Humminbird 997cSI

[harvey lee]

I am in the process of purchasing one of these units. I have always owned the Lowrance line up but due to poor customer service and from what I have heard and seen with the other Humminbird products, I decided to go all out Humminbird.

Anyone out there with the side imaging units and how well do you like them?

[TonkaBass]

I used the 997 all year last year and was thoroughly impressed. The side imaging really makes it effortless to find rockpiles, isolated weeds ect. I have heard that they will now except the lakemaster chips with the upgrade and also will have an upgrade to be able to "down-view". The side imaging feature also made it easy to find any bottom transitions (sand to softer bottom) which also saved me a ton of time. I did notice though that it is still impossible to replace a rod and reel to find some rocky areas that you simply cant see with the SI. I set mine to read out 80 feet each side. Take it for a test spin and drive over some areas where you know there are rocks and how big they are. This will give you an idea of how boulders vs. softball to basketball sized rocks appear. I also have a 917 up front, but didn't link the units together... I am thinking that I will this next year though. Good luck and I think you will have no regrets. I had a cabin on a lake since I was very young, I went out and idled around some areas and before I knew it I had 16 rockpiles marked that I never knew were there! Well worth the price-tag considering what it can do!

[Deitz Dittrich]

harv- feel free to email me or you also have my phone nbr. You can call me any time bro.

I have a 997 at my helm and a 998(pretty much the same exact units, the 998 is one year older) up front.

I FLAT OUT LOVE this finder. I have always been a die hard Lowrance fan. I almost did not buy this boat because it had the Birds on it. But got a great enough deal that I thought If i didnt like them I could sell them and get Low. I have never felt so happy in my life about electronics. These things blew me away, the SI alone is enough to blow your mind. On my home waters in one day I have found more new cover to make a HUGE difference.

As far as customer service goes.. I had to call Bird on a saturday once as I had a suppression issue(when in shallow rocks the unit would get confused) The phone rang twice and was answered by a computer and I was told to hold( I thought ohhhh great here we go again), I was on hold for 3 seconds.. They asked my problem, told me what I needed, and then said, they were sending new tranceducers "JUST IN CASE".. I have not had to use them yet, but have them.. ALL FOR FREE!

I am a bird summer finder user for life I think!

I will add, that I do have quite a few fishing sponsors, but electronics are not one of them..

[kg2]

The 998 is new for 2010 (replacing the 997). I don't think they have shipped quite yet.

[markkstanley]

Running one myself. Great unit. You have to spend some time tweaking the sidescan but once tuned in you will have the ultimate sonar. Downscan should be out shortly free download. I have run the sonar parallel to an Lowrance HDS unit - the Bird was better. I do get an amazing roostertail when on plane. Easy fixes for it but surprised me the first time.

[harvey lee]

Thats why I went with the Bird. I have heard nothing but good things about the product and their CS.

You guys have just verified why I purchased this unit.

[JohnMickish]

Plus now you can use the lakemaster chips in them. Best of both worlds IMO. Tom, once you figure out the differences you will wonder what to you so long to change over.

[Whopper Stopper]

May I ask how hard they are to install and if they work as good out of an aluminum boat? I have a Navigator Alumacraft. I just ruled out the SI because talk I heard was that they were best in a glass boat. Thanks!

WS

[Deitz Dittrich]

WS- I have a bud who has it mounted in a alum boat. And I know Harv has an alum boat as well. The SI ducer is quite large and once mounted will throw up a rooster tail in the air. Which may be its only negative.

The reason people say that its better mounted on a glass boat is... Many people mount the SI ducer on the jack plate. So, when the boat is on plane, the ducer is not touching the water. I have a switch on the dash to switch to a through hull so I can see bottom at speed.

[markkstanley]

I have a tin boat and no problems. Installation was fairly easy. You will likely have to tweak it a bit which can require several back to back launches if you aren't on a lake. THe tweaking is for reading when on plane.

[Whopper Stopper]

Thanks a lot!

WS

[Amature Hour]

The question I have is that, fish do they show up nice on the SI. Or is it that you drive by them on some rock piles and it doesnt show them and you go back and check with the down view? I am thinking about getting one and just wondering good they pick up fish.

The reason were I fish they all seem to be relating to the deep weed grow and there is miles of weed line in the lake. The fish seem to move alot and I have to hunt them down every time i go out, My thinking is that the SI would speed that up for me.

[markkstanley]

You can see fish with the side scan. Not in the weeds of course. Bottom hugging fish like walleyes show up as slender white footballs. Suspended fish will do the same but you will also see their shadows. Pretty cool. I have used the side scan to good advantage on the river.

[slurpie]

AH: i fish the lake your talking of. The side imaging will give you a headache out there. It does show fish but it is hard to distinguish the diffrence between weeds, rocks fish and other stuff. It is nice that you can see the definite weed edge and troll right there. But if you think that the fish are going to jump off the screen not going to happen. But it does help to find baitfish and suspended schools of fish on the side. And you will find structure in the other lakes in the area that seem featureless now. the more time you use it the better you will understand it.

