I recently upgraded from an old boat to a slightly less old boat... But still relatively old. This boat came entirely bare of electronics and because I stuck with old I had the spare nickles to set it up with some decent electronics of my choice. I'll start by saying I love fishing gizmos, and I have no brand allegiances. Birds, Lowrance and Garmin are like blondes, brunettes and red heads. They're all beautiful. I appreciate functionality and features that help me fish my spots more effectively. That's it.
What I can afford is two finders up front and one at the steering wheel. I have had the chance to use 360 imaging in a buddies boat quite a bit and I love it, so I have already put a Helix 10 G2N Chirp GPS with 360 up front and a Helix 10 G2N mega at the console.
Now I'm trying to decide what to do about the third finder. I do know few certain that it's going at the bow. What I can't decide is if it's going to be another Helix 10, or an EchoMAP Plus 93SV that will serve as a Panoptix ForwardVu unit sometimes, and a regular map and 2d when I'm not needing the Panoptix.
To gain Panoptix, I would be sacrificing the ability to network my two front finders for waypoint sharing, which wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'm sure it would be inconvenient at times. It would also cost more because I'd have to buy the Panoptix transducer.
Another thing that concerns me about Panoptix is that I've simply never had the chance to use it. I've consumed every bit of content that I can find online about it, but I'm still unsure if it will fit my needs or not.
Speaking of needs, here is how I typically fish: I only chase bass. I fish where my boat is typically in 10 to 25 feet of water. Where I expect to use Panoptix would be lakes—or at least spots—that are mostly weed free. What I would hope for is to be able to stop on main lake points, small humps, and small flats with boulders on them, and be able to see if there are smallmouth roaming around on them, and then be able to make casts in the direction of the fish instead of at random.
At first I was absolutely set on a 93SV and a PS22-TR. I would mount the PS22 on the barrel of my trolling motor so as not to be interfered with by that big dopey 360 ducer. But, lately I've been reading on this board that the PS22 might not help me see fish that are swimming tight to the bottom as well as I might hope. It sounds like the PS31 is maybe better at that? I don't know how tight to the bottom these fish truly are. Maybe they're rubbing their bellies on the sand, maybe they're six inches up. I have no idea. It's probably different every day.
If I were to move all the way up to the PS31, I'd be spending $500 more that I barely have, I'd be sacrificing that ability to use the whole set up for ice fishing because I'd be losing Down LiveVu, and I'd be concerned that the trolling motor shaft mount of the PS31 and the 360 ducer would hinder one another by either smashing into each other, or by getting in each other's sonar beam. I see that there is a below the barrel mount for the PS31, but I don't exactly have a lot of room left down their either... And it sure does look awfully exposed.
What the hell should I do here? Panoptix seems like a really really neat and useful fishing tool that I'm extremely tempted to try. However, I'm making trade offs if I decide to go with it. I'd have depth finders that don't communicate with each other. I'm pretty sure I'd be working with lake maps that aren't quite as good as the Humminbird chips (HB has my neck of the woods mapped beautifully). And I'd be spending as much as $1500 more that if I just went with another Helix.
What's the verdict? Helix 10? 93SV with PS22? Or 93SV with PS31? What will make me the happiest at the end of the day.
I guess if I were to try the Garmin set up and decide it wasn't what I wanted, it shouldn't be hard to sell it here on the electronics swapping board.
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Originally Posted by LWINCHESTER2
