Valued Advice Needed

Santa brought me a 1985 Sea Nymph 17' -50 hp Deep V Aluminum Bass Boat.What a surprise been remodeling it ever since mostly new wireing Going to be primarily a bay-harbor boat but knowing me it will end up North of Kelly's.Might start exploring trolling on "CALM" days.Our 32 ft.Trojan is great for family and casting but would be pretty expensive to troll with.I am looking at the 2015 catalogs comparing fishfinders and got a headache.Is side-imaging helpful?Does it show walleye when trolling?Want to install it while I am pulling wires.GPS is a must.Best for the money? Thanks in advance.Happy new Year..Hope to see everybody on the Lake soon!!!

Take a look at the Raymarine Dragonfly series of GPS/Sonar combinations there are some good prices out there now on the Dragonfly 7 with a navonics gold micro SD chip. There is a 5.7 inch model available also. I don't believe side imaging will be of much value to you in the big lake.

I agree side imaging would only be helpful in areas that have structure like reefs and shorelines. No real value in lake erie in Open water. Of course this is my humble opinion.

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Originally Posted by Shelly J

Santa brought me a 1985 Sea Nymph 17' -50 hp Deep V Aluminum Bass Boat.What a surprise been remodeling it ever since mostly new wireing Going to be primarily a bay-harbor boat but knowing me it will end up North of Kelly's.Might start exploring trolling on "CALM" days.Our 32 ft.Trojan is great for family and casting but would be pretty expensive to troll with.I am looking at the 2015 catalogs comparing fishfinders and got a headache.Is side-imaging helpful?Does it show walleye when trolling?Want to install it while I am pulling wires.GPS is a must.Best for the money? Thanks in advance.Happy new Year..Hope to see everybody on the Lake soon!!!

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Ah....The Fishing Machine. I have one just like it in my garage. It's gathering dust now but it's the boat I used to use on Erie. You can get by with it if you use some horsesense. Just watch the weather and don't go out if the waves are more than 2-3 footers. Be safe.

I agree with everyone that side imaging in the Lake is of little to no use.

However, if you are going to stay in the harbors and Bay with that boat and if you are going to be going after small / large mouth bass on a consistent basis then you will find it quite useful.

-Matt

Well not sure if you made a purchase on this item or not but i thought i would add my two cents worth. Honestly i agree with everyone else as far as imaging on the lake. The next question I would ask is price range, and other features you are interested it. Personally I am a huge fan of lowrance HDS, has pretty good sonar and chart, but it also has a ton of features that 90% of people will never use. If you like the sonar on lowrance then I would say an elite 7. Hope this helps

Dreamcatcher glad to see that you are alive and well!

I assumed that they were looking for something basic. $530.00 for a 7" screen with GPS, mapping card, down vision and chirp sonar is a good deal. But the unit is stand alone and not network capable. Basically it is a set it and forget it unit that is extremely easy to use.

There you are Dreamcatcher I was starting to wonder where you were at.I took Wakina's advice just waiting on the mailman.Dreamcatcher are you ordering in plenty of blade baits? I did good on the white and rainbow bread I think was the other color.

Ok I deserve the harassment guys i apologize for my hiatus, sometimes gotta take a break from internet drama on here gets crazy and frustrating, but yall can call text or email anything yall need or questions or products. no problems ill try to be on here.more regularly. Shellyj i got u covered on blade baits... its gonna be a good year im stoked!!