Need advice on buying a fish finder

[JeremyDale]

Budget- 500 dollars

Type wanted- GPS / fish finder

What I want to be able to do - I would like to be able to enter coordinates to brush piles, find brush piles easily, and know depth of fish in open water. I am not sure if sonar or down imaging or what type of a fish finder would be best for me. I enjoy spider rigging so seeing fish and at what depth is important to me. Not sure if down imaging is good for that or not? I want to be able to hop in my boat run to a waypoint, get on brush and vertical jig or hop in boat troll over 10 to 20 brush piles pushing minnows over the brush. Any advice would be much appriciated. I have 0 experience with anything except my 100 dollar hummingbird.

[MEATGETTER]

To get what your wanting will be a little more than 500.00 if you want color, di and hd. Model 597 hd di hummingbird is a nice unit . it's around 550.00 or so on the internet.it does about everything the more expensive units except si.and only has a 5in. Screen.

[JeremyDale]

To get what your wanting will be a little more than 500.00 if you want color, di and hd. Model 597 hd di hummingbird is a nice unit . it's around 550.00 or so on the internet.it does about everything the more expensive units except si.and only has a 5in. Screen.

I have looked hard at this unit. On cabelas there are 2 units I believe the difference is one has DI and the other doesn't. The one without is 499.00 an the one with is 579.00...if it is worth it I would get the more expensive one...do you think DI is worth it?

[Cmj]

I think Gindog has this unit. Maybe he will have some info.

[JeremyDale]

Also the lowrance elite 5 dsi sonar with GPS is on sale for 379.00. My problem with it is it only has sonar and doesn't show fish? Not ever using any of these features makes it hard to decide what I need

[JeremyDale]

Part of me thinks I need to hold out for a SI unit also....grrrrrr decisions!

[riptide]

Geagle, I've been looking at this decision myself. I have a Hummingbird 798ci SI Combo at the driver's chair but a cheap little unit up front. But, that 798 spoiled me. I've considered the new 597ci HD Combo to replace the unit up front. I'd really be interested to hear what the guys have to say in regards to this decision.

[mdperson]

Geagle, I have a 788 ci hd up front and love it. I added the quadrabeam transducer and it has really helped on narrowing down the time once I get up to a brushpile it will tell me if it is to the left or right of the trolling motor. I have been looking at putting a 798 si on the back and just now have the money. If you will start looking on craigslist and use "zoom the list" you may find a good deal on what you are looking for. 3 weeks ago there was alot of good deals on hb units now that I have some money the good deals have vanished. Good luck on the search.

[mdperson]

Here is one you might be interested in:

http://houston.craigslist.org/boa/3808149332.html

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ws...802751182.html

[constructskeeter]

No matter which unit you choose look up the digital oasis online out of FL. I bought my Hummer 587 I believe it's called. Not many people know about the 587 but it's almost same as the 597, it has GPS, DI, it's color and it will hold the lake chips if you choose to spend the extra $100 for the cards it takes to add contours to your finders map. My unit goes for about $450 most places but I got it for $417 and if I'd been patient I'd have gotten it for $389! They are cheaper than any other place I know of due to FL not having a sales tax and they was offering free shipping so the $417 was what I paid outright. If you want bigger screens and SI your going to be looking to spend more $ though. The SI units are tougher to read while the DI units are like looking at your cane tops 1st hand, there's not doubt what your looking at once you see one on the DI screen. The fish are harder to see on the DI but you can scroll through the screens to one that's got a split screen of the DI on bottom and the color graph on top which is what I use a lot. Mounting you sonar can be tricky too. I drilled the dreaded holes in the back of my fiber glass skeeter thinking it would work, it does fine idling around but won't read when running down the lake??? Several folks have told me you never know how they will read when you mount them back there but most do alright, mine must have been the exception.
Now somebody mentioned having a good finder on back of boat and a cheapo on front, that's my deli ma. I know what brush looks like on my older hummer on front so it's not too difficult to fish off the front not being able to see my back finder but I do find myself walking to back of the boat to sneak a peak at the newer finder, no job for me now so money for another finders out for now!!!
By the way I know there's guys selling stuff on here, like say Big River Marine and i'm sorry if they can't match prices but the digital Oasis is hard to beat. I'd buy from them in a heart beat if they could match prices and I was a looking. Hope all this was of help, I dumped brush earlier in the winter and lost my coordinates from my cell phone due to water damage, having that unit and knowing the general area was nice yesterday scoring me a mere 9 crappie but it helped.