Fish locators

Fellow fishermen,
I am looking to mount a fish locator on my bow trolling motor. I am looking to get one for hopefully under $600. It’s main purpose will be used for vertical jigging for mostly crappie so I’d like a 2d sonar (if that’s what you’d call it, I get confused with all the side imaging and down imaging talk.) Currently looking at Helix 5 or 7 but I am unsure of what features I would need and don’t want to spend extra for features I’ll probably never use. Prefer Humminbird.

Thank you in advance and always
TIGHT LINES

Do you need GPS?

I would go as big as you can afford, especially on the bow where the locator is further from your eyes. If you are only doing sonar and mostly vertical jigging, a more vertical style screen may be better for you and there are a lot of affordable ones out there. Look for more vertical pixels and a larger vertical dimension. Lowrance has more of these types of units, seems Humminbird has gone mostly to the wide displays.

If you want GPS chart plotting too, a wider one is nice so you can split screen.

For 2D sonar, these two units you mentioned would be all you need:

Helix 7 Sonar GPS $449.99
Helix 7 Sonar $349.99
Helix 5 Sonar GPS $299.99
Helix 5 Sonar $199.99

If your just going vertical off the bow and don’T need gps, put a marcum or vexilar flasher on the bow. Works just as well in the summer, as in the winter. DK.