Hey guys, brand new to the forum here.  Just bought my first bass boat which is a 1999 Nitro 884 Savage.  Great deal on it, very low usage, great condition all around.  Only problem is that it came with some very old Eagle finders that probably were bought the same year the boat was sold!  I am wanting to upgrade, and I can get a deal on two particular Garmin finders: the Striker Plus 9sv or the echoMAP Chirp 92sv.  Can anyone help me decide which one I should go with it?? Trying to learn everything on these new finders, no matter which brand, is exhausting.  There is SO MUCH to go over and try to understand all of it, it gets my mind flustered a little. 

 

Any advice/help would be appreciated. 

The 92SV just has basemap.  The 93sv has LakeVu HD mapping.  The Striker series has no mapping.  You can mark way points, trails as it has gps, but no contour mapping.  If you get a chance run up to Bass Pro in Olathe and play with them.  There is one guy there that is very knowledgeable about Garmin if you can catch him.  I would go with the 93 sv plus because you have wifi, is touch screen and can add Panoptix and LiveScope which you can't with the Striker.

 

SE Kansas grass grower

The Striker Plus (newest generation) does have QuickDraw, but no built-in maps. The Plus also has a new built-in wifi feature for linking your phone to the ActiveCaptain app. https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/592116

 

I was in the same position as you a few months ago, I bought a used 14' Bomber with old old fishfinders. I started with buying the EchoMap CHIRP 7cv (bow/trolling motor mounted), then the EchoMap CHIRP 93sv (console/transom mounted). Since these were the previous generation, they were on clearance (PM me if you want to know the prices and where I got them). Both of these have built-in LakeVu HD maps, linked via NMEA 0183 to share waypoints, and have QuickDraw contours which were most important to me. The newest generation of "Plus" models have features that weren't that important to me for the full retail price.

 

Thank you, the both of you!!! I really appreciate your input on this.  

The new echomap plus units are pretty awesome.  I have two (the 73 and 93).  Waypoints share immediately between them, QuickDraw is really cool for making your own maps of small lakes in KC. The plus units are compatible with panoptix and Livescope...If you can afford the new echomap plus, then pony up and do it.