Lowrance, Hummingbird, Garmin or Ray Marine?

[One Trick Pony]

Sounds good. By the way, I heard that 115 SHO was really quiet engine but that is has some good power for a 4 stroke engine.

Yeah it's like a hundred and thirty horses

With four huge guys it will plane in 5 seconds and hit 41 miles per hour you can drive all day long up and down Lake Texoma for hours and burn a quarter tank of gas.

I do all my own maintenance

[PerunaPunch]

I can't speak for the fish finding capabilities, because I'm probably the least skilled/worst luck fisherman on the planet. But I am a Master Mariner with a 50 ton USCG license and have sailed to basically every island in the Caribbean and have logged thousands of sea miles.

Last year, I bought one of the new Raymarine E-Series multifunction displays (GPS, AIS, Radar, it even controls the sound system –- when it works). The touch screen is unreliable if it gets wet, so if you have a wet helm station I would recommend against (assuming all their touch screens perform similarly). I'm going to eBay it and am going to replace with a B&G (no fish finder though). If you have a dry helm station, I will make you a smoking deal on a barely used 9" MFD that will act as a chart plotter, fish finder, radar, AIS, low light camera display, and will even run your stereo system if you have NMEA-compliant transceivers, etc.

I really like Garmin hardware except for their proprietary batteries. If you're looking at a hard wired solution, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. Some of their nicer handhelds require proprietary batteries that are very expensive and always seem to be dead right before a trip. Also their software updating/downloading is a bit cumbersome, isn't really user friendly and is fairly expensive. I do have an old copy of Fishing Hotspots in southern US that you're welcome to. We kept a boat on Texoma for years. Great fishing up there.

Another good option to have aboard, is the Navionics App on iPad or iPhone. Navionics takes it to the next level because their SonarCharts take current bottom contour data from their users and continually updates their maps. This is wonderful as lake/river conditions change over time. You can also download their charts on other manufacturers hardware (for example, I have Navionics charts on both the Raymarine E-series and my iPad). You can get fishfinder on it, but you'll need a transceiver that has NMEA out and a wireless transmitter. Or, if you get a higher level MFD, many of them now transmit wireless hotspots and/or bluetooth, so you can pick up the fish finder data and put that overlay on your iPad charts.

My impression of Hummingbird is they are mainly just bottom contour and fish finder, so I've never really considered them.

Hope that helps.

[One Trick Pony]

I can't speak for the fish finding capabilities, because I'm probably the least skilled/worst luck fisherman on the planet. But I am a Master Mariner with a 50 ton USCG license and have sailed to basically every island in the Caribbean and have logged thousands of sea miles.

Last year, I bought one of the new Raymarine E-Series multifunction displays (GPS, AIS, Radar, it even controls the sound system –- when it works). The touch screen is unreliable if it gets wet, so if you have a wet helm station I would recommend against (assuming all their touch screens perform similarly). I'm going to eBay it and am going to replace with a B&G (no fish finder though). If you have a dry helm station, I will make you a smoking deal on a barely used 9" MFD that will act as a chart plotter, fish finder, radar, AIS, low light camera display, and will even run your stereo system if you have NMEA-compliant transceivers, etc.

I really like Garmin hardware except for their proprietary batteries. If you're looking at a hard wired solution, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. Some of their nicer handhelds require proprietary batteries that are very expensive and always seem to be dead right before a trip. Also their software updating/downloading is a bit cumbersome, isn't really user friendly and is fairly expensive. I do have an old copy of Fishing Hotspots in southern US that you're welcome to.

Another good option to have aboard, is the Navionics App on iPad or iPhone. Navionics takes it to the next level because their SonarCharts take current bottom contour data from their users and continually updates their maps. This is wonderful as lake/river conditions change over time. You can also download their charts on other manufacturers hardware (for example, I have Navionics charts on both the Raymarine E-series and my iPad). You can get fishfinder on it, but you'll need a transceiver that has NMEA out and a wireless transmitter. Or, if you get a higher level MFD, many of them now transmit wireless hotspots and/or bluetooth, so you can pick up the fish finder data and put that overlay on your iPad charts.

Hope that helps.

Which Navionics app should I buy for Texas lakes and Galveston Bay there are over 17 in the Google store. Thanks for your insight.

[PerunaPunch]

Boating HD Marine & Lakes, and then from within the App you can buy regions and features. I think the region maps are about $50.

[EastStang]

Those are great. But just in case, get a sextant.

[One Trick Pony]

Boating HD Marine & Lakes, and then from within the App you can buy regions and features. I think the region maps are about $50.

thanks

Bought the app, the only thing I really don't like about it is when you magnify it defaults back to a smaller size. Difficult to read the depths without screen capturing it and blowing it up. At least on the s5, perhaps a pad would be more appropriate.


Found a good setting to magnify

[SMU 86]

I can't speak for the fish finding capabilities, because I'm probably the least skilled/worst luck fisherman on the planet. But I am a Master Mariner with a 50 ton USCG license and have sailed to basically every island in the Caribbean and have logged thousands of sea miles.

Last year, I bought one of the new Raymarine E-Series multifunction displays (GPS, AIS, Radar, it even controls the sound system –- when it works). The touch screen is unreliable if it gets wet, so if you have a wet helm station I would recommend against (assuming all their touch screens perform similarly). I'm going to eBay it and am going to replace with a B&G (no fish finder though). If you have a dry helm station, I will make you a smoking deal on a barely used 9" MFD that will act as a chart plotter, fish finder, radar, AIS, low light camera display, and will even run your stereo system if you have NMEA-compliant transceivers, etc.

I really like Garmin hardware except for their proprietary batteries. If you're looking at a hard wired solution, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. Some of their nicer handhelds require proprietary batteries that are very expensive and always seem to be dead right before a trip. Also their software updating/downloading is a bit cumbersome, isn't really user friendly and is fairly expensive. I do have an old copy of Fishing Hotspots in southern US that you're welcome to. We kept a boat on Texoma for years. Great fishing up there.

Another good option to have aboard, is the Navionics App on iPad or iPhone. Navionics takes it to the next level because their SonarCharts take current bottom contour data from their users and continually updates their maps. This is wonderful as lake/river conditions change over time. You can also download their charts on other manufacturers hardware (for example, I have Navionics charts on both the Raymarine E-series and my iPad). You can get fishfinder on it, but you'll need a transceiver that has NMEA out and a wireless transmitter. Or, if you get a higher level MFD, many of them now transmit wireless hotspots and/or bluetooth, so you can pick up the fish finder data and put that overlay on your iPad charts.

My impression of Hummingbird is they are mainly just bottom contour and fish finder, so I've never really considered them.

Hope that helps.

Thanks.

[SMU 86]

Boating HD Marine & Lakes, and then from within the App you can buy regions and features. I think the region maps are about $50.

thanks

Bought the app, the only thing I really don't like about it is when you magnify it defaults back to a smaller size. Difficult to read the depths without screen capturing it and blowing it up. At least on the s5, perhaps a pad would be more appropriate.


Found a good setting to magnify

Navionics Premium Plus is the one for you.

[SMU 86]

I have the Hummingbird 999. Hummingbird is generally recognized for their side scan and that is what I really needed. Also got the Navionics chip as well. Thanks for all the input. I got everything installed and was going to go out last week but did not get a chance to do so. Looking for the next good fishing day.

[One Trick Pony]

Kept thinking I wanted to go out into Galveston Bay looking at that for the last four and a half years didn't realize the average depth was 4 foot

[SMU 86]

Did you update your Navionics chip when you purchased it?

[One Trick Pony]

I don't have a chip I have an app on my phone that is updated works great