side imaging thoughts?

roosterfish

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Been a Lowrance guy my whole life, but what are you using?? Need a new one for my river boat. Have heard birds are better and mapping is way better??
 


lunkerslayer

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Garmin livescope is the only way to go light years ahead of Lowrance and Humminbird when come to quality
 

NDwalleyes

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I can tell you I have been able to actually fish twice as much vs. run the trolling motor with my Humminbird / Minnkota / Lakemaster iPilot Link set-up.

To me, fishing with SI is on the same plane as fishing with a Vexilar, it's a must have.
 

Bob Erfish

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I can tell you I have been able to actually fish twice as much vs. run the trolling motor with my Humminbird / Minnkota / Lakemaster iPilot Link set-up.

To me, fishing with SI is on the same plane as fishing with a Vexilar, it's a must have.

X2. Setting a path and not having to worry about steering the boat is awesome. I think hummingbird side imaging is much better than low range, can’t say much about Garmins side imaging. Does the live scope work in a side imaging format the same way a hummingbird unit does?
 

BRK

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I've been frustrated with humminbird at times. When i do upgrade my finder it'll probably be a Garmin; i've been very happy with all the other Garmin products i've bought recently, so why not give them a shot i guess.
 


CatDaddy

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I run Lowrance HDS but will switch to Garmin when I decide to upgrade. The innovation they have put forth over the last few years is game changing and I've been able to ice/open water fish with Livescope and it is phenomenal.

As far as I know, the head unit and standard tranducer give you the same side imaging functionality as a Hummingbird or Lowrance. Livescope/Panoptix is an add on - an independent transducer from SI. You can buy the head unit (with SI) alone and wait to buy the transducer for Livescope later if you want.
 

jdinny

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to the electronics gurus

i currently have 1 helix 7 with the Si/Di G2. and then another helix 5 on my console that i use excluseively for mapping. I would say I have the 7 split screen between chirp and SI the majority of the time. and another 5 up front, doesnt get used much as i pull cranks the vast majority of the time. anyhow i like the 7 but it s a G2. i have gotten pretty good with the traditional chirp sonar and SI. I feel like the DI doesnt tell me much more than my sonar.
could my settings be off with DI or is the G2 that out dated and the new mega DI that much better?? gonna upgrade to anothe unit and would like the DI to be better with better seperation but i will confess i maybe dont have the settings right on my crrent one.

- - - Updated - - -

sorry to hi jack OP, anoyone with knowledge can PM me to not derail the OP
 

zoops

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I've had DI on a couple units, G3 Helix now, and just don't find it that great. Can't say I've used it a ton but like you say, 2D seems to work just as well. I've seen some youtube vids where it seems to help decipher fish vs. rocks on bottom so there probably are instances it is useful. SI on the other hand, on the river is almost cheating.
 


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