New Humminbird

[Moose1am]

When everyone who fishes realized how valuable these Humminbird Side Scanning Sonar Units are to we fishermen the fish will have no place to hide!

Humminbird has revolutionized fishing with these retail and now affordable units. Sure they now cost from $2000 to $1000 but after the rich buy all they can buy the price will drop some for those upper middle class fishermen with almost deep pockets. Then in a few years the lower middle class paycheck workers will be able to buy some of these.

Smart money is on the Humminbird 997 SI unit right now.

Maybe Lowrance will come out with a side scanning unit some day to compete with Humminbird and that will bring the price down some more.

Anyone tried or purchased the new Humminbird fish finder with the sonar and 3d bottom view side finder that pratically puts your hook right in the 5lber's mouth. I'm thinking of purchasing one or at least trying to talk my wife and daugther into one for Fathers Day? Any info would be graciously accepted.

Thanks
BP

[Moose1am]

Humminbird 797 or 787 unit only costs $1000 now. Sorry I can't remember those model numbers. Its' one or the other. This unit has more vertical pixels than the 997 units but the 997 units have more horizontal screen size and horizontal pixels. That helps if you are using the split screen in the side by side view. Still the 997 unit have 640 vertical pixels which is plenty of pixels to show you good high resolution definition.

I want one of these so badly that I can taste it.

If you have money and like to fish then you are missing the boat if you have not installed a side scanning sonar unit on your boat by now.

I see more and more of the Pros and even the Fishing guides are waking up to the capabilities of these side scanning sonars.

I only wish that Lowrance would get into this game and help with some competition. Competition will help bring the prices down.

There are many other high prices research type side scanning units which cost a great deal more than the Humminbird units. But Humminbird has brought the price down to where some fisherman can actually afford to buy these things.

If they were less than $500 I'd have one on my boat.

It's like draining the lake and showing where the fish and all the structure are. Or it would be like fishing in a clear water lake where you could see into the water for 150 ft to either side of the transducer.

And you also retain the ability to use the regular 2 Dimensional Sonar which is built into these units. So you are not loosing the older technology that you all are familiar with.

If you are a fishing guide then you would be smart to put some money on one of these units.

Every fishing guide that I know of has bought one of these this last year and they are all raving about what it can do for them. These guys are not technical like me but they are learning how to use these side scanning things and having fun with them. They are also learning more about their home lakes than they ever knew before. They thought they knew their home lakes but they have learned so much more with these units.

[Wormin]

How deep will these thing read in side scan mode, I can see it in shallow water but what about 30' or 50'. Seems that it would shut over top of it.

[Moose1am]

Replying late as I just found this question

I think that the 997 unit will go to 100 ft and 240 ft in each direction using the 445 kHz side scanning frequency. If you use the 800 kHz frequency it won't go at far to the side.

Lower sound wave frequency will penetrate much farther into the water. But the lower frequency won't show detail as well as the higher frequency sound wave. The Humminbird 997 unit can be switched to either of these two frequencies for side scanning operations. Plus it's dual or quadrabeam downward looking sonar can be used from the same transducer. So you can look down like a regular 2 D sonar unit at the same time with the same transducer as you are side scanning the bottom.

The dual-beam sonar will look straight down and out to the side using two different frequencies. 200 KHz and one other that I can't recall right now. The 200 KHz is the one that looks straight down in a 20 deg cone angle while the other looks more to the sides. It doubles the amount of bottom coverage that the regular 200 KHz transducer can see.

And the Quadrabeam Sonar unit (Optional purchase item) will look even farther out to the side in 2D mode. Again you can use the 2D and side scanning modes at the same time form the same transducer by simply using split screen views on the control head or display unit.

How deep will these thing read in side scan mode, I can see it in shallow water but what about 30' or 50'. Seems that it would shut over top of it.

[stratos179]

I finally bought a 797c2 si I put it on yesterday and will try it out saturday I cant wait I'll let you know how it works theres so many things this thing does i dont know if I'll ever figure all of them out.

