Wayne P.

There is a spiral gear on the shaft the the gear is attached to. That spiral gear is what extends the lower part with the wheel on it. That should have some lubricant on it, its the part that fails due to lack of maintenance. That means you have to take more effort than just putting grease on the top gears.

A HDI model makes more sense than a DSI model. The HDI has traditional 2D sonar too. The 2D gives you more coverage for fishing.

A properly installed Side Imaging transducer will give you on-plane depth readings., no matter which one you choose. That goes for any sonar technology. If you already have good performance with your 170, you can do the same with the HDSI transducer.

This is the 200' of coverage. The light area on the right is aquatic weeds near the shore.

Humminbird Side Imaging works great in less than 5' depths. It will work as long as the transducer is not buried in the bottom. Lowrance Structure Scan can't do that. Haven't seen any images with Garmin SideVu or Raymarine SideView to show its shallow water perfromance. Post #88 and #96 are a couple of examples here: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/127481-screenshots/page-7 I have several others with one showing 200' of side to side coverage in less than 5'

The Down Scan transducers have a part that the transducer slides into which has the mount stem that goes in the metal bracket. I installed an Elite 7 HDI for a friend, so I have seen how it mounts.

SI/GPS at both places. It works the same at both places. I have been using SI at both places since I got the first SI unit. I have 4 of them now.

Additionally you get the Sonar Charts Live function to create or adjust lake contours as you navigate. Plus the Sonar Charts map layer as well as the Nautical Charts. The Sonarphone App is free for Apple or Android devices. The darker areas are a couple of Live updates I did Saturday:

For sonar/GPS, they do the same the same way with the same parts. Just the Helix screens are more suitable for Side Imaging. SCREEN WIDTH The 698 has three favorite view buttons that the Helix does not. The Helix has a microSD card reader and the 600 series has a SD card reader.

Yes, the HDSI will work with any SI unit. The 698ci HD SI Combo does not come with the HDSI transducer. The standard one for that model is the Compact SI just like with the 398, 598, all three 798's, and 899.

I fished Briery yesterday. The water temp was in the low to mid-50's and some fish were in less than 5' depths. I did not get on the water until about 10:30. Waited for the air temp to get above the water temp and did some sonar experimenting before fishing. Only caught 18 bass, with one under 2# and the rest between 3# and 5#, First bass thumb of the year. The next few days are going to be cold again, so I would guess all those shallow fish will go back to the creek channels and wait for another warming trend.

Go to the Lowrnace web site and select the Sonar Tutorial. That will explain how sonar works and how fish arches are created. FishID works very well with Humminbird units, not so much with other brands.

Yes, the Helix 5 SI GPS is a way better choice for Side Imaging. The 600 series screens are narrow which is what you do not want with Side Imaging. Screen width is the most important factor for that technology. The Helix series is better than the 300, 500, 600 and 700 series units for Side Imaging.

You don't download from Navionics.com. You download and install the computer software called ChartInstaller and that is the link for the data with the Navionics upload and download servers.

Just like you suggested Al and Way2slow that actually know about this subject. I just use more detail

The X just means it does not have GPS/mapping. The sonar functions are the same. For freshwater, most prefer the 83/200 kHz & 455/800 kHz setup. 50 kHz is for very deep water.

That is a 2D/GPS unit and setting for the built-in transducer is Dual Beam or Universal Sonar 2 depending on the software version it has.

I managed to "whip" up a couple of umbrella rigs

What unit do you really have? There is no ci version of the 858. All are external GPS antenna version. There is also two 2D models and two DI versions. 858c Combo 858c HD Combo 858c DI Combo 858c HD DI Combo

The transom model has a motorized deploy system like the Talon. Look up the price of a Talon, that is just a extendable pole.

The XTM 9 HDSI 180 T is not a puck. It is the same as the XHS 9 HDSI 180 T. Just the included mount is different.

When they first came out they were $2000 for the transom model and $1500 for the bow model MSRP. This year the price was dropped by $500 on them. With some searching, you can find them for about $150 less.

BTW, the next time on the water I am going to do a screen shot with each transducer connected to a 1198c SI Combo of the same subject. The above was with a 798ci SI Combo. Someone requested that on another website to get a better comparison.

It is the same unit, just different transducer. The affect will be exactly the same with any Side Imaging unit. It's all about the SI crystal length, nothing else. The top screen shot is with the Compact SI transducer and the bottom screen shot is with the HDSI transducer. I had the Compact SI on the transom and the HDSI on the trolling motor, just placed the display where I was on the boat.

Some use the rechargeable battery that game cameras come with. You won't get much run time with AA batteries.