Advise on mounting and using Garmin EchoMAP 73sv

[convergent]

I have a '95 ProCraft 200 Combo that I bought a few years back with an older Lowrance fish finder. It is mounted just in front of the windshield, and has a stern mounted transducer. I use this primarily for speed, depth, and temp... and haven't really ever gotten the hang of how to use it as a fish finder. Since its mounted in front of the windshield on a swivel, when I'm fishing with the trolling motor, I can swivel it around and use it from the bow. Again, primarily for checking depth when I'm trolling into really shallow water.

I just bought a Garmin EchoMap 73sv which has SI and DI, and looking forward to really learning how to use it to help me locate fish in the larger lakes. Having never really used this stuff as its intended, I'm not sure the best way to mount. For using it as a true fish finder, would I be better off to mount it at the helm (replacing the current Lowrance), or are the SI/DI/etc. features going to be something I use more while trolling, so mounting it up at the bow might be more convenient? I could then keep the Lowrance at the helm for "at speed" depth and speed readings. I apologize if this is a stupid question, but I am a complete novice with this stuff and not sure how I'll be using it once I learn more. So bottom line, should I just pitch the existing one and replace... or use them in some combination?

By the way, I picked up the Garmin at BassProShop's Black Friday sale for half price, so didn't really think much about this before buying it. Usually I study this stuff to death, but I knew this was a much better unit than my budget would normally be able to fund, so jumped on it.

Thanks for any help/tips about how to proceed before I get to drilling!

 

[dingbat]

Leave the lowrance upfront and get a trolling motor mount transducer for it. Mount the Garmin at the helm

 

[convergent]

Leave the lowrance upfront and get a trolling motor mount transducer for it. Mount the Garmin at the helm

Thanks, good idea... so in that case I'd move the Lowrance up to the bow and remount the transducer on the trolling motor. I'll just need to fish the cable out back to the transducer. Is the reasoning that I wouldn't use the newer features of the Garmin while trolling in shallow water, or just to get the better electronics at the helm? If there was enough transducer cable to reach the bow coiled under the covers somewhere, is there any benefit to moving the transducer to the trolling motor vs. just leaving it where it is and adding the second transducer to the stern for the Garmin?


I am going to try and put the Garmin on a swivel mount so that I could spin it around to see from the bow, but would be awkward (as it is now) since its then facing backwards so all the side scanning would be mirror reversed in the image.

 

[dingbat]

Si is hard enough to interrupt using the center line of the boat as a reference. Mounting an Si transducer it on trolling motor that swivels and turns would really mess things up.

Transducers of the same frequency will interfere with each other if mounted to close together. Leave one up front and one in the back

 

[D.Burkhardt]

I am going to try and put the Garmin on a swivel mount so that I could spin it around to see from the bow, but would be awkward (as it is now) since its then facing backwards so all the side scanning would be mirror reversed in the image.

A little late but I just got one of these. I was also let down by the lack of a swivel mount. So I designed one and printed it on my 3d printer. It's available here...

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2436418

I needed to be able to see it from my fishing position and while I'm driving; which is impossible to do without being able to swivel it.

 

[GA_Boater]

Over a year and a half late. And you're selling. That's a no-no which you would see if you read our rules.

Closed.