Humminbird 798c w/side imageing

[MN Mike]

Great pictures and info guys, I pulled the trigger on a 798 this late winter and I can't wait to get out and try it!

Hopefully sometime soon someone on this site can put together a forum just for SI now that there is going to be more than one company offering it. Should be fun to look at captured pics and videos.

Mike

[reddog]

Jim,

Am I correct in assuming you are running your 800 Khz Side Imaging transducer? I was messing around with mine all weekend, and played with the 455 and 800. Your screencapture looks like it is done with the 800?

Have you tried it much with the 455?

R

Heres one I captured this weekend. I beleive it is a bunch of pallets someone put out there as crappie structure. This is with a 797.

[eyebjim]

Reddog,

I have the 797. I believe it only has the 800 khz. Isn't the 455 khz higher res? Wish I had the 997 or 1197.

I hit the old miss pool 4 this weekend with it. I got some pretty cool images. That thing really helped us determine if spots had fish or not with minimal effort. See little white specs there are fish there, see no specs there are no fish period no ifs ands or buts. I was still somewhat sceptical if I could use that as a for sure thing but after this weekend I swear by it. You could easily tell if fish were there and how many(roughly)from 100 feet away.

[reddog]

Jim,

Kind of eye opening, isnt it.

I also took some screencaptures this weekend, although I left my chip in the bird out at the cabin.

I was in 4 fow, looking towards shore, and seen a big school of fish almost right on shore. I took a screencapture of them, for documentation and then turned around and fished them.. I missed one on the first and second cast, then threw about 5 more times and hooked up.

Half an hour later....

The ruler ends at 34inches.

Too bad they werent walleyes, but, the main thing is, I wouldnt have known either way, without side imaging.

Anxiously awaiting some of your screencaptures from last weeekend.

R

[eyebjim]

Reddog

Here are a few of the images.

This is of a tree

Some fish in the lower left

Fish upper right

Dunes

Big tree running under boat from left up to right and shadows extending all the way to left

Wing dam

dunes and fish

I think this is a sunken uprooted tree

Fish hiding behind current break

[reddog]

Jim, Great images. Hard for me to grasp that screen size, compared to my 997.

The split screen image, with fish on the dunes, baffles me a little that they arent showing up in the water column in SI also. I think with a little tweaking of your settings, that you would be able to optimize the screen captures, although what you have is very good.

[Drewski]

Those side imaging sonars are something else. It's amazing what they can do.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I hate you guys

[cbrooks]

I'm looking in getting a new sonar in a month and after seeing those images I might have to consider HB 997. The only reason why I wouldn't get a HB is the fact that there GPS doesn't accept Lakemaster chips.

[olski]

thanks reddog, good info, I will have to see if anyone in the area is putting on a class or if they may be interested.

I think Cabelas in rogers has done some and will be doing more this year. Maybe give them a call and ask for the fishing manager and ask him about dates. Also how many of you guys would be interested?

[olski]

I'm looking in getting a new sonar in a month and after seeing those images I might have to consider HB 997. The only reason why I wouldn't get a HB is the fact that there GPS doesn't accept Lakemaster chips.

Yet.

[cbrooks]

oliski, are you saying that HB will accept lakemaster chips in the near future?

[olski]

I'm just saying you don't think Lowrance can come out with HDS and someday there "side scan" And Humminbird is not going to do anything. Also I think Lakemaster and Lowrance's contract is up in about 2 1/2 months.

[olski]

Is that about the time Side scan is supposed to be out? Hmmmmm.

[EYEweign]

This has got to be one of the BEST posts I've seen in years.

Thanks guys!!!

[eyebjim]

Reddog,

Yea I havn't played with the settings since I did the last update. I forgot I had to reset to defaults before the update. I'll have to play with them a bit to get it better.

I wish I had the 997 for the screen size reason and res. I may have to sell the 797 and upgrade. oooh an 1197 would be awesome... if I were a rich man. The 797 is still light years better than just having verticle sonar though. I wish they had a trade in/ upgrade program.

Oh to cbrooks who mentioned that lakemaster doesn't work. Navionics works seamlessly in the HB's and is very good unlike how the nav works in Lowrance units. Nav works best with the bird. Lake master works best(only works)in Lowrance form my expirience. I was concerned about Lakemaster not working with the unit when I bought it, I haven't thought about it since.