[reddog]

Ive had my 997 C SI since march of 08. Wont ever be without it! Its been bulletproof in regards to dependability.

I have an online album of all of my screencaptures with a brief description of what each photo is telling me. You can view it online, but I dont think I can post a link according to the rules, so Ill simply post one of my screencaptures, and you can follow it thru the properties.

This is a screencapture that shows 9 walleyes on the left side of the boat and 4 (or more) in the right,

Look at the shadow of the walleyes on the right side towards the bottom of the picture. Most times, you will be able to see more information in the shadows of the fish, rather than the fish itself.

Note that these fish are in 7.6 fow.

There are 70 some odd photos in the album. Photos range from SI, conventional 2D sonar, and some GPS screencaptures that explain the shaded depth option.

I had my unit almost one year before I found the shaded depth function. This option alone, is almost as exciting as SI..

I havent put the newest update in, mainly because my boat is 3 hours away at the cabin, but I plan to be in it the next time the weather breaks!

Cant wait to try the new FREE updated software!

I have my 997 mounted to a Crestliner TS.

I also run a Lowrance X15, which I use exclusively for its GPS capabilities, while I us the 997 for 2D/SI,

They run side by side, although I have the "ping" shut off on the X15 so I dont get any interference.

Feel free to browse my albums, and ask any questions.

There are several very, very good online message boards dedicated to Humminbird units in general.

You wont regret it Harvey, I guarantee it.

[Amature Hour]

Slurpie: On the lake in question is there a lot of junk that shows up. I know and under stand that the SI is not going to say "fish right here stupid". But is it still worth it to get, but what do you mean headache.

[slurpie]

From all the humps that show up. It gives different color for depths and it constantly changes out there. Yes it is a good locator and i think you would be happy with it. Fish get harder to pick out in rocks and there is alot of rock out there. And yes it is usually a shadow that lets you know it is a fish not a rock. And weeds especially in the spring and late fall can be hard to tell the diffrence.

[Shack]

My S.I. unit has run great the last two summers. You set it up right, it will treat you right when scanning the bottom.

Harvey Lee I would go with the 1197c SI Even the 997 IMO is too small of a screen to stare at when on the river at night

[reddog]

Let me put it this way.

Buy as much screen as you can afford, BUT, its gotta hurt a little.

If you can afford a 798, make it hurt and buy a 998. If you can afford a 998, make it hurt and buy an 1197.

If you don't, you will always regret not spending the money when you had the chance.

Heck, Id have an 1797 if they made it and I could afford it without it hurting too much.

[Mr.690]

I am also in the process of upgrading (from everything I have been reading Humminbird is the ticket) and am wondering if side imaging is right for me. I do a lot of fishing on 6-8 lakes with very little variation and mainly head out for walleyes. Would side imaging be that important or useful to me? While it would be nice to have and fun to play with not sure it is worth the extra cost. I have a 20 ft Ranger, is there any install problems or shoot thru hull transducer problems, that anyone has heard of? Thanks for your advice.

[eyebjim]

Mr 690,

I think you will be surprised at how much those lakes with little variation actually have in them. You likely will find rocky areas, sand silt transitions and individual weedy patched that you didn't know were there. That is just the bottom. Now start to think about baitfish schools, fish schools, weed edges. I have found that it works quite well in very shallow water also as can be seen in the images reddog posted above. The SI is definitely worth it IMO. It really shines in places like the Miss at red wing. I have a hard time taking my head away from the screen down there.

As for the transducer you can not have a thru hull transducer and utilize the SI. You can have a thru hull for on plane operation and the regular trans for slow SI operation but you have to have the trans out in the open for the SI to work.

I have the 797C2SI and am very happy with humminbird for finding a way of including the 797 in the down imaging upgrade. I just downloaded it a while back and can't wait to get the boat out to install it.

[reddog]

What Ive found that is most intriguing with my 997, is what I used to think of as structure for fish and what fish relate to for structure were almost a world apart. Structure to a fish can be as little as 2 inch riffles in a sand bottom.

[Mr.690]

Thanks all for the advice, now for the painful part, waiting until the water opens up.

[Fish Head]

I've hear that for the SI to work properly, you must be moving at no more than trolling speed and must be going in a straight line. For those of you that have one, have you experienced this?

[eyebjim]

I can see out at higher speeds even up to 20 or faster but you have to understand that there will be no good resolution as you are traveling much faster than the unit is receiving the data. You will see changes in structure still just no trees or fish etc. You need to get your transducer deep for it to work at speed and you end up with a pretty good rooster tail but I don't care about that I would rater it sees as well as possible.

The optimum speed I have found is from 1-6 mph for best imaging.

When you turn you will see distortion from one side going much faster and one going much slower but it is not that bad.