School me on a GPS/Fishfinder/Chartplotter

[AZDANSX230HO]

My Wife and I were talking about a joint Birthday Gift to each other yesterday as our Birthdays are within 5 days of each other in November. We decided a GPS/Fishfinder/Chartplotter is what we want. We have recently got back into fishing now that the kids are all grown up, it was hard for us to fish when the kids were growing up as we spent most of our time helping them fish. We enjoy fishing in the mornings on the lake, we enjoy going to Lake Powell and would like to ditch using paper maps to navigate the entire lake, would like to be able to see how fast the boat is actually going vs. the speedometer, and lastly our depth gauge works, but the transducer does not work. I figure I will mount the transducer where the current transducer is located for the depth gauge and fish the wiring through the existing hole.

We want a unit that will perform the following:

Fish Finder
Depth Gauge
GPS for Boat Speed
GPS for Lake Maps

Budget, up to $ 1000.00 for a good reliable unit. Let me know your thoughts!!!

 

[Bruce]

We have the original 6" Raymarine Dragonfly. @justason recently installed the current 5" model. Several other members have 4" and 7" models. I installed the transducer in the factory location. It provides depth readings up to 30 MPH. Above that I use the charts to stay in known channels. In the spring Raymarine typically offers rebates of $100 on the 5" and $150 on the 7". Shopping around I considered a 5 Pro for around $350 after rebate last spring. The Dragonfly has been very reliable. I damaged a transducer cable and their customer service replaced the entire transducer.

Several members have installed Simrad Gos recently. From what I have seen I really like the looks of their navigation mode. Currently there is a $100 rebate on the 5" model through Sept 30th.

The biggest issue for Navigation is having quality maps. When I bought my Dragonfly the Navionics Gold maps were canned maps that did not include my local lakes. I purchased Navionics Updates for $99 a year to get detailed maps for my lakes. Now Raymarine provides a year of Updates with your purchase instead of the canned maps.

Using the Update maps I can navigate 40,000 acre 200 island Lake Ouachita on a new moon night and find the maps accurate to the level of even indicating the location of buoys.

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

Thanks for the information Bruce, I will check into those.

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

I am really liking the GO5 XSE:

http://www.thegpsstore.com/Simrad-GO5-XSE-with-Insight-Mapping-and-TotalScan-Transducer-P4817.aspx?gclid=CNr8wKv7qs8CFYRmfgodteECtw

 

[Bruce]

My only concern is that I am unfamiliar with the Insight Charts included in that bundle. You need to make sure that it provides the coverage that you need. Otherwise you will end up spending hundreds more for Navionics charts.

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

My only concern is that I am unfamiliar with the Insight Charts included in that bundle. You need to make sure that it provides the coverage that you need. Otherwise you will end up spending hundreds more for Navionics charts.

I can order it with the Navionics for $ 639.00 and still get the $ 100.00 rebate.

http://simrad.factoryoutletstore.com/details/285276/simrad-go5-xse-nav-totalscan.html?category_id=71725&catalogitemid=257672

 

[Bruce]

Insight has a free fishing app that appears to have maps. You might compare that against Navoincs charts for the areas you boat.
https://gofreemarine.com/apps/hooked/?utm_source=gfm_blog&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=Hooked_download320x210&utm_campaign=Hooked

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

Insight has a free fishing app that appears to have maps. You might compare that against Navoincs charts for the areas you boat.
https://gofreemarine.com/apps/hooked/?utm_source=gfm_blog&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=Hooked_download320x210&utm_campaign=Hooked

Will do, I just ordered the Go5 XSE through the GPS Store, they offered free 2-day shipping, so I can get it installed before next weekend which will be our last outing to the lake. I looked at the Navionics Premium Map List of Lakes and it covers all the lakes we boat on, so we should be good to go.

