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Posted

Looking to buy a new fish finder. Looking for some input from all you guys out here. Trying to stay under $1000 what would you buy thanks Steve

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Posted

If I could buy a 585 and stay under a thousand I would jump on it.

The more realistic and best for your money is either a good used 582 or a new furuno 620 which is similar to the 582,but with a slightly smaller screen.

Do not go cheap on the transducer,it is the most important part.

Posted

Looking into the hds5 ... looks like it is a nice finder.do you have the lake or nautic insight? Unit comes with a few options . What do you have . Thanks Steve

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Posted

I am not sure of the chart chip, but it gives nearby depths and contours well. The Canadian border could be marked by a faint pink line on one screen only. My older plotter has a better border line and it displays the GPS numbers on the screen. So I keep them both running and they are still ok so far.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Small... I think. I fish all the finger lakes and ontario for all kinds of fish. Nothing to crazy just want a nice all around unit. I had a HB wide eye on my last boat and was ok with that but now doing more trolling 17ft Lund Thanks Steve

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Posted

Ah ok, that's pretty easy then Steve....you can get into a really nice unit for under a grand. I'd be looking at the 700 series. The 788s to be exact. that will give you the largest color screen with the highest resolution for that size unit and still be a good bit below the budget, even after adding a mapping chip.

Question is whether you want down imaging (788ci HD DI) or not (788ci HD), and honestly as advanced imaging seems to be the way the industry is going, and now that it's only an extra hundo, that's where I would be, to stay current with technology, but it's still a choice. Either way, the 788s are the best value for the money.

I upgraded a few years back from a 595c color unit - which I thought was good at the time. Well, I recently put the 595 back on the bow, and it just pales in comparison. You won't know how you lived with the wide eye :lol: . If you have the right cannon riggers you can control them from the finder with these units, btw.

Keep in mind that the DI unit has a better base map, which has come contours (called contour xd). I'm not sure how good it is but plan on dropping 125-150 on a navionics chip for the HD unit. You WILL NOT be disappointed with it, especially out on the fingers - 'Daigua, Cayuga and Seneca, which have high def contours. I'm almost certain it would be a vast enhancement over the xd base map too, so don't let that feature drive your decision. You don't need the current year navionics if you can one a couple years old for less...they haven't updated our local waters with new high def maps lately.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide!

Posted

Plecos- I bought the 788 HD DI combo this past spring for my 18ft tracker and it is pretty damn awesome 8) I am mostly a pike/muskie guy, but I do some Lake O and FL trolling for trout/salmon as well during the summer. I love the unit so far...

Best price I found was here-

http://www.universalmania.com/_e/Marine ... _Combo.htm

I ordered it from this website and had it in under a week with no probs. Highly recommend it

Hey Nitro- since you haunt the same waters as I... that navionics chip makes a big difference huh? I have been debating picking it up. The preloaded XD maps are not all that great

Posted

Hey joe, I can't comment too much on the XD maps because I have the older 788 with no DI, so I just have the base map, which is totally worthless. I'm sure that on some/ many? lakes there isn't a lot of difference between xd and navionics, since the basic navionics maps are little more than the DEC maps from the website overlaid. That said, I think there has only been one lake I've been on in the NE that I had no map at all for (cowanesque, if I recall), and the major Fingers (not conesus :devil: ) are in HD, 1 ft increments with all boueys marked as are Oneida Chaut and Kinzua. Those are sick! Black has boueys marked, but no HD.

Net net, wherever I go In the NE, almost invariably not flying blind. Be curious to see em side by side tho.

Posted

I don't do much jigging...I'm sure it would be useful tho. It is a great tool for getting a better look at structure on the bottom, however fish can be hard to spot... they show up as little dots. it is definitely a cool feature to have, especially if you spend a lot of time on the water.

Posted

Thanks Joe-

Cashed in a few fishing chips and bought the Hummingbird 788 you mentioned above. Thanks for the tip - by far the best price around.

Any suggestion on a good retailer for the Navionics cards? It sounds like the Hot Maps Premium East is the best bet for Cayuga / Seneca fishing and occasional Ontaro fishing.

Thanks, Lavarock

Posted

Not sure- but I will be shopping around for one as well as I am looking to expand my horizons and do some lake trout jigging next year on the flx, so let us know what you find.

Posted

Navionics rep. told me the Hot Maps Premium East was the way to go (1 ft countours for Cayuga and Seneca - maybe other fingers?) Amazon has them for $146 free ship. Just like to hear from users that this is the way to go, anyone?

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