Picking a Fishfinder for Ocean Salmon

I did 2 trips to fine tune my Raymarine Element 7 basic settings both in salt and fresh water.

10/31 - I went out on bottom fishing trip and hit my GPS spots in Carmel.  I changed the chart boat icon to a kayak, turned COG (course over ground) on, sonar best at auto. Fishing was awesome!

11/7 - Fished Quarry Lakes for trout, sonar readings best on auto, played with the screen brightness. Got 2 trout trolling in about 3 hours OTW.
 Learning curve using the Element 7 is pretty easy.
 

I did 2 trips to fine tune my Raymarine Element 7 basic settings both in salt and fresh water.

10/31 - I went out on bottom fishing trip and hit my GPS spots in Carmel.  I changed the chart boat icon to a kayak, turned COG (course over ground) on, sonar best at auto. Fishing was awesome!

11/7 - Fished Quarry Lakes for trout, sonar readings best on auto, played with the screen brightness. Got 2 trout trolling in about 3 hours OTW.
 Learning curve using the Element 7 is pretty easy.

man you've got carmel nailed down.

any shots of how you have the transducer mounted?

I did 2 trips to fine tune my Raymarine Element 7 basic settings both in salt and fresh water.

10/31 - I went out on bottom fishing trip and hit my GPS spots in Carmel.  I changed the chart boat icon to a kayak, turned COG (course over ground) on, sonar best at auto. Fishing was awesome!

11/7 - Fished Quarry Lakes for trout, sonar readings best on auto, played with the screen brightness. Got 2 trout trolling in about 3 hours OTW.
 Learning curve using the Element 7 is pretty easy.

man you've got carmel nailed down.

any shots of how you have the transducer mounted?

I went with a BerlyPro cover.  I am still getting use to it when moving my yak around. It sticks out 2 inches and 12 inches long.

I did 2 trips to fine tune my Raymarine Element 7 basic settings both in salt and fresh water.

10/31 - I went out on bottom fishing trip and hit my GPS spots in Carmel.  I changed the chart boat icon to a kayak, turned COG (course over ground) on, sonar best at auto. Fishing was awesome!

11/7 - Fished Quarry Lakes for trout, sonar readings best on auto, played with the screen brightness. Got 2 trout trolling in about 3 hours OTW.
 Learning curve using the Element 7 is pretty easy.

man you've got carmel nailed down.

any shots of how you have the transducer mounted?

I went with a BerlyPro cover.  I am still getting use to it when moving my yak around. It sticks out 2 inches and 12 inches long.

thanks for posting this.  did you have to drill into the hull?

i wonder if it still be a viable option be to use the foam + water setup inside the hull? 

edit - nevermind that i see that it replaces the lowrance-ready plate.  seems like a good solution.

i'm down to spend the dough one of these units, but i do love the finish of my lowrance transducer in the hobie lowrance-ready location.

KPD keep us updated what you end up with!

West Marine has a sale through the end of the month on a few fish finders including the Element 7 with transducer, and Navionics for 20% off $599.00.

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/raymarine--element-7hv-fishfinder-chartplotter-combo-with-hv-100-transom-mount-transducer-and-navionics-nav-us-canada-charts--19418441?recordNum=11

I still haven't bought one!  I've learned a few things though:

• Most 7" Fishfinders on the market (including the Element and Helix) only have 800x480 resolution, which is the same as my 5" Hook2. A bigger screen isn't going to show any more detail than a small one if it has the same number of pixels, assuming you can see the small screen clearly.
• I couldn't figure out why my Hook2 wouldn't show the Navionics "SonarChart" (higher resolution contour lines), even though the plotter came with Navionics+. It turns out you have to register and download SonarChart separately to use it. Annoying. So, if you have Navionics+, check if there are features like this that you've already paid for but need to jump through some hoops to use.
  

I've gone down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out what device would offer the best sonar performance, which has me looking at units that cost around $1,200. 

I did 2 trips to fine tune my Raymarine Element 7 basic settings both in salt and fresh water.

10/31 - I went out on bottom fishing trip and hit my GPS spots in Carmel.  I changed the chart boat icon to a kayak, turned COG (course over ground) on, sonar best at auto. Fishing was awesome!

11/7 - Fished Quarry Lakes for trout, sonar readings best on auto, played with the screen brightness. Got 2 trout trolling in about 3 hours OTW.
 Learning curve using the Element 7 is pretty easy.

man you've got carmel nailed down.

any shots of how you have the transducer mounted?

I went with a BerlyPro cover.  I am still getting use to it when moving my yak around. It sticks out 2 inches and 12 inches long.

Looks like you're going to get a ton of sand in it when you're launching or landing at the beach.

Thank you all for the helpful advice!

Here is where I ended up:

Element 7: seemed like a great value and I almost bought it. Drawbacks were 800x480 resolution and no touch screen.

Garmin Echomap UHD: best price on a touch screen that I know of. Drawbacks were 800x400 resolution and Garmin maps being more expensive for relief shading than Platinum+.

Humminbird Helix 8 Mega SI+: as far as I could tell this had the best included transducer you could get for $1200 or less, and I almost bought it. Drawbacks were no touch screen and not supporting all Navionics features.

Lowrance HDS 7 Live: Defender is selling re-manufactured units for $800, so I decided to purchase one on the recommendation of a Coastside member. Drawbacks are less transducer power/range than the Helix SI+, positives are 1024x600 resolution, touch screen, and full Navionics support. Fingers crossed that it works out.

Keep us posted on the review.  When you power up, these would really help!

I'd be curious to hear what you think if you've been able to use it? 

I'm still backordered on the Echomap but the more I read, the more I'm questioning it.  The resolution isn't ideal and transducer a bit less impressive than Helix, and I think lake offset would be helpful but would need to purchase ultra maps so am basically getting in the same price range as the others after a few add ons like that...

I just started playing with it this morning and haven’t had it on the water yet. I got it connected to my Wi-Fi and updated the software. It was nice to be able to do that without downloading the update onto a computer. The touch screen is a great feature to have, but it isn’t as sensitive or accurate has something like an iPhone, at least on this unit. Of course an iPhone screen stops working if it gets wet.

I’m interested to hear how the touch screen works while actually kayak fishing!

That is a beautiful new FF Krishna! Congrats! I'm thinking to upgrade my FF as well. Thanks for the thread!

Just fyi. Not sure if you already knew. If you're testing the ff with touch screen while the transducer is not in the water, the touch screen may not respond or may respond sluggishly. You have to hold the transducer in your hand for the touch screen to function correctly (grounding issue). I went through lots of frustration while installing my Elite 7T not knowing this fact.

Just fyi. Not sure if you already knew. If you're testing the ff with touch screen while the transducer is not in the water, the touch screen may not respond or may respond sluggishly. You have to hold the transducer in your hand for the touch screen to function correctly (grounding issue). I went through lots of frustration while installing my Elite 7T not knowing this fact.

I too, am interested in how water affects the touch screen. How’s it work out on the big wet ocean?