if you get a current one 500 gets you near the bottom of the line unless you get the smallest screen. even then. much better to get a close out end of the year better model.

i hate to say this but for 500 and lake fishing i would get a humminbird.

and if leaving the boat out in the weather in the winter take your f.f. inside so you wont have to be here complaining how such and such is a lousy unit.

 

As someone who used to use Lowrance exclusively, I will say this: get anything but a Lowrance. Personally, I feel they have fallen way behind, especially on reliability.

I like Garmins. I like Raymarine. I even like the Humminbirds. All better than the Lowrance right now.

For that price, I would try and find a deal on a Raymarine Dragonfly Pro. I thought I saw one on the classifieds NIB in that price range.

RW

 

I saw that on the classifieds and found same unit same price shipped from A

 

To add to the confusion, I am going to buy Simrad GO 7 XSE to include Navionics and transducer at $599.00.

Lots of threads on ifish with pros and cons.

 

The Garmin striker 7 is a reliable and simple to use unit. I have one on my duck boat and I'm happy with it. I haven't spoken to many salmon fishermen who ever found the sv useful. The dv yes, the sv no. :twocents:

 

just installed a Garmin Striker plus 7cv. easy to use and like the quickdraw and wifi features. all for $399. picked it up to have a second unit in the boat. before garmin came out with the new striker plus I was thinking about getting a dragonfly pro. i'm just used to how the garmin's operate so went with it.

 

I would look at the Raymarine dragonfly. If Raymarine doesn’t interest you then the Garmin Striker 7


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I will never buy Lowrance again. I had an Elite 5dsi on my last boat I bought new. Hated it. Showed fish as tiny specs slightly larger than pieces of pepper. A friend had the same unit and it was exact the same, so not a problem with my unit, a problem with the model. I thought maybe it was a problem with the DSI line. I now have a Lowrance hds7 gen2 and I don?t like it. Has a new transducer and doesn?t show fish when I know they are there, like Kokanee schools. Just bought a Hummingbird Helix that I have yet to use, but always had great luck with them in the past. Cheap, simple to operate, durable. The Lowrance is now only my navigation screen. I know guys that dig Lowrance and have hds10?s and 12?s gen 3 and I?ve fished with them but would personally take a hummingbird 7? over them any day. I want a fish to look like an arch and that?s it.
As for Garmin, my fishing partner has 2 in his boat linked to closed array radar and all that jazz with an Airmar razoo transducer. Biggest screen I?ve ever seen. Can?t ever get them to show fish as arches or fish symbols. Or anything else for that matter. I?m pretty well versed as how to operate all of them and have done tons of research on his and mine and haven?t gotten desirable results. Hummingbird stuff is cheap, easy to operate, and works well.
No experience with Raymarine. Also no idea why my apostrophes show up as question marks.

 

Down scan imaging was designed for structure not fish finding that's why they show up so small. Traditional sonar shows fish better, down scan and side scan show where they will hold or travel. That being said I had the same unit before it was garbage. It would not hold bottom even at anchor in anything deeper than 75-80ft. Lowrance said update the software so I did no change. Then they sent me a new transducer paid a boat shop to put that one in thinking I may have installed the first one wrong, no change. Then they send send the unit to them they told me it was not sending the right amount of power to the transducer and because it was out of warranty all they could do was offer me credit towards a new model. So I bought a Garmin could not be happier.

 

Dragonfly7pro!!!

 

Raymarine.

I know a guy who bought a Garmin last year, and he really likes it.

Lowrance just seems to hit and miss to spend any $ on.

 

Dont buy Lowrance unless you are very comfortable with computers. There are so many complaints about this brand on this forum by alot of recurring individuals claiming that they are junk buyer beware when really the operator settings for the sonar are to blame most of the time.

I have helped many people over the last few years set up their gen3 machines properly even though they had been using them for a while. The common one I have seen is to have it set on the wrong water type and frequency setting after 'no arch' complaints and similar. Next is improper trans mounting so loses bottom at speed.

I admit that even I will have to take time to re-familiarize myself to find the hidden tier of sonar settings after not having used mine for some months. If I can fault the new gen of Lowrance it would be more on its user friendliness.

But when you have it all set up properly I believe you get the best bang for the buck with this brand in a touch screen if you want regular and sidescan. I use the airmar tm150 trans with my one.

 

If you want true down scan DO NOT buy Garmin! Lowrance owns the technology and Garmin refuses to pay up for it. Garmin version stitches together side scanning and fakes down scan. After doing a year of research and talking to a ton of reps and fishermen I recently bought a Lowrance Hook 2-7 triple shot and I LOVE it!!! Garmin has some better features and a clearer screen but for my use a true down scan/ side scan was most important. I have had every brand of sonar that you can think of over the past 40 years, used them as a recreational and commercial use and have only had one problem with Lowrance and it was because I left it in a storage compartment over winter with a wet line. Condensation inside the unit fried it when I fired it up but it is being fixed.

 

I was told by the Lowrance rep that sets up my units,, they made a big change to the new Hook,s transducer but aren't admitting it , weird story ? supposed to be much better.

Personally I would not buy anything less then a HDS and I buy used :twocents:

 

I was about to pull the trigger on an HDS-7 but after researching it. for what I am going to use it for it made no sense to dump an extra several hundred $$ on features that I really don't care about. I don't like touch screen, the transducer with the base model does not do what I want and the other networking stuff I have no use for. So far the Hook 2-7 has been perfect for what I need. Unless it is an outboard, I'm not one of those guys that has to have the biggest and best for minimal usage.

 

DON"T BUY LOWRANCE! You'll be sorry.... Raymarine or Garmin