Humminbird Helix new user. Need help.

Long time Lowrance user and have their interface and settings pretty well dialed in. There are a lot of things I can do on my Lowrance units that I either cannot do on my new Helix or at least cannot figure out. I know I could read the manual, but what fun is that? I tend to try and figure things out on my own because I learn and remember things better that way.

Anyways, one of the first things I am trying to figure out is creating/saving tracks/trails. On my Lowrance I have SEVERAL trails defined in my unit. I can set which ones display and which ones record, show different trails as different colors, etc. I use this because over time due to their length stuff goes away. So this is what I do. When I am in Canada fishing LOW I have a trail for “LOW Navigation to Island”. This one gets me from the landing in Sioux Narrows to where we used to camp. Once I am in the fishing area I switch to recording on the “LOW Fishing” which has all the trails around the areas we have fished. I may leave the LOW Navigation one ON, but will definitely turn off recording.

Am I able to do this on Humminbird? I cannot seem to find it. From the menu all I can find is “Save current track”. No way to rename it or create multiple and swap when and as needed. I still have my lowrance units so I am not worried about not having these things because I will, but I would like to also have at least the fishing ones on the Bird because I am hoping the mapping is better than what my Lowrance has. I dont think it could be worse, but all the other guys have Bird units and I have seen their mapping compared to mine and while I have detail, it is WRONG in most cases, while the Bird units seem to be more accurate in this part of LOW at least.

Yes, you can do it. It’s not nearly as friendly as the lowrance system. I had to do go through this learning curve the same as you are like 5 years ago. If you save the track, you can later go in and edit the the track. Can set the color, whether it displays or not, even the line type (solid, dash, etc). You can also rename them.

I can’t tell you exactly how to do it cause I’m in the car. If you need help later, I can sit down and go through mine and write out instructions.

Thanks Loomis! That gets me on the track. I will see what I can figure out how to do this. I just bought this unit last Fall and have not even had it on the water before I put the boat away. Got the boat out and put everything back in it last week and remembered I needed to figure out some things. I can always task my middle son with this, but I need to know how to do it too. LOL

Press the menu button twice, go over to the Nav tab, go down to Waypoints, Routes, Tracks. You can edit a track there, and select a track to display.

There are plenty of YT videos you can watch. Good luck.

blank wrote:

Press the menu button twice, go over to the Nav tab, go down to Waypoints, Routes, Tracks. You can edit a track there, and select a track to display.

Cool, will try this today. I swear I had found this last Fall when I was monkeying around in the garage, but I forgot to push the button twice!!!

I haven’t messed around with saving and editing tracks but I wonder if it would be easier on the One Boat Network app? I know managing waypoints is much easier on the app.

Joe Jarl wrote:

I haven’t messed around with saving and editing tracks but I wonder if it would be easier on the One Boat Network app? I know managing waypoints is much easier on the app.

Good point! I had installed the app this winter to use ice fishing, but canceled before my free trial was up because I wasnt sure if I wanted to keep it or not. At the time I wasnt using it in conjunction with my GPS unit, so I was just using it for mapping. I may try the app again and just buy it.

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Jarl wrote:</div>
I haven’t messed around with saving and editing tracks but I wonder if it would be easier on the One Boat Network app? I know managing waypoints is much easier on the app.

Good point! I had installed the app this winter to use ice fishing, but canceled before my free trial was up because I wasnt sure if I wanted to keep it or not. At the time I wasnt using it in conjunction with my GPS unit, so I was just using it for mapping. I may try the app again and just buy it.

I believe the app is free unless you want the lakemaster maps.

Joe Jarl wrote:

I believe the app is free unless you want the lakemaster maps.

Oh, that could very well be! I will have to check further. I will likely pay for it anyway because I do want the maps since I am giving up on the Navionics app.

Thanks all! Made some progress yesterday. Still need to fine tune. I created a couple tracks with different colored lines. The naming took me a bit to figure out since I am used to a touch screen LOL.
I figured out how to hide ones I dont want to see, but is it going to record to them even when they are hidden? I dont want that. I couldnt find a setting for that, but I will putz around with it a bit more.