Picking a Fishfinder for Ocean Salmon

Yes, what matters is how the touch screen works when it is being splashed by salt water and your hands are covered with blood and fish slime. I will let you know.

I decided to try out the Lowrance app. I have to say that Navico's account management is a buggy pile of poo. I think I have finally signed up, but exploring the app will have to wait.

My Navionics card arrived today and I went through the rigamarole of getting that set up. Took me forever to figure out that relief shading is activated by the "photo overlay" setting. Lowrance made the questionable decision of placing the relief shading on top of the contour lines, but you can set the opacity so that you can see both.

Piggybacking on this thread because I'm in a very similar situation. I'll be using my fish finder to locate schools of bait in Puget Sound.

I'm on the brink of picking up a Humminbird Helix 7 and am having trouble deciding between one with MEGA capabilities or one w/o MEGA capabilities -- I'm afraid that the MEGA capabilities would be severely limited in salt water due to the incompatibility of high frequencies and salt water. Feeling that I'd exhausted my search options on the internet, I called up Bass Pro Shops, and the fellow there pointed me instead towards Garmin fish finders, indicating that Humminbird is not widely regarded as great for use in salt water. So now I'm all sorts of confused, and want to (a) run my logic by the community, and (b) solicit experiences from the community.

Based on available data, it seems that the Humminbird SI transducers run lower frequencies than the Garmin SI transducer. My entry level knowledge indicates that lower frequencies run farther in salt water; therefore, the Humminbird transducers might operate better in Puget Sound. Here's the data I'm seeing (Humminbird data extracted from [https://www.humminbird.com/support/faqs/HDSIvsCompactSI], Garmin data extracted from [https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/739042#specs]):
Humminbird Helix 7 SI:
200/83/455 kHz

Humminbird Helix 7 SI MEGA:
83/200/455/800/1200 kHz

Garmin Striker Vivid SV:
260/455/800 kHz

But this doesn't exactly square with what the fellow at BPS told me. Granted - it sounded like his was secondhand information. To the community: Given this data, does my logic that Humminbird transducers will penetrate farther and perform better square with your knowledge of fish finders?

Lastly, if anyone can speak to any of these questions w/ their own experience, I'd appreciate it. I'm having trouble finding answers to these questions online:
- If the Humminbird FF is unable to read bottom, will the entire transducer fritz out, or will the side scan capabilities still work? My current FF, a Striker 4, becomes inoperable when it cannot read bottom. This is a real issue in Puget Sound, where I sometimes find myself fishing water >600' deep.
- Can anyone speak to Humminbird MEGA in salt water? Similarly, does anyone have experience w/ the non-MEGA Humminbird in salt water?

Hey KPD,
Curious to see if you've gotten out with your new ff.  I'm also looking for one and would be grateful for your feedback on the Lowrance since it seems you've done your homework.

Hey KPD,
Curious to see if you've gotten out with your new ff.  I'm also looking for one and would be grateful for your feedback on the Lowrance since it seems you've done your homework.

I finally got out with the new FF today, and I am happy with it so far. The touch screen worked great with wet hands (no drenching spray yet). Attached is a screenshot from the HMB jaws. I thought it was cool that the side scan could image the whole channel and both jetties at the same time. Note the sand ripples around the point on the left. In case it isn't obvious, this is a 3-panel split screen layout with map, conventional sonar, and side scan. There is a lot of noise in the conventional sonar in this shot. I think it is mostly prop wash from a boat that just went by.

It seems like the easiest way to get screenshots off the Lowrance is to transfer them to an SD card, then plug that into your computer. Pretty lame that they have a bunch of ways to connect to the FF via WiFi but none of them provide an easy way to transfer screenshots.

To the community: Given this data, does my logic that Humminbird transducers will penetrate farther and perform better square with your knowledge of fish finders?

Lastly, if anyone can speak to any of these questions w/ their own experience, I'd appreciate it. I'm having trouble finding answers to these questions online:
- If the Humminbird FF is unable to read bottom, will the entire transducer fritz out, or will the side scan capabilities still work? My current FF, a Striker 4, becomes inoperable when it cannot read bottom. This is a real issue in Puget Sound, where I sometimes find myself fishing water >600' deep.
- Can anyone speak to Humminbird MEGA in salt water? Similarly, does anyone have experience w/ the non-MEGA Humminbird in salt water?

I can't give authoritative answers, but I will say the following:

Higher frequencies (e.g. megahertz+) provide high resolution but limited range. They work fine in salt water, but depending on the type of salt water fishing the high resolution may not be important.

You may already know this, but if you get a Humminbird with Mega, you can easily toggle between the available frequencies, for example if you want to use 455 kHz for more range.

Garmin also offers megahertz frequency side scan now, for example if you get an Echomap UHD with a GT56UHD-TM transducer.

As far as losing bottom, hopefully you could set the sensitivity and vertical range manually and still use conventional sonar as well as side scan. Maybe I'll get to test this over the Monterey Canyon. Most fish finders in the $500-$1000 range claim a max depth of around 1000 feet.

Hopefully some of that helps. Let us know what you decide on and how it works out.

Hey KPD,
Curious to see if you've gotten out with your new ff.  I'm also looking for one and would be grateful for your feedback on the Lowrance since it seems you've done your homework.

I finally got out with the new FF today, and I am happy with it so far. The touch screen worked great with wet hands (no drenching spray yet). Attached is a screenshot from the HMB jaws. I thought it was cool that the side scan could image the whole channel and both jetties at the same time. Note the sand ripples around the point on the left. In case it isn't obvious, this is a 3-panel split screen layout with map, conventional sonar, and side scan. There is a lot of noise in the conventional sonar in this shot. I think it is mostly prop wash from a boat that just went by.

It seems like the easiest way to get screenshots off the Lowrance is to transfer them to an SD card, then plug that into your computer. Pretty lame that they have a bunch of ways to connect to the FF via WiFi but none of them provide an easy way to transfer screenshots.

Do what I do, take a picture with your phone.  Instant availability

Great threat.  I am also in the market for a fish finder.  Im getting in to kayak fishing and haven't been out in the ocean yet but i plan to.   So far i've been hitting up rivers and lakes.   A few of my questions are. 

1. How important is it to have a fish finder with coastal maps pre-loaded on the fish finder?
2. How important do you think side scan is?
3. With transducers that require a replacement plate that sticks out about 2 inches... how well does the plate protect the transducer? how much of a nuisance is it when transporting / moving your kayak? 

Thanks- Nick.

My 2 cents:
1. How important is it to have a fish finder with coastal maps pre-loaded on the fish finder?         I think it is important.  There are certain places you want to fish harder than others due to nature of species or feeding cycle.
2. How important do you think side scan is?
     It depends on what you after.  If you are trolling (i.e. salmon), I think knowing to go left or right is a a big deal.

3. With transducers that require a replacement plate that sticks out about 2 inches... how well does the plate protect the transducer? how much of a nuisance is it when transporting / moving your kayak? 
     Well, the ducer will stick out no matter what in most cases, so, might as well protect it.  It is a pain, but you will get used to it.