Lowrance Question

I've got my eye on a Lowarance Elite 4 HDI.
2 questions come up. As  for the transducer, I see that the 50/200 is preferred for salt over the 83/200. Is that necessary?  I'm thinking of  an inside the hull mount with shooting thru the plastic, although I have the option  of a water mount underneath in a recessed area  built for transducers.
2nd question, is the GOLD version with the Navonics map thing the way to go or is the regular good enough?
I fish  Sonoma Co salt mainly but will hit Norcal lakes as well. I'm just a regular dude so $$ is a factor but want a nice setup.
Thanks for the info!

I am a total NEWb, so with that in mind, I just purchased the 4X. I do see value with the combo GPS/FF unit and if I was in the big blue more, would get that for sure. I spoke to Bill (Fishing for the Cure) and went with the shoot through the hull and have used it successfully a few times. I have an older yak, so had more challenges with the install on a Tarpon 130T, but figured it all out. I went with the 83/200, as it was included in a deal I got... Bill or others can chime in on the benefits of each. I thought the 83/200 was a better general purpose one.

-Quinn

I've got my eye on a Lowarance Elite 4 HDI.
2 questions come up. As  for the transducer, I see that the 50/200 is preferred for salt over the 83/200. Is that necessary?  I'm thinking of  an inside the hull mount with shooting thru the plastic, although I have the option  of a water mount underneath in a recessed area  built for transducers.
2nd question, is the GOLD version with the Navonics map thing the way to go or is the regular good enough?
I fish  Sonoma Co salt mainly but will hit Norcal lakes as well. I'm just a regular dude so $$ is a factor but want a nice setup.
Thanks for the info!

Beam me up Scotty!  In my opinion, the 50/200 is a bit overkill even when shooing through the hull. If you plan to fish in waters 300' or deeper than go for it. I would suggest mounting outside the boat if you can but not necessary. I like the gold maps, especially for lakes. The basic maps for the saltwater is pretty damn good but then again you can also create your own Insight Genesis maps (fresh and salt) with that specific HDI unit, very cool! Good luck and thanks for choosing Lowrance.

Mike

I have plans of performing a side-by-side comparison this winter of 50 vs 83.  It is in works!

   My 83 has worked fine for me in depths up to 120/140.  I typically don't fish deeper than that in salt on a yak only because my target species is in that range.  My 83 has worked great for me in freshwater in depths exceeding 300'.

   I take into consideration target species when discussing transducers also.  Though I am no expert when it comes to Salmon, I do know that they are among the toughest to dial a FF into finding.  My limited experience has found that 50 works better for the deeper water canyons and seems to work better for aiding in locating salmon.  If you normally fish FW or SW (such as rockfish), then the 83 should be just fine.

Bill

Go for it The Lowarance Elite 4 HDI is a solid unit. I got one a few months ago and ranter then mount it in the hole decided to created a scupper hole mount for less then 5 bucks for it. It works really well. If your interested I can take some pictures of that set up for you.

Also on a side note, I had thought I would use the downscan feature a lot more then I actually do. I find that I spend most of my time switching between the regular sonar and the GPS (to see what way I am drifting)

Thanks for the info fella's
I decided to go with the Elite 4 HDI   50/200 transducer.
At $300.03 I felt it was a good deal. $400 list  (amazon)
I thought I would rather have a better transducer than the Gold navonics.
All  that data east of Tahoe, I'd never use so...
This one will be just fine!
Hope to hit up Fort Ross  this week or next