Wayne P.

You can make any unit portable. I have a portable setup for a Humminbird 1198c SI to use on some else's boat when needed.

The Red/Green pallet was developed for the glacial waters like the Great Lakes. It makes finding hard to soft bottom areas easy (that is about the only "structure" that concentrates the fish) and is being used to quickly locate the shell beds on river systems (especially the Tennesse River).Yes, the Inverse color shows the fish the best for my eyes. Your results may vary. Use the Enhance Sharpness setting of Low or Med.

There another application for a miniture model of that rig. How about five 1/32 oz crappie jigs?

Yes, in most cases. I use the Inverse SI color for showing fish most of the time. Brown is the second best for my eyes. Also set the Enhance Sharpness to Low or Medium to highlight the fish. With any of the colors, the Sharpness setting is the one to makes fish really stand out from the background.

Agree about the boat. The best rod/reel made is worthless if you can't get to where the fish are.

This is an example of using the remote/video camera:

At Fork, those concentrations of white spots could be crappie or sand bass. Sometimes you can tell the difference between the two by using DI, the crappie's body is wider from top to bottom. Use the DI zoom for a better look. I use 455 kHz for Imaging because of the horizontal coverage from the water surface to past vertical. The 800 kHz has less coverage ( check the units specs.) and less depth capability. I turn on the 800 kHz occasionally to check some close returns, but that is very rare. With sonar, the higher the frequency, the less depth capabilty you have. That is why 50 kHz or lower is used for real deep water. This is the Rt.515 bridge up from Lake Fork Marina that a friend of mine did with his Lowrance SS equipment when he first got it. He was checking out the overlay feature of 2D/DS

I use a video camera that has a remote control and does stills. I put the camera on a mount attached to a pole that fits my back deck seat pedistal socket. I turn the display towards me, compose the picture and take a snapshot or video using the remote. I know what the picture will look like before I take it.

scrutch, that trolling motor RF interference is a bear to deal with. The support that Humminbird has is the best in the industry in dealing with that issue. What some don't realize is that it is not an issue to the unit, it is an issue with the trolling motor that needs to be "fixed".

scrutch, the SI range lines only show the distance from the transducer, it does not indicate how far horizontally something is. The actual horizontal distance is less than what is displayed and the amount of offset depends on how deep the water is because the distance is an angle measurement. That data is available, but the Humminbird unit does not display it. You can see that data if you play back a recording with HumViewer. It is somewhat shown when the Contour Mode is turned on, but the range line numbers are turned off in Contour Mode.

Yes, the voltage has nothing to do with its operation. It is just a simple single pole momentary contact switch with a hold on lever. The AMP capacity of the contacts can handle any trolling motor. What fails is the rubber covering.

The white spots are fish of some sort, you can't be sure unless you catch one or know the history of the water. Here is a very large bass attacking a school of shad. This is crappie and bass at a bridge support with millions of shad forming clouds in the water: This is shad schools near a submerged road with the creek crossing removed: This is a group of bass with their shadows on the bottom--I know they were bass since I caught two of them:

redboat, when the Mark button is pushed with the Snaphot feature turned on, that snaphot is saved directly to the SD card, it is not saved in the unit's memory to be "downloaded" to the SD card. When a snapshot is done, it also creates a waypoint with a S prefix and a camera icon is assigned. If the snapshot is kept on the card and that card remains in the unit, when the boat icon or the map curser is at that waypoint, a thumbnail size snaphots is shown on the Chart view.

Hard bottom areas return stronger sonar pulses and that shows up as brighter areas on the bottom:

Hard bottom to weeds looks like this with Side Imaging:

waskeyc, shallow fish are no problem. This is a screen shot of a lake upper end creek channel with bait fish and bass that had moved there due to a heavy summer rain that cooled the water in that area. Note the depth. I caught two of the bass (white streaks at the top right). The bait fish is the fuzzy white blob in the creek channel at the middle right side of the view. The creek is the darker area caused by the sonar beam not seeing down in the creek channel due to the angle. I "sight fish" all year in all depths using SI. "It's so easy a cave man can do it"

That is true and goes with the saying "if you want to play, you have to pay"

brian, you can get a Humminbird 570 DI that has Down Imaging and dual frequency 2D sonar for less than $300 if that technology is what you want. The almost equivalent Lowrance unit is the Mark 5X DSI at the same price but it only has Down Scan. The color versions in both brands are about $250 more.

Both companies make quality units. You need to decide what features you want, and how much you are willing to pay for them. Visit a Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas, ect and push some buttons to decide which you like, then ask about a particular model/s. There are promoters and detractors for both brands, only YOU can decide what suits you.

Humminbird, Garmin, Lowrance, and Eagle have great 2D sonar units in that price range with GPS and color displays. You should visit a Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, ect,. Push some buttons to see which one appeals to you. Then ask about a specific one or two for an opinion.

Good point Clint about the sunlight viewability of the gray scale displays. That applies to any brand of sonar. The color displays are a lot better in direct sunlight. For those that don't know, whether it is the Humminbird DI unit or the Lowrance DSI unit, each one needs movement to produce the images. That process involves a narrow front to back sonar pulse that is wide to the sides. It functions somewhat like a CAT scan to produce the images. The best use of that technology is with the boat moving so the transducer can SCAN. It is basically worthless for vertical presentations like spooning or drop shotting because of the thin beam. The Humminbird Down Imaging units also have regular dual beam 2D sonar and the Lowrance is Down Scan only. If you like to ride aound watching the sonar unit, seeing what stuff looks like, then either one is fine for that. For a good functional fishing setup, you need both technologies and that takes two separate units with the Lowrance equipment.

Good suggestion, I have a 105# 36V bow mount on my 16' Tracker and supplement it with a 80# 24V transom motor when fishing electric only waters.

It's called Maturity. Some gain it early in life and some never do. His "meltdown" was due to him getting hung up again like the previous scene where he was hung up on some fishing line as he heard about the other guy catching a legal fish to win. Kind if childish IMHO.

Of the three Image series, Pop'n, Spit'n, and Swim'n, I have the most success with the Swim'n Image using the same retrieve styles like walking the dog, and popping. An occasional subsurface action seems to generate the most strikes.

jeremy, that sale is on the discontinued 798ci SI not the 2011 model year 798ci HD SI. The 798ci HD SI is not being discontinued, BUT you can still get one of those at below MSRP if you deal with a marine electronics dealer instead of the big box general sporting goods places like Cabelas and Bass Pro.