Humminbird Helix Chirp 12 Dual beam plus Switchfire transducer

[Hawkeye50]

Humminbird Helix Chirp 12 Dual beam plus Switchfire transducer

Looking for opinions on this unit for use on Lake O trolling. Purchased Humminbird unit 2 years ago and had problems with it and eventually returned it .Reluctant to buy another one.

Thanks

[RD9]

I love my hummingbirds. Got a Helix 10 simple and great picture. 

[Hawkeye50]

18 hours ago, RD9 said:

I love my hummingbirds. Got a Helix 10 simple and great picture. 

What transducer are you running and will the unit show rigger weights?

Thanks

[RD9]

I just used standard transducer it came with. Absolutely shows rigger wieghts

[Yankee Troller]

The stock ducer will show your downrigger balls, and a thru hull will mark you downrigger balls. I run both. The Trojan has an Airmar B45 (B60 is a flush mount model), and my Lund has the MEGA transom mount ducer that came with my HELIX 12. If you buy the HB I can help you with some settings to tweak it for what we do.

[steelfire]

I also bought a Helix 10 with all the bells and whistles this summer and it blows my Lowrance units out of the water.  While trolling I can see all 4 downrigger weights in the water column. I can watch the fish arches  move in real time towards the downrigger weights. But the most impressive thing to me is the 3rd picture i posted. We were jigging two rods with tiny shiners and a single 1 ounce weight on it for suspended trout in one of my local lakes. You could make out the weight and the shiner and watch the trout swim right up to the shiner and hit it. It was amazing. We caught a couple dozen trout doing this. It was like playing a video game!!  

Edited November 12, 2017 by steelfire

[justtracytrolling]

We have 5 12s and a 9 across three boats and I couldnt be happier.  The side imaging and auto chart were  game changers for me trolling, though im in 70 fow or less.   The standard mega imaging transducer is excellent.  I cant imagine not being happy with the new helix 12...i absolutely didnt want a touch screen though.