I thought it was cool that Simrad uses Yamaha Boats in their video:

 

[bronze_10]

The chart plotter I juat bought from garmin was kinda expensive and more than I need but I had an industry cupon that would take off 35% on any thing I purchased. On the farming Web site all the ones that come with the transducers were unavailable due to being back ordered Soni got rhe echo map chirp 74sv. With my discount it was still within my budget but it didn't come with the transducer due to the backorder. kosT dealERS have the tranSDUCER for aBout 600 due to it being dOwn viEW and siDE view. I just checked west marine and bought one on their clearance sale for a little over 370.. check with west marine today... do it like right now! Stuff is going quick!

 

[2nazt]

I like the Simrad line also. But it is usually customer preference. Some don't like touch screen and prefer buttons etc, some only use Garmin. I think for all around use and look and quality Simrad is good for me. I know @ClemsonTiger has some good knowledge on plotters and transducers if you have questions.

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

I like the Simrad line also. But it is usually customer preference. Some don't like touch screen and prefer buttons etc, some only use Garmin. I think for all around use and look and quality Simrad is good for me. I know @ClemsonTiger has some good knowledge on plotters and transducers if you have questions.

Did a lot of research on them this morning, Simrad & Lowrance are owned by the same company Navico. Simrad seems to be more of a salt water favorite unit with what I have read on some other forums, I think it will do more than we will ever need. I do like the built-in Wifi so I can download updates or maps.

 

[subysti]

I've had multiple humminbird combos over the years and loved them all. I currently have a 698ci with side imaging, chartplotter and fishfinder. When I bought this one a couple years ago I went with it because it was the only unit that could do side imaging with 2 transducers and split the beam so the center keel wouldn't block the signal.

 

[Evil Sports]

I have a Lowrance Elite 7, I use the GPS mapping and the depth finder but I dont get too tricky with all the different screens and sonar signals. You will find once you dial up the screens that suit you most of the time, you dont deviate from them so all the other "Features" rarely get used. Keep that in mind when looking at price vs features.
http://www.cabelas.com/product//2398375.uts?productVariantId=4989531&WT.tsrc=PPC&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=04681587&rid=20&gclid=CObZ_aSIrc8CFdgIgQod2c0Dtg&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

I installed my SIMRAD GO5 XSE this weekend, it was not fun drilling holes, routing cables, etc. But very impressed with this init.

 

[Summers420us]

I installed my SIMRAD GO5 XSE this weekend, it was not fun drilling holes, routing cables, etc. But very impressed with this init.

View attachment 47041

Looks good!

Show us transducer install!

How does it work at top speed?

Are you using Side Scan?

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

Looks good!

Show us transducer install!

How does it work at top speed?

Are you using Side Scan?

Thanks, I have not had the boat on the lake yet, installed this over the weekend, will not be able to take it to the lake for two more weeks, then I can report back on how everything works.

 

[Benny Sibbitt]

Will do, I just ordered the Go5 XSE through the GPS Store, they offered free 2-day shipping, so I can get it installed before next weekend which will be our last outing to the lake. I looked at the Navionics Premium Map List of Lakes and it covers all the lakes we boat on, so we should be good to go.

I thought it was cool that Simrad uses Yamaha Boats in their video:

did you ever install the simrad 5?
How do you like?

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

did you ever install the simrad 5?
How do you like?

I did and it's great, money well spent.

 

[Mystic1906]

I did and it's great, money well spent.

@AZDANSX230HO Does the 5" seem like enough or do you wish you had gotten a bigger screen? I'm liking the Simrad the more research I do but I want to go with the 5" screen. My boy Bennie who asked about yours bought and installed the 7. I like it but I feel like it takes up a lot of the console (plus it's a little out of my budget right now).

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

@AZDANSX230HO Does the 5" seem like enough or do you wish you had gotten a bigger screen? I'm liking the Simrad the more research I do but I want to go with the 5" screen. My boy Bennie who asked about yours bought and installed the 7. I like it but I feel like it takes up a lot of the console (plus it's a little out of my budget right now).

The 5 inches is perfect, no regrets!