Wayne P.

Excellent suggestion. The down looking imaging will help interpret what is displayed on 2D sonar.

Only the hook eye should be under the tubing with one hole through the tubing. Where you have the shank exiting the tubing is where it should be inserted and exit out of the end of it, not through it. After that end gets torn up, reverse the tubing so it lasts longer. The purpose of the tubing is to keep the hook eye from pulling out of the worm when fished in cover. In open water you don't need it. BTW, if you are missing hook-ups switch to a shorter Finesse worm.

The MEGA Helix 9 is way better than the Helix 7 SI. There are two Helix 9 SI versions. Helix 9 SI GPS Helix 9 MEGA SI GPS G2N The Helix 9 SI GPS comes with the Compact SI transducer. All MEGA units come with the same larger transducer. Just look at the posted images and decide if they are good enough for you. I don't use the MEGA imaging for fishing, I prefer the coverage of 462 kHz. 1200 kHz and 800 kHz has less coverage and less range. That is a result of the higher frequencies.

The Side Imaging and Down Imaging are the same with the Helix 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2. The Down Imaging view is a composite of the two SI pulses. I have that model. Raymarine does not blend the SideVision to create the DownVision. The MEGA SI units have a dedicated Down Imaging crystal and the MEGA frequency (1.2 MKz or 1200 kHz) is very sharp. The MEGA transducer is three inches longer than the standard transducer for the Helix 7's and one inch longer than the HDSI transducer. Don't have a Helix MEGA but I do have the SOLIX MEGA, same transducer, same sonar crystals, with more electrical connections. Lots of Helix MEGA images on Humminbird facebook. Some of my screen shots. It will find a fish or three like this school of crappie: And those predators and prey: Does quite well with the 462 kHz Chirped also:

I was sent some samples of that feature. Doesn't seem to be a practical use. A bridge on Lake Fork:

If you did not connect the unit directly to the battery, that will happen also when you have a weak battery or poor connections (including the boat's wiring harness).

Do a Restore Defaults to see if that will fix it.

No, push the card into the reader until it clicks (locks against the spring tension ejector)

Water

SmartStrike is a feature of HD waters, both Lakemaster High Definition Survey and High Definition Survey. Since all the same lakes are on both products, there will be Standard Definition waters on both also, but those will not have the Smart Strike feature. This is on the product page for the Mid-Atlantic region of SmartStrike: All lakes below are included on the MidAtlantic SmartStrike Version 1 and the LakeMaster Version 1 map card. SmartStrike search functionality is only available on the High Definition maps.

If you want the best performance, exchange the unused transducer and unopened transducer mount package for the HDSI transducer XHS 9 HDSI 180 T. That is handled through Humminbird Customer Service. It is about $85 including shipping. It does not add any features, just produces sharper images since it is 2" longer than the standard transducer for that model.

Good choice. I have a AS GPS HS antenna at my bow for another reason, so I can do either.

Internal GPS is great for a bow unit for contour mapping and creating/returning to waypoints since that is where the transducer would normally be with a proper installation= less rigging. I have done three lakes with Sonar Charts that are electric-only using a bow mounted unit with transducer on the bow trolling motor.

Sonar Charts is what the user generated maps are called. It is a separate map from their Nautical Charts. If is viewed by selecting FishNChip. Navionics does change their base map if the uploaded data conflicts with land. They will re-draw or create the whole shoreline if the data is shown crossing land where their base map is incorrect. All the waters I have done have been that way. They also add some of their details to the Sonar Chart map layer such as bouys, creek channel highlighting, some notes. You don't store waypoints on a map card, waypoints are written to the unit's memory. You can have waypoints, routes, and trails with no background mapping--that is GPS data, not map data. Navionics+ is available in two versions. 16GB Navionics+ Preloaded---$199 Navionics+ Regional---$149

I hope your search included the accuracy is only as good as the data collected and how much interpolation is involved in creating the contour lines. Some don't set their equipment up so they can get accurate data: GPS antenna where the transducer is and depth offset to allow for transducer depth.

PM sent with some stuff to consider.

I think you are overstating the fraud deal. The units come with a transducer that does all the functions the units were designed for with a standard craft worldwide. No different than any other marine electronics company. You may need to customize your installation for your craft and Humminbird has the accessories for that. It ain't rocket science, it's common sense.

MEGA stands for the new Imaging frequency using 1.2 MKz or 1200 kHz either as a single frequency or CHIRPed from 1.150-1.275 MKz. There are 5 models that have MEGA Imaging: Helix 9 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G2N Helix 10 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G2N Helix 12 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS G2N SOLIX 12 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS SOLIX 15 CHIRP MEGA SI GPS All of those also have 455 kHz and 800 kHz Imaging single frequency or CHIRPed. I am not an employee or pro-staff. I use their stuff and help others with their Humminbird units.

No such thing as a 7 MEGA unit. Do you know what MEGA stands for and what models are MEGA SI units?

Do you have a Humminbird MEGA SI unit?

The best for you is either Navionics or Lakemaster and the one that has the coverage you need. You can download the lake list for Lakemaster from their site and you can view the current Navionics maps on their website's Web App.

Side Imaging does slant range. It shows the distance from the transducer, not horizontal distance. Included in the image is the water column on both sides. You can get an idea by using the range lines. Look through the posted screen shots above. Do a web search for interpreting side imaging- lots of videos about it.

Yes, INTERLINK was not discontinued until the XX9 models.

Yes, I have one. It is the updated and improved ONIX, got one of those too. The ONIX to SOLIX is like the HDS Gen3 to the Carbon.