How important are your electronics...

Ok my two cents for what its worth

Everyone has their own style of fishing. Are you a boater or a crawdad guy? So that being said get electronics that suit your style.

I fish shallow 90 percent of the time. Do I need SI or high priced electronics for this? All I need is water temp, GPS and color. You can pick up a decent color unit for around $300.00.

Tommy is right on. If you will never find yourself spending lots of time out over 15-40' of water, there is no need for any fancy features. Water temp and depth is about it. Watts and pixles are important. The more watts a unit has the more powerful it is. More power = better , more accurate results. Pixles are what make up the screen. The more pixles you have the more detail the picure on the screen will have. The more watts and pixles you have the easier it is for your unit to show you the difference between a hard bottom and soft bottom, weeds and fish
Now lets talk transducer cones and angles. I believe the cone angle on most transducers is around 20* ( I think it is actually 17* but I am not 100% sure. That means that your "cone" or the circle that your actualy looking at is 8"... thats inches in diameter for every 1 foot of depth. So if you are in 10' of water you have a circle or picture with a diameter of 80" or 6' 6". In other words you are seeing a 6'6" circle of lake bottom on your screen. Thats 3 feet in each direction of the transducer location..... in other words, not very much.
remember that the deal with side scan is that you are only supposed to scan out to the side 1/2 the distance of the depth you are in. So if you are in 20' you should be scanning out 10 feet to either side of you to get an accurate picture, or at least thats what was told to me by someone who's in the know. Its not like with side scanning you can put your boat in 10' of water 50 yards from shore and see everything from you to shore.

Rich my units can shoot 240 feet per side. The smaller area you scan the better picture you can optain. Also to get that max coverage you need to be in deeper water. One of the advantages to scanning wider is you can mark a piece of sturture far away from the boat mark it and go to it via your GPS. When using the wider option you can scan more water in less time and then go back to the good areas and then pull in the scan for a better veiw. As far as putting your boat in ten feet of water and scaning a shore, yes you can. These units can do amazing things when you take the time to learn them. That being said I've had side imaging for five or six years whenever they came out and I still have alot to learn. Just like fishing it's all about time on the water.

Ok my two cents for what its worth

Everyone has their own style of fishing. Are you a boater or a crawdad guy? So that being said get electronics that suit your style.

I fish shallow 90 percent of the time. Do I need SI or high priced electronics for this? All I need is water temp, GPS and color. You can pick up a decent color unit for around $300.00.

Tommy is right on. If you will never find yourself spending lots of time out over 15-40' of water, there is no need for any fancy features. Water temp and depth is about it. Watts and pixles are important. The more watts a unit has the more powerful it is. More power = better , more accurate results. Pixles are what make up the screen. The more pixles you have the more detail the picure on the screen will have. The more watts and pixles you have the easier it is for your unit to show you the difference between a hard bottom and soft bottom, weeds and fish
Now lets talk transducer cones and angles. I believe the cone angle on most transducers is around 20* ( I think it is actually 17* but I am not 100% sure. That means that your "cone" or the circle that your actualy looking at is 8"... thats inches in diameter for every 1 foot of depth. So if you are in 10' of water you have a circle or picture with a diameter of 80" or 6' 6". In other words you are seeing a 6'6" circle of lake bottom on your screen. Thats 3 feet in each direction of the transducer location..... in other words, not very much.
remember that the deal with side scan is that you are only supposed to scan out to the side 1/2 the distance of the depth you are in. So if you are in 20' you should be scanning out 10 feet to either side of you to get an accurate picture, or at least thats what was told to me by someone who's in the know. Its not like with side scanning you can put your boat in 10' of water 50 yards from shore and see everything from you to shore.

Rich my units can shoot 240 feet per side. The smaller area you scan the better picture you can optain. Also to get that max coverage you need to be in deeper water. One of the advantages to scanning wider is you can mark a piece of sturture far away from the boat mark it and go to it via your GPS. When using the wider option you can scan more water in less time and then go back to the good areas and then pull in the scan for a better veiw. As far as putting your boat in ten feet of water and scaning a shore, yes you can. These units can do amazing things when you take the time to learn them. That being said I've had side imaging for five or six years whenever they came out and I still have alot to learn. Just like fishing it's all about time on the water.

Ken, I probably should have left out that last bit about the side scanning. I admitedly dont know a lot about it and was going on the words of others.

Ok my two cents for what its worth

Everyone has their own style of fishing. Are you a boater or a crawdad guy? So that being said get electronics that suit your style.

