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Humminbird 597 CI HD DI transducer for 2013 PA
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Author:  yakdude_72 [ Fri Sep 28, 2012 10:42 am ]
Post subject:  Humminbird 597 CI HD DI transducer for 2013 PA
I found a very good deal on a Humminbird 597 HD DI. Quick questions: have any you ever installed the transducer of Humminbird 597 CI HD DI on 2013 PA? To me, the transducer looks very big for existing well of the Lowrance Ready on the PA. Do I have to buy a seperate mounting for that or I can use the one which comes with the boat? If yes, do you know the part # ?
Thank you for all info :D
Author:  Ring King [ Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Humminbird 597 CI HD DI transducer for 2013 PA
I installed mine on a Madd Frog Liberator Transducer Deployment Arm. I'm running a 2012 PA14 so I didn't have the option of the scupper that is ducer ready though. I would think that due to the longer size and more elongated shape that a traditional ducer mount wouldn't work.
Author:  gatorling [ Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Humminbird 597 CI HD DI transducer for 2013 PA
I bought a humminbird 597 CI HD DI combo and installed it in the PA12 with absolutely no problems. You WILL have to buy the humminbird adapter arm kit though. And make absolutely sure that your dealer checks with Hobie to send you the entire adapter kit. When I ordered mine, Hobie sent exactly one half of what was needed.
I still haven't gotten the other half...so literally my adapter is held on by half a mount and I refuse to buy another adapter plate when I should've received the full kit in the first place.
Author:  yakdude_72 [ Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Humminbird 597 CI HD DI transducer for 2013 PA
Hi Gatorling
How do you like the performing of the "Bird" ? Do you get clear shots from whatever under your boat? How does it work on shallow water, let say 5'-10' ?
The reason I asked you those questions cause when I talked to the guy at BPS, he said the Down Imaging does not wokd good in skinny water.
I live in Florida so most of my fishing is in shallow water.
Thanks
Author:  Ring King [ Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Humminbird 597 CI HD DI transducer for 2013 PA
IMHO the DI feature is worthless in water less than 15ft deep. It just doesn't provide much of a picture. From everything I've read you need 25 feet or more to really see anything useful. It's also not a plug and play feature. You have to tweak the settings to get images like what are advertised. A good place for help is the BassBoatCentral forums. They have a sub forum dedicated to the HB DI units with tips tricks and example images. It was the most helpful place I could find when setting mine up and getting started.
Author:  gatorling [ Mon Oct 01, 2012 12:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Humminbird 597 CI HD DI transducer for 2013 PA
I can only speak from personal experience.. I too live in Florida and almost exclusively fish the flats (I fish in the Clearwater/Tampa/St.Pete/Bradenton area) and it can get very very shallow here. There have been numerous times where I've just gotten out of my PA, clipped a line to my anchor trolley and started dragging my PA across the flats.

Imaging quality in shallow water: I don't have a lot of deep water experience to do a comparison but imaging in shallow water seems perfectly fine to me. I can see individual blades of grass outlined on the screen. I can see clear drop offs..

I didn't have to tweak my settings much, I just set the maximum depth to around 6' and that's about it.

I mostly use DI to locate the exact position of drop offs..that's when I know when to anchor and start throwing my lures.

Now it'll be a different story when I get around to fishing the gulf for King Mackeral. I suspect the 2d sonar will be helpful in finding schools of bait fish and it'd be neat to do some structure fishing from a PA.

But for now I use the HD 597 for mostly the GPS and water temp sensor and as a gauge of how deep the water is.
The GPS for navigation and recording a history of my routes (so I then know what areas I've explored and what areas I haven't). Waypoints are super useful for marking areas that were productive.

Water temp and using the sonar to find depth is useful for developing a sense of what feeding fish like at different times of the year.

I've been using the 597ci hd di combo on the PA12 for about 2 months now. No problems at all.
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