Still trying to justify the added cost of SI over just DI, would SI be of some (lot) help on lakes like Superior??
I’m thinking it would but not sure how it works in 80-120′ of water.
Al…who’s gonna talk himself into SI…just needs a little help. 
Al making a guess here on what you are fishing for but I would think the ability to view out to the side of the boat while trolling for Lakers would be a huge bonus. Once a school is spotted you could mark them and then troll over that way point. I have done this trolling for open water walleyes. Jason Halfen has a great article and video on doing this on Mille Lacs at
Jasen Halfen Mille Lacs walleyes
Quote:
Al making a guess here on what you are fishing for but I would think the ability to view out to the side of the boat while trolling for Lakers would be a huge bonus. Once a school is spotted you could mark them and then troll over that way point. I have done this trolling for open water walleyes. Jason Halfen has a great article and video on doing this on Mille Lacs at
Jasen Halfen Mille Lacs walleyes
Thanks, now I can get the SI and blame you for it…geeze I love this forum!!!!
Ya, that’s what I was thinking, I figure if I ever get it figured out it will come in handy looking for muskie’s and such while I cast a shore line too.
But for Superior I was thinking Laker’s and Salmon.
Although Mr. Sorenson has mentioned catching them darn Muskies up there..
Thanks.
Al
Does SI cast a beam parallel to the water line? That’s the way it appears on the HB site but I didn’t see that explicitly stated. Thanks
no issue. it’s great. Superior is a board lake, not a DR lake. how are you going to know what’s under your boards…
Don’t mean to rain on the parade, but SI really doesn’t help out all that much in deep water like you might think. Yes, you can see a few fish off bottom at times, and even a few suspended, but the numbers of fish you mark (or at least can tell they are fish) are way fewer than what you will see on your 2d sonar. SI and DI aren’t that great in 100 fow+. I have run them for a number of years on LM for salmon. I was really excited to try it out at first, but its really tough to pick out individual fish or pods of alewives… Much tougher than 2d sonar, so I run that 99.9% of the time… There I can see where the rigger balls are running, baitfish, fish, thermoclines/temp changes, etc…
SI really shines in water under 30-40 feet, especially with fish just off bottom like walleyes where you can see the shadow close to the fish mark… The salmon which often hang 30 feet down over 200 fow just aren’t going to show up well or at all on SI. You won’t get a shadow, and your returns/info will be condensed onto the screen since you are compressing all of that 200 fow (and accordingly 150-250 feet – or whatever your side range is set at) – worth of side info… Way too much info on a small screen to pick out fish and pods usually… You’ll never see a salmon hanging 30 feet under your planer boards 30 yards to the side over 150 fow on SI imaging.
Down imaging isn’t much help, either in deep water. Best to go with the old standby 2d imaging – which rocks in deep water. I have some GREAT salmon screen shots with my HB 2d images… Huge pods of baitish, lots of pods of big kings, and I even see massive cool water upwellings that lights up the screen… way cool!
Yes, its cool to see the breakwalls and shallow stuff, but you really aren’t going to gain much by having SI in 100+ fow.
However, don’t get me wrong.. If you do any other sort of fishing inland or shallower on Superior (walleye, pike, bass, whatever), I HIGHLY recommend SI. It is pretty darn cool and helps a ton to ID fish, structure, etc… Way cool.
2 cents.
Quote:
Does SI cast a beam parallel to the water line? That’s the way it appears on the HB site but I didn’t see that explicitly stated. Thanks
Razor cross section of the water under the boat and out to the sides… Its not a cone like normal 2d, but a thin line that shoots down and out taking a cross section of the geography at any given time. parallel to the boat transom.
Here is why regular 2d imaging (sonar cone) rocks on the big lake / deep water. You can see all the fish, baitfish, even temp or current breaks. You can also mark downrigger balls to know exactly where you are in relation to the fish you are marking… (My first screenshot shows me dropping the rigger ball down a few feet)….
Note that in my SI shot, I am soooo far out to each side (272 feet), the image is very “crammed” up with info… I’m sure there are fish on that screenshot, but with so much info, it very difficult to tell what is what. I took that shot to see what was on the bottom. Something fairly big sunk, but who knows what it was… Some sort of wreck, I suppose…
2 cents…
Quote:
Here is why regular 2d imaging (sonar cone) rocks on the big lake / deep water. You can see all the fish, baitfish, even temp or current breaks. You can also mark downrigger balls to know exactly where you are in relation to the fish you are marking… (My first screenshot shows me dropping the rigger ball down a few feet)….
