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PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:00 pm 
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Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 9:48 am
Posts: 312
Location: Portland, OR
I have only had this unit out once on my kayak but I love it. I considered this unit (597ci HD DI), the 788, 798 and the comparable Lowrance units for use in my kayak. I decided that I did not want to pay the premium for side imaging, and wanted a traditional sonar as well as DI capability. I also decided that I wanted as many pixels as possible on the screen for sharpness. In the end I felt that for me this unit offered the best tradeoff in cost, performance and features. I was also fortunate to catch it discounted on Amazon for $567.99 (with overnight shipping). At that price the step up to the 788ci HD DI was not worth it for me (another $160 for a better base map and dual SD slots).

I installed the transducer to shoot through the hull of my kayak. The performance shooting through the hull seemed great. However, I don't have a comparison with not shooting through the hull. In the end I had great pictures in 135' of water. I was happy

I was impressed with how readable the screen was throughout the entire day. I had clouds and sun, but never any problem reading the screen from about 4' away.

The 2D sonar was really great at both the 200kHz and 455kHz settings. I anchored in a channel near the edge of a canyon like rise from 90' to 60' to see if I could the difference in switching between the two transducers. The wider 200kHz was picking up the 60' edge of the channel while with the narrower 455kHz I only saw the 90' channel bottom. It was cool to see the difference. I think this will be useful when trying to precisely anchor in these situations. I marked many fish throughout the day, however, I can not be sure if they were real, junk in the water, or artifacts. I need to run some tests in some really clear water some day.

The DI capability was impressive. I fished over a lot of rocks and boulders and they showed up very clearly. There were no trees or weeds in the area I was fishing so I did not get to match a real world view that was similar to those on the simulator. However, the rocks show up with incredible detail. I used the sonar in split sonar/DI mode a lot of the day and would sometimes switch to whole screen for the sonar or the DI.

The GPS seemed pretty amazing. I went back to a spot (near the shoreline) that I had marked early in the day and it put me precisely back on that spot. I was impressed. Way better than my 20 year old GPS used to do! Once I got back home it was also very cool to be able to download the waypoints and plot them on google earth using HumminbirdPC. They showed up exactly where I marked them (relative to the docks).

There are a ton of features I have not explored yet, but so far I am really happy with my purchase. I can only imagine liking it more and more.

_________________
Fish tremble when they hear my name :)

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.
--John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:31 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:05 pm
Posts: 23
It sounds like your DSI finder works well shooting through the hull. I thought someone said that the DSI finders would not work properly with the transducer mounted through the hull.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 8:33 am 
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Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:59 am
Posts: 606
Tim Antoine wrote:
It sounds like your DSI finder works well shooting through the hull. I thought someone said that the DSI finders would not work properly with the transducer mounted through the hull.


Side imaging does not work at all.


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:16 am 
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Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 9:48 am
Posts: 312
Location: Portland, OR
Down imaging works great through hull. Based on the physics I expect to lose at most a couple of percent going through the hull. No big deal. So far I have used down imaging in 135 feet of water with sensitivity at the default of 10 with a good looking picture. That is good enough for me.

I believe that there are some manufacturers who recommend not shooting through the hull of a boat (Humminbird says it is fine) with DI or DSI because it is more apt to have poor performance if there is some small bit of air trapped in the hull. (More complaints from customers on marginal installs). This does not apply to kayaks. The kayak hulls are thin, do not have any place to trap air, and the wave velocity through plastic is closer to water than fiberglass. This all works to your advantage.

There are a lot using DSI through the hull. Just google around and you will find plenty of good results.

_________________
Fish tremble when they hear my name :)

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.
--John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928


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