I bought my first real fishing boat (a 2000 Lund Fisherman) late last summer and this winter I bought the Humminbird 1198. Just can’t wait to get on the water and try it out. Did any of you get to use the Humminbird 1198 last summer? What did you think of it? What do you like about it and what don’t you like about it? Are they equally useful in lakes and rivers?
Loving mine the whole way! I have nothing to not like about it.
You tube has a lot of tutorials on how to use it.Check some out.
Great units.
After years of frustration and replacing units with my lowrance HDS units I made the switch last fall and went with a 1198 and 958. No regrets or a single problem yet. Only two things I hope they do on an update in the future is add a few more levels to the zoom. Seems like I’m either zoomed to far in or not far enough. Also when you pan around on the map and hit exit it returns to your current location it would be nice to hit exit again to return to where you were panning to. These are 2 features I miss from lowrance.
Ok side bar,
I would like to be able to make my own choice of screens and then save then to my 3 buttons.
Like mine, had some problems with the sonar seeing bottom, but customer service walked me through a fix, works great now.
I like the feature of being able to call up three different screens with the push of a button, I use that feature a lot.
Big & spendy, but I’d buy another one.
Al
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Ok side bar,
I would like to be able to make my own choice of screens and then save then to my 3 buttons.
You can. Just go to what screen you want to save to one of the three hot keys and press and hold whatever hot key you want it on and it will say shortcut saved. You can do that to all 3 and change them as often as you would like.
Eric, I know what you are talking about. I did that with my 987csi when it first came out.
I would like to make my own combination on the screen, just not the preset screen combinations. Can I do that?
I went from a 797c2si to 1198 and there is no looking back. Wish I could afford to put another 1198 on the bow. For more information then you can handle about Hbirds go to bassboatcentral.com and forums there Hbird and Lowrance forums are the best out there. 
Tom – thanks for directing me to bassboatcentral.com
They have some stuff on understanding the images. That is very helpful. Do you typically run your 1198 in 80kHz and then switch to 200kHz to see how far the fish are from the boat? Have you used the FishID+ feature? The DualBeam Plus feature (which shows fish Icons in Orange for narrow beam and blue for wide beam) seems like it might be helpful for a newbie like me.
Irishman
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Eric, I know what you are talking about. I did that with my 987csi when it first came out.
I would like to make my own combination on the screen, just not the preset screen combinations. Can I do that?
I am not aware of being able to do that.
I have never used the fish ID feature, if I am searching it`s SI 450kz and 80 & 200 run together for my 2D. I always have my sensitivity up on screen so I can adjust as depth and bottom content change whether running SI or 2D. If I am running on plane I switch up my 2D to 200 it gives me a clearer picture, bottom content and fish. With SI I hardly ever use my DI screen for vertical jigging then it is 200.
For bass fisherman that fish/troll from the bow, would 1198 w side imaging be more useful at the console or up front? What about no side imaging up front? Thinking of what is worth the money when spending this amount of cash.
Looking at two new birds and both w side imaging would be a spendy option.
Thanks for opinions!
Eric, I’m not either but that is my suggestion to the marketing people.
Most people don’t know why they should use the fish id feature. If fish ID is on and you are running both 200 and 83 at the same time, when a fish icon comes on the screen it will either be blue or orange. If it is orange it is in the 200 sonar so you know it is closer to the boat than if it is blue. If it is blue then I know it is further from the boat, and then I will turn on my SI to see what side the fish are on and if it looks promising I will move my cursor over on the fish and mark it with a waypoint to go back over.
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I have never used the fish ID feature , if I am searching it`s SI 450kz and 80 & 200 run together for my 2D. I always have my sensitivity up on screen so I can adjust as depth and bottom content change whether running SI or 2D. If I am running on plane I switch up my 2D to 200 it gives me a clearer picture, bottom content and fish. With SI I hardly ever use my DI screen for vertical jigging then it is 200.