I fish shallow 90 percent of the time. Do I need SI or high priced electronics for this? All I need is water temp, GPS and color. You can pick up a decent color unit for around $300.00.

Tommy is right on. If you will never find yourself spending lots of time out over 15-40' of water, there is no need for any fancy features. Water temp and depth is about it. Watts and pixles are important. The more watts a unit has the more powerful it is. More power = better , more accurate results. Pixles are what make up the screen. The more pixles you have the more detail the picure on the screen will have. The more watts and pixles you have the easier it is for your unit to show you the difference between a hard bottom and soft bottom, weeds and fish
Now lets talk transducer cones and angles. I believe the cone angle on most transducers is around 20* ( I think it is actually 17* but I am not 100% sure. That means that your "cone" or the circle that your actualy looking at is 8"... thats inches in diameter for every 1 foot of depth. So if you are in 10' of water you have a circle or picture with a diameter of 80" or 6' 6". In other words you are seeing a 6'6" circle of lake bottom on your screen. Thats 3 feet in each direction of the transducer location..... in other words, not very much.
remember that the deal with side scan is that you are only supposed to scan out to the side 1/2 the distance of the depth you are in. So if you are in 20' you should be scanning out 10 feet to either side of you to get an accurate picture, or at least thats what was told to me by someone who's in the know. Its not like with side scanning you can put your boat in 10' of water 50 yards from shore and see everything from you to shore.

Rich my units can shoot 240 feet per side. The smaller area you scan the better picture you can optain. Also to get that max coverage you need to be in deeper water. One of the advantages to scanning wider is you can mark a piece of sturture far away from the boat mark it and go to it via your GPS. When using the wider option you can scan more water in less time and then go back to the good areas and then pull in the scan for a better veiw. As far as putting your boat in ten feet of water and scaning a shore, yes you can. These units can do amazing things when you take the time to learn them. That being said I've had side imaging for five or six years whenever they came out and I still have alot to learn. Just like fishing it's all about time on the water.

Ken, I probably should have left out that last bit about the side scanning. I admitedly dont know a lot about it and was going on the words of others.

Rich, no problem just passing along what little I know about them.

I have ability to add down-scan and side scan. My friend who fishes big water more often that not recommends i do not waste my money for most bodies of water if fish which are moderately small and not real deep.
This seems correct to me, anybody?

o the side scan, since the angle of the cone of that transducer is different, the rule of thumb is whatever depth your in, double it on your side scan. 15 ft of water, scan 30 ft out

I have ability to add down-scan and side scan. My friend who fishes big water more often that not recommends i do not waste my money for most bodies of water if fish which are moderately small and not real deep.
This seems correct to me, anybody?

Again...It's not what a friend does, its what you do. It may not be a waist of money if you plan on using it. It's a great tool IF it benefits your fishing style. It's alot of coin to spend on others opinion. Do your homework and research it on-line, youtube and talk to others that have it. Then base your decision on what you learn. I was one of the first guys in our club to purchase the Talon. A couple of the guys laughed and said what a waiste of money. Well I wouldn't be catching some of my fish without it. My Talon was a huge factor when I caught my 19+ lb bag at a tournament this year.


If you plan on fishing places like Winni, Candlewood so on...then it's almost a must.

Good luck with your decision.

for the guys looking at buying an "advanced" basic until without side or down imaging, the humminbird i have that i posted before gives you 2 areas either separately or simultaneously.

the 200khz narrow beam covers (20 degrees) about 1/3 of your depth and the 83 khz wide beam (60 degrees) covers your depth so in 30', the narrow beam covers 10' and the wide beam covers 30'.

and i agree. the reason i got the one i did was because i fish a lot of deep, clear water. i also fish the slop...but i turn it off or change views in the shallower, muddier / weedier places.

I have ability to add down-scan and side scan. My friend who fishes big water more often that not recommends i do not waste my money for most bodies of water if fish which are moderately small and not real deep.
This seems correct to me, anybody?

Jay, If it's big or small water if it has depth or structure it's a great tool.
I have found pieces of cover in ponds and lakes I've fished for years and never knew they were there. It also gives you a better ability to see what you have been fishing hard bottom , rock ect. It also gives you an idea of the shape of the structure your fishing. To be able to find and pinpoint something the size of a boat or smaller with relative ease is awesome. Also Jay if you have a newer unit go to the Humminbird site to check for updates the down imaging update is free for most models.