chartplotter and sonar combos

[splakeshaker]

We just started fishing Lake Superior this year and need to upgrade the electronics that came with the boat we bought...We are considering the Lowrance HDS-5 Gen2 GPS Sonar Combo..I'm not really looking for a lot of bells and whistles. I'm after a unit that has compatibility to the best mapping software of Lake Superior and has a descent sonar/graph that'll read a thermocline, fish, baitfish, and of course bottom structure..I'm not so interested in digital imaging unless I'm really missing the boat on the concept..I'm not very educated with the latest sonar technology and any suggestions from mapping software to which units best suit our needs would be great..I have a budget of $1200 but would prefer to keep it less (or much less)than that.. Thanks for your input.

[Da_Bearded_One]

I have a humminbird 788ci. I think now they only cost about six hundred bucks or so on sale. It works IMHO well on lSuperior. If you have downriggers you may wanna look into a speed and temp sensor. It's a way more accurate way of measuring lure speed at the depth they are running(because of underwater currents). I am by all means no expert of the big lake but that's what I have figured out so far. Good luck

[solbes]

I love my HDS7 for showing many of the things you are talking about. Baitfish, thermoclines (or zoo plankton concentrations), bottom structure are all shown beautifully. It works so well you can even start to guess at weed type (I run my camera underwater some to get a feel for what is really down there).

I don't have structure scan either, but plan to upgrade some day. You would at least have the capability to upgrade if you wanted ($600). Not sure how side scanning would work on Superior since its so deep.

My piece of advice is to go as large of screen as you can afford. I iniitially looked at the 5, but couldn't see the chart very well on a split screen so bought the 7. An 8 would have been even better, but everyone has their budget and I had hit mine.