acar555

I have a shimano conquest and it is one of the finest reels I have ever used. I almost like it better that my Calais.

I also use the palomar but when tying fluorocarbon use a little more caution, because poor knot tying it the main reason for flourocarbon break offs.

Just buy your rod from Cabela's next time. No matter why you need to replace it they will replace it for free. No need to pay the $50 from Loomis when they will do that.

Megastrike for me too!

I had a 787c2 for over a year now and absolutely love it. It has the best resolution and power for $650. Humminbird is offering a free weathersense monitor for the 700 series units thru the end of the year. You just need to pay shipping at $6. About the only accessory you might need is a cover for it when you store it. Get some time on the water with it you will love it.

I agree that there is something different with the Rico's that get them some more fish. My favorite $20 popper is the Megabass Pop Max though.

I really like my Solar Bats with the Mossback lenses. That lens works really well in a wide range of light conditions. http://www.solarbat.com/polarization.cfm Mine cost about $75. I would have bought some others, including Maui Jims and Oakleys, but the let too much light in from the sides which really defeats the purpose of polorized lenses for reducing glare. I think a lot of the polarized glasses are more style than function on the water.

The X96 is a decent sonar, but for the same money get the Humminbird 565. It offers higher resolution, higher sonar power and has dual frequency transducer. It has the same 20 degree coverage as the Lowrance and has an extra 60 degree coverage for finding fish and structure. You just get a better deal for the same price.

For the money I would look at the Shimano Stradic Mg. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewshimanostradic2500mgfa.html It is a very nice reel. I have a baitcaster Sol and I do like it a lot and thought about the Sol spinning but the Stradic Mg won me over because it cost less, weighed less and had faster gear ratio.

I have not had any problems catching 5 lb. smallmouth bass on topwater lures in very clear water (15 ft. + vis) with braid line. Powerpro and Sufix Performace braid. I use braid for all of my topwater applications. But if you are only going to use mono or fluorcarbon then use the mono because it doesn't sink.

Lucky Craft Wake Tail in Shell White

I would take a look at the Eagle Fishmark 320 or the Humminbird 535. Both have better resolution and power that the Lowrance x-86

You can check out the side imaging website that has a good video to show how the unit shows the bottom. http://www.sideimaging.com/ Just click on the "understanding side imaging" You need to remember that the boat symbol at the top of the screen shows your current positon and you are seeing what is on the lake bottom to the sides from that point. It is like having a camera mounted on the back of the boat looking left and right. If I can help our more let me know.

I think it was from a Lowrance X-15 20 degree cone angle. This is from the X-15 manual. 1. TPD-1 192-20 Wide cone angle (20 degree) for shoot-thru-hull or trolling motor mount.

At that price the Humminbird 777c2 offers the highest pixel count (640 x 480) and sonar power of any other unit. With the Quadrabeam transducer you will be able to see a much wider area of the lake and determine which side of the boat you are seeing fish and structure on. The coverage is 90 degrees which equalls twice what your depth is. For the small bump in price you will benefit with the wider view and still have the DualBeam downlooking sonar as well.

The owners manual does a good job of laying out how to install the transducer. If you need some more help or some pictures of how others have installed theirs check out the yahoo group site I linked to before. Have fun with it you will love it.

I had the oppurtunity to spend 2 days at Humminbird in Eufala, Alabama, and the demo's on the display units don't do them enough justice. We scanned a sunken barge and you could count the bolts holding down the docking cleats. You will get your best results, as far as the sharpest detail goes, in the 2-7 mph range. It does need movement for the side imaging to work. I have seen good results at speed up to about 20 mph or so. For it to work the best the transducer needs to mount stationary. A trolling motor mount would produce inconsistant images depending on how much steering you do with it. The Navionics Premium Hot Maps are very comparable to the Lowrance hard drive maps. You will actually get more maps with the Navionics, close to 8,000), than what Lowrance offers and a bunch of them have 1 foot contour lines. For an extra $200 you can get all of the Navionics in land lake and ocean maps preloading into the unit. http://www.humminbird.com/productLines_wide.asp?id=1089.

If I was asked which brand to get 5 or 6 years ago it would have been an absolute no brainer for Lowrance. But times change and Humminbird has come a long way in that time period and there current products are better price point for price point than Lowrance/Eagle and once you figure in Side Imaging there is absolutely no comparison. Humminbird is leading in innovation and features right now and Lowrance has some major catching up to do.

If the big screen is what you want most then the Lowrance Lcx-113 is the way to go. If you want a true fish and structure finding machine then go with the Humminbird 997, which has almost the same width as the Lowrance just not as tall. They do exactly what they say they can do. Check out this for user pictures from side imaging units. http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaging/photos. They are also compatible with the Navionics Platium cards that show 3d and satellite overlays. http://www.navionics.com/HMPlatinum.asp I am not very familar with the Garmin units but have noticed that their sonar resolutions are not very good for what they cost.

The Humminbird side imaging technology is awesome. It does things that no other sonar compaies equipment can even come close to doing. Check out the yahoo side imaging group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaging/

Here's a good reference for selecting a motor. http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/community/product_features/buyers_guide/pages/hardgoods/fishing/pf_ross_trolling_motor_guide.html

The Humminbird 640X480 resolution screens are really nice, I love my 787c2 which is the same as the 777c2 expect the 787 has the gps in the box.

Both Navionics and Hot Spots (Lowrance) make good map cards that show similar levels of detail in most cases. The Hot Spots Pro maps cover just over 3,200 lakes but the Navionics 2007 Hotmaps Premium cover almost 11,000. So going with pure lake coverage you will find way more lakes with Navionics. The Hot Spots pro only work on Lowrace and Eagle products. They also give fishing spot information on some of the lakes, which depending on your fishing experience may or may not be beneficial. If you decide to get either buy it thru Cabela's they have the best no hassle return policy in the business.

The Humminbird units will typically offer the most resolution and sonor power for the money. I would look at the Humminbird 343c which has dual beam transducer and higher sonar power than the 141c for only about $50 more, still under $300. The 383c is the same as the 343c execpt it add gps to it for $399. The 747 does offer a larger display and higher power but the same resolution as the smaller units. The one advantage of the Humminbird 700 series units is the available add ons. You can add gps, weather sense, wireless sonar, etc at a later time if you wanted to.

The problem, like you said, is that the 2 modules use different connectors. The old connector wasn't NMEA 2000 compliant so Lowrance had to change it. The latest update for your LCX-17 is from 2005 and doesn't offer support for the new LGC-3000 gps module. Some of last years models did recieve and update for LGC-3000 support though, so unless there was a way to connect the new module to and old unit what good would that do anybody. I think you best bet would be to contact Lowrance and see if they offer a solution for you.