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Most people don’t know why they should use the fish id feature. If fish ID is on and you are running both 200 and 83 at the same time, when a fish icon comes on the screen it will either be blue or orange. If it is orange it is in the 200 sonar so you know it is closer to the boat than if it is blue. If it is blue then I know it is further from the boat, and then I will turn on my SI to see what side the fish are on and if it looks promising I will move my cursor over on the fish and mark it with a waypoint to go back over.
I am one that does not believe fish ID to many junk items in the water can trip the fish image so then I am wasting time turning around and checking non fish items out. I would rather look for arches and interpret my sonar images my self versus trusting a soft ware writer to get it right.
Irishman–congrats on your buy.
Are you having a marine shop install your transducer or are you doing it yourself?
thanks!!!
I wasn’t telling you should run it because you need help understanding what you are looking at. If you read my post my point is that if the ID is on along with both the 200 and 83 sonar it will tell you if the fish or object showing up on sonar is being seen by which sonar cone. Point being maybe you see something that looks like fish and you sit over the mark and try to catch them with no luck. the whole time the school of fish in 30′ of water was being read from your 83 sonar and could be 20′, or more off to the side of your boat and you have no idea because you assume it is under the boat. If you only run 200 then true, no point in having the fish ID on. Sorry to give out potentially helpful advice.
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Most people don’t know why they should use the fish id feature. If fish ID is on and you are running both 200 and 83 at the same time, when a fish icon comes on the screen it will either be blue or orange. If it is orange it is in the 200 sonar so you know it is closer to the boat than if it is blue. If it is blue then I know it is further from the boat, and then I will turn on my SI to see what side the fish are on and if it looks promising I will move my cursor over on the fish and mark it with a waypoint to go back over.
I am one that does not believe fish ID to many junk items in the water can trip the fish image so then I am wasting time turning around and checking non fish items out. I would rather look for arches and interpret my sonar images my self versus trusting a soft ware writer to get it right.
In deep water, maybe that’d useful. 30′ of water though, your 83khz beam only goes 30′ wide at the bottom (so 15′ to each side of boat). 200khz would only be about 10′ wide (5′ each side of boat).
FYI, you can do the same thing without fish id by viewing a split screen sonar (83 on one side, 200 on the other) and not use the Fish ID. My experiece with Fish ID was that it isn’t reliable, and I can interpret the sonar returns myself.
I agree it is only useful in deep water. I never thought about split screen viewing. I use it mainly while on ML fishing the mud. On my split screen I have the map and the other sonar. While trolling if I see something come up on 83 then I go to SI to see if they are fish and if they would be on top of the flat, on the edge, or the bottom edge. It is one of the many options to find fish many don’t know of, much like myself and your information of running a split screen of each frequency.
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In deep water, maybe that’d useful. 30′ of water though, your 83khz beam only goes 30′ wide at the bottom (so 15′ to each side of boat). 200khz would only be about 10′ wide (5′ each side of boat).
FYI, you can do the same thing without fish id by viewing a split screen sonar (83 on one side, 200 on the other) and not use the Fish ID. My experiece with Fish ID was that it isn’t reliable, and I can interpret the sonar returns myself.
I’ve got 2 and I love’um 
Can’t wait to incorporate the link system in with the 2 1198’s 
Do you have any screen shots you could share to help advance my interpretation skills? How are you using your 1198’s? What screens do you use the most?
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Do you have any screen shots you could share to help advance my interpretation skills? How are you using your 1198’s? What screens do you use the most?
Go to bassboatcentral.com and then to forums, there are Hbird Low forums for image interpretations with some really good screen shots and explanations.
Best advice I ever received was quit looking at structure and look for fish, who cares what the structure is. My eyes would be looking at the structure and what it was, instead of looking for fish.
“protective covers for the transducer on 1198”
I had someone suggest to me that the hbird 1198 transducers might need a protective cover to avoid damage. Does that make any sense? Does that go for both the standard transducer and the high speed transducer? 
Irishman-
Here is what i was seeing on some other boards to help protect the transducer from damage. i am not sure if it would be needed off the back (I would be running if off a jack plate) but on my front trolling motor it could be a nice insurance policy.
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