Lowrance HDS5 Base

[chardoncrestliner]

Was thinking of getting a GPS/Fishfinder and my boat dealership recommends a Lowrance HDS5 Base. $800.00 installed.

Any recommendations out there?

[ebijack]

Depends on what your wants/needs are. If you use your electronics alot and rely on them alot. If you do alot of running in rough water that 5 inch screen can be hard to see. I run 2 - 7 inch screens. At times I have a problem trying to watch where I'm running and glancing at the screen without hitting that next wave wrong. You only have 2 seconds or less to look at that screen in nasty conditions. Your probably going to have the unit for 10yrs or more. So plan now before you buy. Like everything else, buy the biggest/best you can afford at the time. IMHO

[wakina]

Was thinking of getting a GPS/Fishfinder and my boat dealership recommends a Lowrance HDS5 Base. $800.00 installed.

Any recommendations out there?

If you are getting the combo gps/sonar then I think you would be better served with a larger screen, only because it will give you a much larger picture to look at when using both gps and sonar together while searching for fish. Now if you fish or boat mainly in the open waters of the central basin and the weather turns crappy on you, then you can run just the gps as there are few if any places you could have a prop strike and you should be able to steer well away from them while running with your gps only. You can do the same in the western basin but there are alot of places for you to do damage to your drive train components some of which are close together.

[ebijack]

For some applications, this would be really neat to have/use! Like out on some humps/reef spots. Record the hump and you could really fish it more effectively.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=pRxXGlsObcg