switching electronics need opinions

I need to swap out electronics this winter looking at Lowrance hook2 9 tripleshot or Garmin echomap plus 93sv. Any suggestions or opinions appreciated.

Our Garmin 93 customers have been very happy overall. We have done very little on the hook units as most have been HDS. Really cant comment on them. I highly doubt you could go wrong with either.

Garmin’s popularity has been growing like crazy over these last few years, so obviously they’re doing something right. As far as I know the Hook 2 is basically a newer version of the Hook series, which itself was a newer version of the Elite series, so unless they’ve swapped something under the hood that they’re not talking about, the hardware/software is pretty well-tested. It looks like they just played with the UI a little, and gave us some different transducer options.

I’d look over the lakevu maps before purchasing a Garmin.

Some can be good, others not.

nhamm wrote:

I’d look over the lakevu maps before purchasing a Garmin.

Some can be good, others not.

The Lowrance’s compatibility with Navionics would be an advantage in that regard, I think?

On the other hand, if you spend time on small uncharted waters, the Quickdraw deal on the Garmin would be handy.

pool2fool wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>nhamm wrote:</div>
I’d look over the lakevu maps before purchasing a Garmin.

Some can be good, others not.

The Lowrance’s compatibility with Navionics would be an advantage in that regard, I think?

On the other hand, if you spend time on small uncharted waters, the Quickdraw deal on the Garmin would be handy.

QUIKDRAW
Here is my experience with Quickdraw and what I would suggest. If you have a lake you fish all the time then use one SD card for just that lake. For lakes you fish every other year or whatever, then use a separate sd card for those lakes.

I have filled up 3 cards this year with quickdraw contours on them. So what I was thinking what the issue was is some of my tracks may overlap, so I was going to try uploading the maps then downloading a certain area (aka lake) to see if the size of the file went down.

I stopped right there once I found out that if I uploaded it to ActiveCaptain that everyone would be able to see those areas. I looked on AC’s map and none of the areas are mapped yet. This was the same thing for Lowrance with their Genesis maps and I quite didn’t give up all my secrets just yet.

The main reason I chose this as I wanted to be able to map myself for free. I can do this with Quickdraw but I have not found a way to take multiple chips and sort what you mapped yet without uploading them. I would be willing to even pay for software that would allow me to do this on my home computer.

MAPPING

I found some areas to be less then steller on mapping. Some pieces of structure of off by 50 yards. Hence the benefit of quickdraw.

I am hoping with the purchase of Navonics I am hoping that this replaces the LakeVu HD chips with some better mapping while still allowing for Quikdraw to be free.

If panoptix ever interests you, I love that and has put many fish in the boat.

I have the Echmap Chirp 93sv and love it.
Like nhamm said, some maps are good others ok.

garmin enough said

Garmin have very good products imo and are a brand on the rise… one major problem though – you will be hard pressed to find any store, clerk, etc that know anything about them. I talked to numerous “Fishing” people that sell multiple lines that knew less about Garmin products than I did.

The one exception I found in the Twin Cities is SBC. Eric B knows his stuf…

I would like to find one that does a little more thinking for me-so the one I have now you have to set the chart speed-hello, the unit knows your chart speed and should make adjustments for you as your speed changes-So less time looking at a screen, more simplicity. I want to fish!

Thanks guys will let you know tomorrow what I choose and will give product reviews when operational thanks again for opinions that are true to the content and from fisherman