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Am relatively novice at look down type units, am interested in gaining more experience with them both ice fishing as well as mapping future fish attractor drop sites at CJ Brown Reservoir in preparation for a ‘ forever ‘ project. Any information and experiences are appreciated. Happy Holidays to all whom troll these electronic pages !
For image quality you can’t beat a Hunninbird IMO. I have Helix 10s and the images I get are awesome.
That is a wide open question. The worst units are really good. Ice fishing is a different game since most equipment works best while moving.
Just as a data point, I have a Lowrance 520C. It is 16 years old. I can easily see a crappie jig in 25ft of water and find a brush pile or drop off just as deep with it. Though many improvements have been made since it came out, the difference between it and the new units as far as seeing things under your boat and marking them is trivial. I’ve used that little 5” display to put a lot of fish in the freezer.
My advice is to get something cheap enough you can put a unit at the console and the bow that share waypoints so you can idle around and find spots, then get back to them on the trolling motor. That will get you 99% of what any unit does regardless of price.
I had a Lowrance Elite 5DSI unit (until I broke some connector pins) and have posted pics of many of my "findings" when using it. I currently use a Lowrance Hook 7 and it does about the same. Don't have any pics from the Hook 7, though ... because I have Livescope/Garmin 93sv and mainly use the Hook 7 for maps & waypoints.
Here's just one pic I took (actually a screenshot) from the Elite 5DSI, just to give you an idea of what a DI (Down Image) unit can show :
Attachment 444133
Seriously considering buying an older model as will be using it on the ice assuming we get safe ice this winter, Thank You both for your advice !
Side and down imaging only work while moving at 3-6mph, that is not going to be very helpful on the ice. I think Humminbird has the best side/down imaging there, although the competitors are excellent as well.
I think Garmin has some of the best 2D sonar. Set scroll speed to fast and the gain to auto high, a 1/32 oz jig will show up just fine. If you don't need the maps a Striker 4/5 is hard to beat for the money, although at this point I imagine something like an older Echomap 7SV has to be pretty affordable.