps on the boat it really is nice to have. Do hotmaps or lakemaster maps work in the HB units or only navionics? Do the navionics maps look great on the units?

[ryanmitchell]

Just looked at the 898, I have my focus on that unit.

[JohnMickish]

We have not doen a very good job of learning the 565, but I thought it was fairly worthless anyway.

I have to ask, what didn't you like about the 565? I was thinking of picking one up to be used as a third sonar for guest to use on the back of the boat. I've got a 937 on the console and love it, thinking the 565 would be a cheap sonar to keep track of the bottom but??

[ryanmitchell]

You know it is a fine little unit, and for the price it is a great buy. As much time as I try and spend on the water each summer I just want to have a more complete unit. I want to have the GPS, Sonar and imaging capabilities all in one unit.

We are still going to utilize the 565 in the front of the boat. The 565 we bought did not have the MPH, a feature I am excited to get on the new one.

The 565 is perfect for a what you would be getting it for. Depth, temp and sonar. Perfect for the angler up front to get a quick read on the depth and a view of the structure below.

Traveling across the water at anything over say 10 mph it losses the bottom, does not read depth anymore, and the screen is filled with either blackness or a screen full of beeping fish.

Crusing around it is fine and when the trolling motor is deployed also fine.

I just want to take the enormous leap to pro ball from Single A.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Saw this on the web:

Humminbird will be coming out with a new 800 series. There are only going to be two units in this series for the upcoming year.

There is going to be the 858 (MSRP $999) which is going to replace the 917c. This unit has a 7 inch screen480 x 800 pixels, Dual Beam plus, the new Contour XD Basemap, and it is also going to be Navionics Platinum compatable.

The 898C SI Combo(MSRP $1499) is going to be there new side imaging model to there current lineup. This unit is going to have a 7 inch screen, 480 x 800 pixels, the New contour XD Basemap and it is also going to be Navionics Platinum compatible.

These should be great units. They are expected to hit the shelves the first of this year.