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Random Quote: Neccessity is the Mother of invention. Hunger is the Father.
I'm in the market for a GPS fishfinder. I'm looking at both Humminbird 788c and the Lowrance HDS5. An example of how I want to use it is being able to fish the edge of drop off and keep my boat on it. Are these units accurate enough to let me follow the drop off. Also which one would you recommend?
I have a 5m and a 5x. The M died. I sent it back to Lowrance and they sent me a new unit.
Fuctionaly they work great. I'm not familiar with the Humminbird line.
An example of how I want to use it is being able to fish the edge of drop off and keep my boat on it. Are these units accurate enough to let me follow the drop off.
Any fishfinder will do that.
Not much of an argument that Lowrance 2D sonar is superior to
Humminbird. Only Humminbird has side scan, which may not interest
you, but by November Lowrance will have side scan and down scan
that will work with any HDS sonar unit.
If you are really interested in Humminbird, this is a good place to ask any Humminbird questions (mostly a Lowrance/Humminbird board.
TCM...Okay here comes the I'm an idiot part. I fish a large lake, usually windy, after I catch a fish, get it off the hook and in the live well the boat has blown off course and I get disoreented, as a result I lose the dropoff I'm trying to fish. What I'm hoping for is that the elctronics ( with enhanced maps) are accurate enough to allow me to quickly find and follow the drop off again by using the GPS maps. Or am I expecting too much?
If you have a GPS, you can consider to use the quick Man over board (MOB) key. I know it is not what it is designed for, but that this a very short (usually one press key) procedure helping you find back your original position. Or just keep the visible track on the GPS screen.
You will also see your boats trail on the plotter and can back track very easily. Some days when I'm finished fishing the plotter looks like an Etchasketch (sp). Great tool for drifting over the same area repeatedly.
Lowrance is comong out with a side scan soon. Will also have a 3d "look down" mode along with the ability to mark structure on the chart plotter by clicking on the image on the fish finder. Check thier site
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Any fishfinder will do that.
Not much of an argument that Lowrance 2D sonar is superior to
Humminbird..
I disagree. You have to be specific regarding models and transducers. Humminbird 2D sonar in their cheap models sucks..(but is as good or better than any of the same price level competitors) but in the top of the line models is as good as any competing brand in the same price range with the factory supplied transducers.
You can make any fishfinder look better by adding a better transducer.
Compared to a HDS almost everything is better on the Lowrance unit.
Compared to previous generation Lowrance. Test going from shallow water to 1000' (in a clear lake) and see whats happen. Using 200kHz Lowrance will track the bottom all the way without problems. Halfway down the Humminbird will losse bottom and start searching.
Humminbird is probably a nice unit for shallow waters, but it's defenitly not a deep water machine. Humminbird tech's have visited the deep Norwegian fjords to try to improve the deep water performance, I don't think they have had much luck yet. The deepest fjord in Norway is about 4300' deep. Typically in less than 5 minutes you can go from 100' to several thousand feets, that a good testlab for sounder development.
Compared to a HDS almost everything is better on the Lowrance unit.
Compared to previous generation Lowrance. Test going from shallow water to 1000' (in a clear lake) and see whats happen. Using 200kHz Lowrance will track the bottom all the way without problems. Halfway down the Humminbird will losse bottom and start searching.
Humminbird is probably a nice unit for shallow waters, but it's defenitly not a deep water machine. Humminbird tech's have visited the deep Norwegian fjords to try to improve the deep water performance, I don't think they have had much luck yet. The deepest fjord in Norway is about 4300' deep. Typically in less than 5 minutes you can go from 100' to several thousand feets, that a good testlab for sounder development.
Oh baloney. Norway, who cares. Maybe Lowrance needs to learn some quality control and customer service from Humminbird since the reliability of Lowrance is in the bottom of that fjord in "Norway."
Oh baloney. Norway, who cares. Maybe Lowrance needs to learn some quality control and customer service from Humminbird since the reliability of Lowrance is in the bottom of that fjord in "Norway."
Typical Humminbird user. Has to defend Humminbird by attacking another manufacturer. Face the facts. Humminbird has an average 2D sonar, about equal to a Garmin, an average GPS/chart plotter, a head start on side scanning they they didn't develop any farther, and no market outside of fresh water lakes. There are about 400 boats in the marina where I keep my boat. Have never seen one Humminbird. The local West marine does not even have a Humminbird display. Bass Boats in this area? If they don't have a Lowrance, then they have an Eagle. Cut down Lowrance products and service all you want. It's not helping to sell Humminbirds.
This board has become less than useful for it's original purpose. And now attacking a persons country of origin. I'm with "Hewesfisher", I've had enough.
DryRot, Birdman, and a few others that make this board what it is,
Good luck!!
Oh baloney. Norway, who cares. Maybe Lowrance needs to learn some quality control and customer service from Humminbird since the reliability of Lowrance is in the bottom of that fjord in "Norway."
If you had read what I wrote you would have seen my Lowrance vs Humminbird comparison was done in freshwater not in a fjord.
I have a HDS and a FCV-620 in my boat and a Humminbird collecting dust in my basement.
I guess more advanced fishfinders are developed and manufactured in Norway than what's done in US.
Agree with part of your post, but do think you are a little over the top to take "oh baloney, Norway, who cares" and turn it into an "attack" on someone's "country of origin." Sheesh (and I'm half of Norwegian extraction....mom's an Erickson.}
My Humminbird has 800 x 480 pixels.. 8" screen. The Lowrance hd5 is a 5" screen with 480 x 480.
I agree that the lowrance downscan looks better than the humminbird side scan, but comparing the images of the 2d sonar - I think the humminbird display looks better, sharper and clearer. I fish in water up to 150 feet deep - so to me it doesn't matter that lowrance can reach thousands of feet deep.
A better comparison would have been the HD8 to the humminbird.. these are about the same price, and the HD8 has better resolution - 800 x 600.
Just a pity the leisure part of Simrad is not longer a part of Kongsberg Group.
Just curious, what model Humminbird is collecting dust in your basement? Since Humminbird was bought by Johnson Outdoors, they have moved light years ahead. I believe they are geared more towards freshwater fishermen, rather than salt though. Being that you are in Europe, I'm sure you deal with a different customer service than a US Lowrance customer. Here a call to Lowrance customer service can be a 1 hour wait on the phone. Call Garmin or Humminbird and it's 10 minutes or less. Lowrance has some great technogy,but since they were bought out a few years ago, and their quality has sunken drastically!
Humminbird vs. Lowrance GPS Fishfinder
