Humminbird GPS/Sonar

[bhs91]

What are people's experience with these? I know that Lowrance is class of the electronics world, but what is scoop for humminbird customer service and their products.

BHS

[Try Too Fish]

I think it makes a difference what model you are thinking of. The new 700/900 series are as good or better than anything else on the market. I don't know if you can say that for the wallmart type ones! I have a 997 and love it. I have been a Lowrance user for years! I have had no issues with the sonar/gps unit! I did have a Issue with a cannonlink (which is part of Johnson outdoors/Hummingbird) And customer service was top notch!

[mamohr686]

I fished with a member of a local bass club that has a 997. The only 2 main disadvantages that I can see is that you have to mount your transducer on the outside of your boat (I like to have mine epoxied into the bottom of my fiberglass boat so it can't be dammaged or blow off at high speed). And you would need to purchase a $200 box to connect multiple units together. I can't believe how much better the Navionics maps look in the humminbird compared to my 332C. The display is so bright and clear, and the different colored depth changes are much easier to see in the sunlight. Another cool feature is that if you see an object such as a rock pile off to the side on the sonar, you can move the cursor over to the object and mark a gps location exactly on that spot. As far as customer service I don't know if it can be any worse than lowrance. I litterally was on hold for an hour on a tuesday afternoon, just to talk to a person. Lowrance seems to replace each model the following year and basically says too bad when if you have a problem with a unit no longer in production. When I used to sell older hummingbird units they did have some reliability problems but I haven't heard that they have any issues with the newer units.

My friend says his biggest problem is that he has put about 100 hours on his motor just idleing around and finding new spots on the lake. He really likes it and I was very impressed.

[Central Bassman]

Good Information Mamohr686... Has it helped him become a better fisherman?? find things he never thought was there??

[mamohr686]

He did tell me he has found 2 sunken boats including a canoe on the bottom of a few lakes. I like that it was really easy to find suspended fish and see the sunken weedlines, when we fished on the alex chain. I think the side finding 3-D technology in the unit is as close as your going to get to an underwater camera when it comes to figuring out what type of bottom structure your fishing. Rock/weed transition lines and other changes in bottom structure are very clear.

[Kyle Sandberg]

So, for you, the untit was worth the price?

[Try Too Fish]

Just to clarify the transducer mount. The sidfinder transducer has to be on the outside of the boat with an unobstructed view out both sides! Some Kickers can interfere with the side view! but you can epoxied a 2d sonar in the boat and run a transducer switch to it and switch between the two. The advantage to that is super good high speed bottom lock. I have read reports of still showing bottom at 70 mph with the internal transducer! But it adds more cost!!