Hummingbird or Lowrance?

S

Steve Steffy

Well-known member
I really need to update my fishfinder with a newer model this year. Heck, mine is still black and white with no chartplotter, GPS or anything. I want to get out further in the lake after walleye this season and need to relay back to the towing service where I am in coordinates for a safety aspect. And I'm not using a stinking phone to do this as much as my wife wants to.

So what are your thoughts on Lowrance and Hummingbird. I started out stuck on the Lowrance, but some buddies are really swaying me over to the Hummingbird side.

Thoughts? Opinions? Etc.

Thanks,
Steve
 
I'm biased because I represent Hummingbird/Minn Kota on the tourney circuit but I will say when it came to bottom units, I've always used some type of HB unit.

When it comes to bottom/fish finders, hands down Hummingbird has the best software & hardware out there. Especially in their freshwater programs & cards.

They've even made great strides in their saltwater series units.

I'm not a fan of the dual/split screen units because when you loose the machine on the water, you loose both bottom finder & GPS. If you have the console space, use (2) two units. If not, use a dual unit.

If you're looking at a dual unit & are limited on space, the new Garmin 73dv series is a great unit.
 
Ford vs Chevy


I have had both, and I cant say I prefer one over the other. I presently run a Lowrance, and have no complaints.

I agree with the Capt. though, if I was running Erie, especially going out a few miles, I would have two separate units for "justin".

Jon
 
After owning all three I am currently using a garmin and will stick with that I like it better and it is easy to use . But again it is what you like and it meets your needs. rich
 
Great...Thanks for the info everybody. I'll do some more researching prior to making the purchase. I was eyeballing that new HB Helix 9, but I may look into two units and see if I can squeeze them into the helm.

Jon...the Ford vs Chevy doesn't apply to me, I drive a RAM, and love it.
 
Furuno and Si-Tex the rest is left for weekend warriors and gimmick sales approaches. Most consumer electronic companies have went to the way of "what's the next gimmick". Have a unit for everything, split screen is not made for a boat unless your talking huge screens and if you can afford them by one size smaller and buy two.
There is a reason Lowrance's parent company acquired Simrad, they needed technology that was not gimmick based, but it took them minutes to crash that ship too.
 
I know you specified the Hummingbird or Lowrance which are both nice systems but have you looked into the Raymarine Dragonfly series with Navionics mapping. I know of three different guys here in Texas that have traded over to these units with ball mount set-ups for each of their various boats. They can transfer from their offshore boat, to their bay boat and to their air boat or duck boat. Only investment is if you have multiple boats you either buy the thru hull transducer or transom mount transducers. Two Saturdays ago was with one of the guys to go offshore trolling for kings but due to high winds we turned around and went back and got his bay boat. He literally just unplugged the Dragon Fly, we jumped into his flats boat, popped it on to the ball mount, plugged-in we were fishing in the shallows 20 minutes later. I remember his comment to me was, "I used to spend $1000 per my Chartplotter/Fishfinders per boat so I sold them all and bought this and with the extra money just bought two transducers one for each boat".


Regards,
Kristan
 
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