[polarsusd81]

Why would you have to worry about lakemaster working with your Bird unit when you have way more information than a lakemaster chip could ever provide? The side imaging is as Jim said "light years" ahead of even the mapping programs and chips. You can see contour changes on the side imaging, granted it may take some getting used to reading it, but it is everything a person would need. I seriously wish I could come up with the cash to get one.

[reddog]

This has got to be one of the BEST posts I've seen in years.

Thanks guys!!!

Thanks,

I thought I'd put one more image up.

[eyebjim]

This is one of the things I really like about SI. You can see fish out to the sides in 5-10 FOW that would never stay under the boat to see on the vert sonar. I ended up fishing way shallower than I ever have a lot more last year because of it and I caught many eyes to show for it.

[eyebjim]

Reddog,

I was just in gander looking at the 997 and I have a question. I quite often use the GPS and SI at the same time. I set the unit at gander to view SI and GPS and the SI is smaller than on the 797 when using both SI and GPS. I beleive this is because of the numbers on the left. Is there any way to view the GPS and SI with the SI larger on the 997? If not I get about 3/4 inch wider display on the 797's SI and I will probably just stick with it instead of upgrading.

[reddog]

Jim, The guage package on the 997 will always be on the left. YOu can split the screen into many different screen options and you can also size the screens that you chose to use. There is a menu setting that will allow you to manipulate the size, but I dont know exactly where it is right now.

I typically use a small window of 2d sonar and SI, and use my LCX 15 for my gps.

The 1197 has the tool bar defaulted to the bottom of the screen, which makes alot of sense.

Does your 797 have 3 "shortcut" buttons that will allow you to save 3 different screens, without going thru the whole view process?

[eyebjim]

Reddog

No the 797 does not have the 3 button presets. The new 798 does.

But the 3 screens I use most are si and gps, si only, gps and vert sonar which are all in series in the cycle of screens.

You said you can adjust the size of the 2 windows you are viewing on the 997? Do you mean you could use gps and si windows and adjust it so that the gps is smaller and the si is bigger? If the is the case that would seal the deal for me.

[reddog]

Jim,

When you split the screen into left and right, you can adjust either side to as large or small (incrementally) as you want. I know I can with 2d sonar and Si, so I would be just assuming the same would apply with gps/SI

I will post a question on another board that has factory reps of Hbirds SI on it and see what he says.

[reddog]

Jim, Here is the reply I got from the message board.

Look at the time difference between my post, and the answer from Greg. Heck, Ive been on hold with the other company longer than that, many times. This is not just a Hbird employee, Greg was instrumental in bringing Humminbird up to the level of quality they are now and also developing the SI technology

Joined: 05 Oct 2007

Posts: 56

Unit Owned: 997C SI

Location: Iowa

Adjusting split screen

I have a friend that is considering upgrading from a 797 to a 997 and is wondering about the split screen option.

Are the screens able to be adjusted size wise in all of the views.

I know I can adjust the size in 2d sonar and SI, which is what I use most of the time. Small window of 2D and the balance in SI.

Also, The tool/guagebar is on the left side on a 997 and that is the only location for it is my understanding.

The toolbar on the 1197 is on the bottom,and that is also the only location for it.

Is the tool bar size adjustable also, right to left on a 997.

and also is the tool/guage bar able to be turned off completely, so it doesnt occupy any of the screen. If you would not have anything set to display, would it disappear completely?

If I had access to my unit, I could answer these ? myself, but its 3 hours away.

Any chance of an emulator in the near future?

Thanks

R

Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:08 am

Humminbird_Greg

Joined: 17 Apr 2007

Posts: 1180

Location: Eufaula, AL.

Yes on any of the combination sonar-chart Views you can change where the screens are split.

The tool/gaugebar cannot be moved from the left side of the 997 unit (nor the bottom of the 1197 unit) and it cannot be set smaller. You can go in and change the settings to “Off” in the Select Readouts menu but this only works in some of the Views. Also even though they are set to “Off” the area they were in is still not allocated to whatever is being shown in that View unless it already had been scrolling behind these numbers (like in the 2D Sonar Views).

I don’t know if we will have an emulator in the future or not.

_________________

Greg Walters at Humminbird

[email protected]

I help because I can

Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:27 am

[eyebjim]

Thanks Reddog

Nice turnaround on the question.

That is what I needed to know. Now I have to scrounge up some cash.