I currently have a 4” Striker and want to upgrade- what is the major difference between a 7” Striker vs a 7” Echomap? I’d probably do a 9” Striker if I went that route. I will never do FFS so that is not a consideration. 

7" Echomap has side scan and down scan and chart plotter besides the traditional sonar, I don't know what features the 7" Striker comes with.

FM

Echomap comes with preloaded maps and quite a few of them. You can go Garmin’s site and see if your lake is one of them. From my experience most of my lakes (and they’re small lakes) were included. Striker has everything but preloaded maps. Striker has QuickDraw so you can make your own maps but, it’s time consuming.

^ Which is pretty much the only difference between Striker and Echomap. The Echomap 93sv and the Striker 9sv only differ in that the Echomap has pre-loaded maps, both can make maps just in case the body of water you're fishing isn't included in the list of Echomap pre-loaded maps.

Thanks y’all - this is both helpful and not. I’m probably going with the Echomap but that extra $3-400 is tough.

You won’t regret it!

6 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

You won’t regret it!

I couldn’t reply to this thread b/c Echomap is all I ever used but I totally agree with 12pound!  

Just to close this loop - I ended up with a Echomap 63sv for close to $600 on sale. It is perfect for what I want to do. If I ever want a bigger screen I’ll throw a Striker up on the bow. Thanks everyone for the input!