Humminbird 597

Looking for a cheaper unit to run maps for ice fishing. Looking for some opinions on a Humminbird 597. If a guy can find one with a map chip are they ok still or pretty archaic?

I’ve had one for years and its been great. It’s on the pontoon in summer and is a secondary unit in the wheelhouse.
If you don’t mind the smaller screen I’d recommend it for sure.

belletaine wrote:

I’ve had one for years and its been great. It’s on the pontoon in summer and is a secondary unit in the wheelhouse.
If you don’t mind the smaller screen I’d recommend it for sure.

Thanks! I don’t care too much about the screen size. I just want something with mapping capability. I run a helix and garmin in the summer I just don’t want to pull one of them out to use on the ice.

A GPS is a GPS. There’s not much difference.

I still use my 597 in my boat, for the GPS/Lakemaster chip only, the transducer failed on it a few years ago

Joel W Taylor wrote:

A GPS is a GPS. There’s not much difference.

x2, had a 597 in a former boat. great little unit if you want mapping.

I purchaed the 597 ice kit when they first came out, ran it for several seasons on the ice and in a canoe. great unit. I sold it last year for around $200 I think. I wouldn’t be worried about the unit itself being archaic, but probably plan to replace the transducer at some point (but plan on that when buying any used flasher)

use it in graph mode, not the circular flasher.

the two biggest sacrifices you would be making vs. a newer unit would be target separation and interference rejection.

I may as well share a different opinion, from someone who recently sold his 698. I’ve found the Navionics app on any decent smartphone to be a vastly superior GPS/mapping tool compared with an outdated bird. If all you want to do is turn it on, mark a good spot, and be able top get back to that spot at a later date, the 597 will be adequate. If you want to be able to efficiently pan around the map, zoom in and out to find spots of interest, etc, it’s not even a fair fight between the two. The processor speed on an old bird compared to your smartphone is apples/oranges. Also my chip had pretty rough 10-foot contours that were as outdated as the bird itself. Navionics has 1-foot contours on most lakes in my area.

I thought the 2d/si/di worked really well on that bird, but the mapping wasn’t a good experience for me. Your mileage may vary, but I think saying a “GPS is a GPS” is pretty silly.

Whateverbites wrote:

the two biggest sacrifices you would be making vs. a newer unit would be target separation and interference rejection.

Ditto. Although this comment would only apply if you decided to use it for more than just maps. I had the 597 on my old boat and converted it to use on the ice. Get a Lakemaster chip for it and you’ll be good to go. I know they’ll accept fairly new versions of the Lakemaster chips, but you may want to check with HB and see if they’ll work with the newest high definition versions. I would think they would?

Joe Jarl wrote:

know they’ll accept fairly new versions of the Lakemaster chips, but you may want to check with HB and see if they’ll work with the newest high definition versions. I would think they would?

Don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but… It might “accept” the newer chip. Doesn’t meant the 597 has a processor that can efficiently display that high def content.

I believe the last number in a bird model — in this case the “7” indicates the processor. “7” series birds have a single, slow processor — the slowest they offered at the time, and that was quite a while ago. A 598 has dual processors and *might* work.

It’s your time and money and I hope whatever you choose works great. But buyer beware on old, slow processors for use with modern map chips.

Whateverbites wrote:

I purchaed the 597 ice kit when they first came out, ran it for several seasons on the ice and in a canoe. great unit. I sold it last year for around $200 I think. I wouldn’t be worried about the unit itself being archaic, but probably plan to replace the transducer at some point (but plan on that when buying any used flasher)

use it in graph mode, not the circular flasher.

the two biggest sacrifices you would be making vs. a newer unit would be target separation and interference rejection.

Thanks for your reply. I basically just want it for the maps. Probably do a velcro mount inside my Jeep. I have a Vex and a Marcum LX…I like both for fishing.

dirtywater wrote:

I may as well share a different opinion, from someone who recently sold his 698. I’ve found the Navionics app on any decent smartphone to be a vastly superior GPS/mapping tool compared with an outdated bird. If all you want to do is turn it on, mark a good spot, and be able top get back to that spot at a later date, the 597 will be adequate. If you want to be able to efficiently pan around the map, zoom in and out to find spots of interest, etc, it’s not even a fair fight between the two. The processor speed on an old bird compared to your smartphone is apples/oranges. Also my chip had pretty rough 10-foot contours that were as outdated as the bird itself. Navionics has 1-foot contours on most lakes in my area.

I thought the 2d/si/di worked really well on that bird, but the mapping wasn’t a good experience for me. Your mileage may vary, but I think saying a “GPS is a GPS” is pretty silly.

Appreciate the input.