New fishfinder/GPS

I pulled the trigger on a new Outback and now need to get a fish finder/GPS for it. The majority of my fishing will consist of rock fish, lings, and offshore species. I'm on the Sonoma coast, which can have some questionable weather and heavy fog, so GPS is a must.

Also, are side imaging transducers recommended for offshore fishing? Any other features I should look into? I'm not a big tech guy, so simpler the better.

Any info or advice is greatly recommended.

Such variety and options, did you exhaust the search button?

I don’t find myself using side imaging much when fishing in the ocean. But that’s just me.

I recently started using a Humminbird helix 7 and so far I really like it. I also have a lowrance hook 7 on another kayak and a raymarine element 7 on a 3rd kayak.

The raymarine is very intuitive and user friendly. The Humminbird takes a bit longer to learn with its menu options, but I feel that the sonar returns read better. The lowrance hook is neither intuitive nor do I feel it has the same quality sonar returns as the Humminbird. It’s also the most affordable.

Go to a store and play with the ones on display. Watch some videos. Use the search function here. All will help in your decision.

For an outback I would suggest a 7 inch screen, it fits well on that boat. Make sure you have an adequate power supply for whatever ff you choose. The gps function is useless if your battery dies.

Over the years, I've had several Lowrance (hook2 5x, hook2 7 most recently) and now I've moved on to the Garmin UHD 93SV. It's a big improvement. Both in usability and in output. The detail is crazy good. I'll attach a pic of trees 50' down or so on New Melones. As to size, 9 is a bit extreme, but i'm getting old.

I like side view, but don't imagine I'll use it in the Ocean very much (possibly for finding bait schools?). But i really like it for crappie on Clear Lake.