[stratos179]

Well I put the 797 in the water today and all I can say is these are unbeliveable I went to a spot I usally fish in the mornings I could tell that it had a rocky bottom by feel but my old unit never showed anything other than a hard bottom well on the 797 I could clearly see several good sized rock piles scattered over the whole area which makes me like that spot even more and the balls of baitfish you see on this thing are as clear as can be I was using the split screen and there were several things you would see on the SI that the regular sonar didnt show all I can say is so far I love it although I have to move my transducer because I lose the bottom as soon as i plane off I went and bought a SD card today so I can take pics with it I dont like having to take my Hot Maps card out to use the SD card I would have thought that the hot maps would load on a hard drive on the unit and you could remove the card either it dont work that way or I'm doing something wrong but other than that I would recomend buying one normally I couldnt afford it but Ive been doing some work on the side thats let me upgrade several (toys) on my boat.

[MsgMills]

I was wanting one for my boat as well especially for the front, since that is the place it would be more advantageous I believe. Maybe I'll sell my brand new Lowrance 5200c GPS unit and save a little more and then get me one of them Hummingbird ones.

Glad you like the new unit and hope it does well for you...

[stratos179]

I did buy a ram mount for it so I can turn it to the front I can see it good enough to tell if theres something out of the ordenary (?) but ill have to get closer to get a good view of it but its great for just idleing around marking spots

[Moose1am]

I'd like to make a suggestion that I think will help you out. You can buy another cable to add length to the transducer cable and the power cables. You can also buy an additional mount for the front of your boat. That way you can use the display unit at either location. It's a lot more comfortable with the unit at the front of the boat when you are fishing and trying to look at the unit. Remember that the unit can be used in side scanning mode or 2 D regular depth finder mode.

Most guys use the Side Scanning mode while motoring around the lake looking for cover. They mark the cover while sitting in the drivers seat going in a very straight line and only going 3 to 4 mph. This works best and gives the best pictures of the bottom while in Side Scanning mode. Remember that you can view the side scanning mode screen along side the 2D Regular Depth Finder screen at the same time. When you see a stump or rock pile you simply freeze the screen for a second nd then move the screen cursor to the rock pile and push the mark button. This saves the rock pile as a GPS Waypoint which you can later navigate back to and fish. Unfreeze the screen and continue along the straight line until you finish your pass. Go back and move along another line parallel to the last line and offset by about 100 ft. You can map all the important spots on your lake and then record all those good looking spots as Way points.

Now after you have all your spots marked you can move to the front of the boat and fish. Just move the display unit up to the front of the boat and set the screen up to 2D mode and GPS map screen (split Screen Mode) and use the GPS screen to navigate to one of your way points. You should have a good minds eye view of the lay of the land around the waypoint or rock pile and be able to maneuver the boat right over the spot.

You can even run your older depth finder up on the front of the boat and use it to fish and just use the Humminbird SI unit to map the lake bottom.

NOTE: mounting the Humminbird SI transducer to the Trolling motor may not be the best place for side scanning operations. The side scanning transducer when used for side scanning must be mounted firmly in place and not moved easily. You have to be moving at around 4 mph to get the best results while scanning in Side Scanning mode. Since the trolling motor may rotate around that will make the side scanning part of the unit fail to operate right. IE you scene pictures will be blurry. Now you can use the Side scanning Sonars transducer on the trolling motor and then switch to 2 D mode and that will work great. But then you will have to look back to the back of the boat to see the screen unless you mount the screen up at the front of the boat with a second mount. You can wire both mounts to accept the control head or display unit. That will be the best way.

Some guys have two units and mount one at the front and one at the driver console.

Most people will mount the transducer on the back of the boats transom and away from any turbulent water flow. That's the key to getting good operations at high speed with the 2 D operations. SI operations won't work at high speeds. You must go slow to get the good SI pictures of the lake bottom on the screen.

I hope this information helps those that are thinking about buying one of these unit's or that have just purchased one.

Mounting the transducer in the right spot is very IMPORTANT. Critical in fact.

Any water turbulence or air bubbles will ruin the transducers ability to time the sound waves to the bottom and back correctly. Remember that sound travels faster though water than air and any air bubbles will screw up the timing of the sound waves to and from the bottom.

I did buy a ram mount for it so I can turn it to the front I can see it good enough to tell if theres something out of the ordinary (?) but ill have to get closer to get a good view of it but its great for just idling around marking spots

[Moose1am]

I have a Humminbird LCR 8000 unit that has a very large screen display. It's an older unit but still works great. I had it sent into Humminbird once and they fixed it and shipped it back to me really quick. I was impressed with how well they took care of me. Now I have had this unit since 1985/86. I still use it for finding brush piles and drop offs and can hover right over a submerged tree using this thing.

