Do you like and use side imaging sonar?

[LJackson61]

Hi, I am looking at upgrading from an older 200dx B/W to newer color sonar. I want to see the lake bottom to locate areas that might hold fish. Depending on the time of year, I will fish for most all species. I will be fishing mostly in Texas and some in Oklahoma. If you have side imaging, do you use it and like it? After you have spent time looking at it were you able to figure out where you were looking at? Many have said it is difficult to figure out which side of the boat you were looking at. After much searching and reading, I am not sure it is useful enough to spend the extra money. I am looking at the HOOK² 7x with TripleShot Transducer and GPS Plotter $399.00 @ cabelas. No card reader slot and the Lowrance Hook2 7 SplitShot Sonar/GPS Combo. $329.00 @ cabelas. No card reader slot. How important are card reader slots to you? I am also considering the hummingbird competitors to these. Do you other thoughts on this?
http://www.cabelas.com/product/LOWRANCE-HOOK-X-GPS-TRIPLESHOT/2655252.uts?slotId=1

http://www.cabelas.com/product/LOWRANCE-HOOK-X-GPS-SPLITSHOT-HDI/2655251.uts?slotId=1

Why do company names and links look like they do?

 

[Watermann]

The links to iboats online competitors is software blocked in the forums so... find them here or link directly to the manufacturer website.

I have the Ray Marine DragonFly 7 Pro with downscan and really like it's features.

http://www.raymarine.com/dragonfly/dragonfly7pro/

 

[roscoe]

Me and fishing buddy both have side image units.

We both find them very confusing.
OK if you go in a straight line, not so good if you are following shoreline, or drifting and the boat is turning, or changing course to explore or mark the structure you find.

 

[LJackson61]

The links to iboats online competitors is software blocked in the forums so... find them here or link directly to the manufacturer website.

I have the Ray Marine DragonFly 7 Pro with downscan and really like it's features.

http://www.raymarine.com/dragonfly/dragonfly7pro/

Thanks Watermann

 

[LJackson61]

Me and fishing buddy both have side image units.

We both find them very confusing.
OK if you go in a straight line, not so good if you are following shoreline, or drifting and the boat is turning, or changing course to explore or mark the structure you find.

So maybe a better tool for finding places you may want to fish but not very useful while you are fishing?

 

[dingbat]

The usefulness of side scan will depend on where and how you intended on using it.

I fish inshore, offshore competivily. Running a commerical sounder but wanted to see what side scan and down scan brought to the game. Installed a Garmin Echomap CHIRP unit last Spring.

Down scan is useless. The increased resolution and target separation of spread spectrum CHIRP renders down scan obsolete.

Side scan is interesting but adds little to the way I fish. Even running what is considered a “high powered” unit (600w RMS), the power starts runnng out at 30 feet and is useless in 50 feet of water.

Side scan works pretty well
in shallow water. I kill time checking out old tires and bicycles while in the no wake zones.

Having said that, spread spectrum sonar blows my commerical unit away in terms of resolution and target separation. I went with the mId range transducer (80-160 kHZ) with (455 and 800 kHz ) side scan to take advantage of the available power of the unit.

Personally, i would invest in upgrading to “real” CHIRP and forget about the “side shows”

BTW: neither of the units you linked to support “real” CHIRP

 

[LJackson61]

Thanks for the input dingbat.

 

[nrf414]

The usefulness of side scan will depend on where and how you intended on using it.

I fish inshore, offshore competivily. Running a commerical sounder but wanted to see what side scan and down scan brought to the game. Installed a Garmin Echomap CHIRP unit last Spring.

Down scan is useless. The increased resolution and target separation of spread spectrum CHIRP renders down scan obsolete.

Side scan is interesting but adds little to the way I fish. Even running what is considered a “high powered” unit (600w RMS), the power starts runnng out at 30 feet and is useless in 50 feet of water.

Side scan works pretty well
in shallow water. I kill time checking out old tires and bicycles while in the no wake zones.

Having said that, spread spectrum sonar blows my commerical unit away in terms of resolution and target separation. I went with the mId range transducer (80-160 kHZ) with (455 and 800 kHz ) side scan to take advantage of the available power of the unit.

Personally, i would invest in upgrading to “real” CHIRP and forget about the “side shows”

BTW: neither of the units you linked to support “real” CHIRP

dingbat what is "real" CHIRP. I understand the idea and hope you can explain for others considering side scan, downscan, CHIRP etc... features

 

[LJackson61]

I have been doing a lot of reading about sonar lately. CHIRP stands for Compressed High Intensity Radar Pulse. CHIRP sonar is multi frequency. There are high, medium and low CHIRP frequency ranges. According to the article from scout.com, this has been around since the 1950’s. But is now making it’s way into sonar that is affordable.

