My new boat has an entry level Garmin sonar which I want to move to the bow and buy a better color unit for the cockpit. The GPS is very tempting for many reasons, but I'm reading many disappointing reports. Lowrance has logged a lot of failures with poor customer support. Humming Bird has confusing add on extra cost software to be operational. Garmin doesn't seem to have much to offer.

My bait monkey is concerned. Any suggestions?

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I'd like to hear some responses to this as I am going to be in the market soon for fish/depth finders.

Thanks

Scott

My new boat has an entry level Garmin sonar which I want to move to the bow and buy a better color unit for the cockpit. The GPS is very tempting for many reasons, but I'm reading many disappointing reports. Lowrance has logged a lot of failures with poor customer support. Humming Bird has confusing add on extra cost software to be operational. Garmin doesn't seem to have much to offer.

My bait monkey is concerned. Any suggestions?

What extra cost software are you talking about?  I run both Humminbird and Lowrances and both offer free software updates for their units.  So, I am a little confused by the "cost" you are referring to.  Both offer a good unit, but I prefer the Humminbirds (997 and 787) over the HDS 8 I have.  The HDS still has a few unresolved software issue that limit it's potential.  I like the Humminbirds ease of use, perfomance, high pixel count, excellent support and they will add new features to discontiued models.  Even though they don't make the 787 any more I still get the added features of the current 788.