I use to have to look back at the drivers console to see the thing while fishing off the front of the boat. And I had the transducer mounted at the back of the boat, 16 ft away from the front of the boat where I was sitting.

My neck use to get sore after a few hours looking back wards all day long.

That's when I saw how other's were mounting their unit up on the front of the boat. I didn't have the money to spend on a new unit so I had to make do with what I had. I was lucky that my electric power cable and the transducer cable was long enough to reach the front of the boat and drivers console. So I could move my unit around to both spots. All I had to do was figure out a way to mount the unit. Since it was an older model I could not buy another mounting system. I modified my mounting unit by putting Industrial Strength Velcro on the bottom of the mounting bracket. I added a stained, varnished 5/8" thick oak board to the front of my boat and to the center steering wheel console. I glued and stapled Velcro to both boards. Now I can easily move the display head to the front of the boat or to the steering console. Since my transducer is mounted permanently to the rear of my boat I had to buy another transducer. I chose the transducer for the trolling motor and use that one when I am up front fishing and using the trolling motor. I have to remove the plug for the back transducer and then plug in the front transducer but it's not that hard to do. I coil the transducer wires around my front navigation light and secure it in place with a Velcro tie. I just unplug the end of the cable for the front transducer and then plug in the transducer plug for the rear mounted transducer and then move the control head to the steering console and I am ready to speed across the lake.

They do make a control box where you can plug into the box both transducer plugs and then run only one cable from the box to the control head. This way all you have to do is move a toggle switch to switch from the front transducer to the read transducer. But they don't carry that box anymore so I am out of luck

But I ended up fishing in a small 90 acre to 200 acre lake(s) that were trolling motor only lakes for the last few years. So I kept the display unit mounted at the very front of the boat all the time and hooked up to the trolling motor transducer all the time. The only time I had to switch the location was when I went down to KY lake or up to Patoka Lake.

Now that my strip pit lakes have been opened to gas motors at idle speed I can use the rear transducer as I am driving the boat from the steering console while using the gas motor and then switch to the front transducer when I am fishing from the front of the boat.

All this is using a 2 D type transducer that only sees the area of the lake bottom directly under the trolling motor's transducer. That's only about a 4 ft diameter area of the lake bottom.

With a side scanning unit I'll be able to cover a swath of 240 ft of the lake as I motor around in a straight line at 4 mph. I would be able to map each of the lakes I fish easily. Since they vary in size from 90 acres to 210 acres it won't take very long to map them all. There are only three lakes that have good launch ramps. I can only launch my boat at the Concrete Launch ramps.

I did buy a ram mount for it so I can turn it to the front I can see it good enough to tell if theres something out of the ordinary (?) but ill have to get closer to get a good view of it but its great for just idling around marking spots

[Moose1am]

The 997 Si Unit has two SD slots so that you can keep the Hot-spots SD chip in while adding a second SD chip to use to take snap shots of what your screen sees. That way you don't have to swap SD chips like you have to do with the 797 SI unit.

I wish that the 797 SI unit had two chips.

That's the main difference between the two units other than the screen size.

But one advantage that the 797 SI has over the larger more expensive 997 SI unit is the vertical pixel count. The less expensive and smaller display is taller and therefore has 640 vertical pixels. Which is great for showing fish and the bottom in 2 d mode.

I want the 997 SI bad but my budget won't allow me to get the 797 SI yet. LOL Whoa is me

Congratulations on the new purchase. I have read so many post like yours from proud new owners of the Humminbird SI series.

Well I put the 797 in the water today and all I can say is these are unbeliveable I went to a spot I usally fish in the mornings I could tell that it had a rocky bottom by feel but my old unit never showed anything other than a hard bottom well on the 797 I could clearly see several good sized rock piles scattered over the whole area which makes me like that spot even more and the balls of baitfish you see on this thing are as clear as can be I was using the split screen and there were several things you would see on the SI that the regular sonar didnt show all I can say is so far I love it although I have to move my transducer because I lose the bottom as soon as i plane off I went and bought a SD card today so I can take pics with it I dont like having to take my Hot Maps card out to use the SD card I would have thought that the hot maps would load on a hard drive on the unit and you could remove the card either it dont work that way or I'm doing something wrong but other than that I would recomend buying one normally I couldnt afford it but Ive been doing some work on the side thats let me upgrade several (toys) on my boat.