Looking to replace the Garmin Striker on my Old Town Sportsman PDL 106 with a sideview unit. Suggestions? Don't want a massive screen getting in the way on the small 'yak.

 

I currently use a Navarre scupper mount for my transducer which holds it tight up under the center of the hull. The outer pontoons of the kayak hull are slightly below the bottom of transducer and I'm wondering if a similar mount for the sideview transducer will crate issues or not. The benefit of my current mounting is it protects the transducer from most obstructions including sliding in/out of my truck tailgate.

 

The Helix 7 is a good balance of size and usability.  I have the G3N.  If you're looking just at one view there is plenty of screen real estate.  If you want to run split view with mapping and side for instance, you're going to have to choose which one gets a screen size smaller than you're prefer.  I chose to run maps on 30% of the screen (down imaging below it) and side imaging on 70%.  I then zoom in and out on the map depending on what level of depth I need to see.  I haven't compared pricing for new ones or what's the best value right now.  

 

Tucking the transducer up is no problem for side imaging.  I use the sportsman transducer location with the mount flipped and its about the same 'tucked in' level.  Also, the helix 7 has the smaller transducer that's only 3" long.

Thanks. I like having mapping but spend 95% of my time watching the depthfinder for fish (I crappie fish a lot)

You’re familiar with Garmin. I’d look into the Echomap. Garmin is a great product, very user friendly, and you get the most bang for your buck. 

I am a humminbird guy myself and have a first gen helix 5 with SI on my kayak.  As far as if it will be an issue you won't really know until you mount it and try it out.  My transducer is mounted on an electronics pod in the center of the kayak and is easily removable.  For me I am not going to have a semi permanent mount if it isn't completely protected.  On other kayaks I rigged up a transducer off the back of my kayak that was above the bottom of the hull but below the water line and that worked well but I didn't like passing things before I saw them and having to circle back if it was something I wanted to fish.

I think I would lean towards the Helix 5 SI as I tend to look up a lot of stuff on how to use it and resolve issues and would think there was more stuff online I could find. It seems like it is discontinued though with no 5" replacement on the Humminbird site. I see it available at BassPro though.

Keep your eyes out for used gear as well. Last I looked, you could get a helix 7 g3 msi for $250-$350 in marketplace.