“What CHIRP frequencies should you choose? The basics are similar to the traditional 2D sonar:

• High CHIRP (150-240 kHz) is for inland and freshwater; best choice for lure tracking, identifying game fish and baitfish targets, or for targeting game fish near structure of the bottom. For depths less than 600'.
• Medium CHIRP (80-160kHz) displays a wider coverage area, scanning large areas more quickly, showing larger fish arches but providing less detail than high CHIRP for seeing smaller objects. Like high CHIRP, it’s for depths less than 600'.
• Low CHIRP (below 80 kHz) is used in deep water over 600', offers amazing depth performance (up to 10,000') and marks targets at all depths in the water column.” (Westmarine.com)

To get high and medium CHIRP sonar in a Lowrance unit I will need to buy the Elite Ti series at the least. The HOOK2 uses high CHIRP. This is still multi frequency.

“For freshwater use, 200 kHz is the most commonly used frequency with traditional 2D sonar,” Scott said. “Without CHIRP, it would produce continuous pulses at 200 kHz. With CHIRP technology, the system will shoot one pulse at 160 kHz, then the next at 161 kHz, then 162 kHz, and all the way up to 200 kHz, and then it would start over.” (scout.com)

Lots of good info in the articles.

article about side and down scan sonar
https://www.sportfishingmag.com/how-imaging-sonar-helps-you-find-fish


A couple of articles about CHIRP sonar
https://scout.com/outdoors/bass-fis...ou-Wanted-to-Know-About-CHIRP-Sonar-101451465

https://www.westmarine.com/WestAdvisor/Understanding-CHIRP-Scanning-Sonar

 

[dingbat]

To get high and medium CHIRP sonar in a Lowrance unit I will need to buy the Elite Ti series at the least. The HOOK2 uses high CHIRP. This is still multi frequency

Technically, there is a lot more to CHIRP than just multi-frequencies......

While processing the secondary emissions of a conventional fixed frequency transducer (bandwidth = +- 5% on nominal, 83kHz = 9 kHz) might technically be CHIRP, it doesn't provide anywhere near the level of performance you get from a unit with 60 to 100+ kHz of bandwidth.

The poor “Q” values of the conventional transducers they use play into performance well, but I will not go into that here.

How do you tell the difference?
The dead give away is how the manufacturer lists the frequencies. True CHIRP is always a frequency range (i.e 95 to 55 kHz. or 120 to 210 kHz.) whereas "cheap CHIRP", for lack of a better name, lists a number of frequencies (i.e 50/83/200/455/800) and some round about, nondescript reference to High, Mid and Low which is another misnomer....

There is no need for multiple frequency ranges with CHIRP unless your an offshore guy. You want to use the highest frequency that will get the max. depth you need. A 600W, medium frequency (80-130 kHz) transducer will get you to ~600 feet. Ninety percent (90%) of the people will not need anything other than high frequency (130-210 kHz) which is good to ~300 feet.

Don't be scared to go a medium frequency if you need the depth. In side by side tests, my medium, 80-160 kHz transducer has vastly superior resolution than my 200 kHz conventional .

"Cheap CHIRP" is an improvement over conventional sonar, but a far cry from what "real" CHIRP brings to the table.


Further reading
http://www.airmar.com/uploads/Brochu...ation_2015.pdf

 

[nrf414]

Thanks for the clarification dingbat1 . Will keep in mind for my next unit and feel as though that is very helpful info to people in the market for a good FF

 

[LJackson61]

Thanks dingbat. I know I have just scratched the surface of understanding sonar.

 

[b.gagnon]

I would find a unit with the most features at the top of your budget... Side and down imaging is nice to have in certain conditions but I always end up going back to traditional sonar! Everything dingbat says is spot on. To get real chirp the transducer alone will cost you more than the units you are looking at. Looking back I should not have spent the money on side imaging, where I do most of my boating it just wasn't worth it. I just upgraded to the Raymarine Axiom 3d and cant wait to give it a try! I also have a Raymarine Dragonfly 7pro on my little Whaler and love it. For the money it is a great little unit as long as you don't need networking..

 

[LJackson61]

Thanks for the input b.gagnon. I went with the Lowrance HOOK2 5 TripleShot US Inland Maps Fishfinder/Chartplotter Combo. I went to the lake and practiced using it yesterday. I like it. I probably should have got the bigger screen. I couldn't justify it right now.