Note that in my SI shot, I am soooo far out to each side (272 feet), the image is very “crammed” up with info… I’m sure there are fish on that screenshot, but with so much info, it very difficult to tell what is what. I took that shot to see what was on the bottom. Something fairly big sunk, but who knows what it was… Some sort of wreck, I suppose…
2 cents…
Almost makes it better to just go with DI and save a few bucks, considering the big lake is one of the reasons I wanted to go SI. hummmmm thanks.
Can you cut down the width of the SI and just do a smaller section??
Like just go out 50 foot or so??
Al
Yes you can set the range and on the HB’s you can view just one side or the other. By reducing the range you get more detail.
Pushing the limits on the range forces the depth finder to display less detail because there is only so many pixels to use.
Quote:
Yes you can set the range and on the HB’s you can view just one side or the other. By reducing the range you get more detail.
Pushing the limits on the range forces the depth finder to display less detail because there is only so many pixels to use.
Thanks, that should help that “crammed” look.
Al
thanks for the info
Ummmmmm…. Well, yes you can adjust the range….. BUT you need to realize what this means for deep water use…. In deep water, reducing the range to 50, 100, or even 150 or more feet to each side means that you no longer will see the bottom on the sides of the screen… (For inshore use to get the best detail, I usually try to run my SI at MOST 120 feet to each side… And usually more like 50-60 when possible)… As a general rule of thumb, your range to each side needs to be about 3x your depth to get a good image that shows bottom, fish/shadows, etc… If you are over 150 fow, you need a LOT of range to see anything at all – If you have it set at 100 feet to each side you will just see empty water, no bottom… Which doesn’t do you much good…
Make sense??? So yes, you can adjust range… But without a bottom to see shadows on, it’s very hard to make out fish – and almost impossible to see suspended fish.
And again, DI isn’t as useful in deep water either – remember that SI and DI are based off of a razor thing sonar beam which goes straight down/out… The traditional 2d image is based off of a cone that goes down/out/in a circle… This means that 2d will pick up riggers that have “blown back” behind the boat due to drag when DI won’t. If all you are going to use this for is big water, then just go with traditional 2d (cone) sonar…. Much better to mark fish or see riggers.
But, if you will fish nearshore or inshore, SI is crazily awesome in water under 40 feet…
If you do go SI for the big water, definitely go 1198.
I also really like the HB LM mapping capabilities… Especially the depth highlight and the shallow water highlight. Makes finding the right depth and shallow danger areas a breeze.
The red is water less than 5 foot.. The green is water around 40 feet +/- 4 feet… (or thereabouts – can’t quite remember)…. Awesome for highlighting certain depth structures or breaklines…
(Yes, those are all walleyes in the first two screenshots…)
Well, I have the feeling that once again I’m looking at a unit that will do more than this old brain can figure out, but I am now the proud owner of a 1198.
Wasn’t to sure it was going to happen, called cabella’s and they said they had one in stock, drove from Mpls to Owattona and the sales guy when asked said he’d have to look, yup comp says they have one in the back and off he went…..tick tock…..tick tock….er…it seems they don’t have one one, but they will sell me the display…uh huh..not gonna happen, this is the third time they’ve pulled this on me and the last..bye bye cabella’s.
Ended up calling Joe’s Sporting goods in Little Canada, yup we have two, what’s your name I’ll make sure there’s one for ya…My new go-to store.
Ended up with a couple of mini planer boards, something called a fly (for trout/salmon) a couple of infatible PDF’s and a Navtronics chip for the HB.
Joe’s will be where I go first now, they were great there.
wittsend, I’ll try the old cone shaped scan on one half the screen and maybe SI or DO on the other half and see what happens, but I think I’ll end up using the old style format like you said.
Not sure what mapping does, but I’ll print out the manual and drag it along…:)
Thanks all.
Al
Yup, do what you need to do to figure out what works best, and then stick with it.
Especially if you do any near-shore or in-shore fishing, you’ll love the SI for sure. Otherwise I’ve had really good success with my 2d sonar on the big lakes – good detail, great fish marks, good marking of riggers and temp breaks… Play with the switch fire and sensitivity levels a little bit. Should work well…
The mapping is great for lakes with lots of structure and high detailed maps… Navionics chips are good, but you can’t do depth highlight with them like you can Lakemaster… The Lakemaster MN/WI or Rainy/Woods chips are pretty awesome if you get to any of those places, but Navionics will work nicely for you too.
Good luck – post if you have any questions…. And send some screenshots when you get it up an running! — Also, try to get the transducer mounted right… Will save some frustration in the long run…
You’ll love the 1198, though. Great screen size, great features. Keep us posted as to what you find using the SI for salmon… I’d be interested to know how it goes for you!
Whittsend
Thanks, looks like an interesting learning curve.
Didn’t know about the mapping highlight thing and lakemaster, I usually buy them but seemed I got more Wisc/MN lakes with the great lakes on the navonics chip.
And I was running out of money
Al
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
