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 Post subject: I'm a Hobie PA convert!
PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:20 am 
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Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 9:12 pm
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Bought a PA last month and am completely in love with this boat. I found out right away that a Hobie kayak cart is a must-have, and makes loading/unloading a snap.

First fishing trip out, I caught a half dozen largemouths and bout the same number white bass. I fish mostly deep lakes in Oklahoma for white bass, striped bass, largemouths and catfish.

I am looking for a good GPS/Fishfinder unit. Anyone have any recommendations?


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:50 pm 
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Location: Central New York
Welcome Aboard!


I don't have personal experience, but I have heard great things about the Hummingbird 385c.

_________________
MrGreen


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 7:05 pm 
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Parrot,,,, i dont have my PA yet but since this is a bigger yak i decided that a bigger FF/gps combo wouldnt be too much....so i went with the Humminbord 788ci....bass pro just reduced the price of this unit to $499 it was 649

just my opinion but i hope it helps you in some way make your decision


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 9:35 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:51 am
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Location: Dallas
It may be a bit of a stretch financially, but I went with a HB side imager. Once you've seen what they do for the day, there is no going back. Between it and the PA they make me look like a much better fisherman than I really am. The smaller screens are $1049 with a 50 channel gps and waas built in. the 998s are about $1500 and there is plenty of room on the PA for any of them.

I used a Eagle 320C for years and would go back to one in a second if I had to give up the SI unit.

Fine resolution and color for bright sunlight make a real difference. I did fine with the high res black and white units, but when I got the color, it made life much easier.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 10:03 am 
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I agree with Carver. I recently installed a Humminbird 798i SI
HD and love it. The side imaging feature is perfect for crappie
fishing from a kayak. Being able to sweep 200+ feet is a huge
time and labor savings while looking for submerged brush piles
and tree stumps.

I was worried that the SI feature wouldn't work well because
the PA rarely tracks perfectly straight, especially in wind. But
other than when making a quick turn, the SI image is amazing.
As a software engineer, my mind boggles at the algorithms
required to produce such an accurate image of the bottom
from a bobbing and swerving platform.

My only disappointment with the 798i SI HD so far is that
the direction vector is usually wrong. The GPS, speed, and
chartplotting features work well. But the direction arrow
is bogus even when my speed is over 3 mph. I probaby
need a firmware upgrade, but I have other priorities right
now.


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:04 pm 
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on these SI and DI units its necessary to mount the xducer outside the yak...correct?

im not to interested in looking for brush piles because i mostly fish in the salt.....but i was interested in the 798 i just didnt want to have the xducer outside


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 1:09 pm 
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Yes, all SI units require the sides of the transducer
to be clear of the boat hull.

If you don't require SI features, I recommend the
500-series model which has GPS and chartplotting.
Those two features are extremely useful, especially
if you troll lures/bait at a specific speed.

I will add a Navionics card soon as possible which
shows all the contours, creek channels, suken roads,
etc. That feature also works with the 500-series.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:51 pm 
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Location: Stafford, VA
goneYAKcrazy wrote:
on these SI and DI units its necessary to mount the xducer outside the yak...correct?

im not to interested in looking for brush piles because i mostly fish in the salt.....but i was interested in the 798 i just didnt want to have the xducer outside


I just installed the 788 ci HD DI and you can shoot the Down Imaging (DI) through the hull but with the SI it must be mounted on the Outside.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:58 pm 
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I received the following question via email from
(I presume) another forum user...

Quote:
I was curious. How good does the down imaging work for you in your yak? I was thinking about buying the 597ci-HD-DI for mine. Just wanted to ask someone who is using the DI in a yak and the results they have. Thanks a bunch.


I'm not sure if this is what was meant, but my transducer
is not mounted inside the hull of my ProAngler. I have
a Side Imaging model which requires the transducer to
have a clear left and right view. My 798 transducer is
mounted to a RAM arm on the rear carrying bar. I manually
lower the arm when I'm launching and raise before leaving.

Anyway, both the Down and Side Imaging features work
amazingly well and have been very helpful in the type of
fishing I pursue. Speed tracking, temp, traditional fish-finder
view all work well. It's a very well designed user-interface
and I'm very pleased.

My only complaint is that the GPS direction vector is
practically useless at slow speeds. Other makers and GPS
plotters can accurately display a direction vector down to 0.2
mph. Humminbird uses a poor algorithm for this feature in
my opinion. The vector is too twitchy and reactive. The GPS
charplotting shows my position history very well. But that
darn direction arrow jumps all over the place at the slightest
whim. Trolling jigs or minnows down a creek channel at slow
speeds is rather challenging. I suspect a firmware upgrade
is needed to resolve the issue.

Hope this quick review helps.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:47 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:51 am
Posts: 92
Location: Dallas
I called Humminbird (tech support, not sales) and asked about both issues.

The vector arrow problem was corrected in the last firmware upgrade. It should be accurate at all times with any movement.

The down imaging is not adversely affected with an in hull installation, just the temp as well known. I am going to add a second transducer in my PA so that when the bow is pitching airborne and killing the SI, the transducer inside will still run the DI.

Tight lines,, Phill


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:07 am 
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I am curious, do you find any issues with having the side image transducer lowered into the water? Does it affect the movement of the yak or is it pretty drag free? I imagine it is not very useful if fishing bass in weeds. Is it possible to have a down image transducer mounted in the hull and then the side image like you have off the side of the boat and switch between the two?


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:51 am 
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Location: Dallas
I use the side imaging and traditional FF more for find structure than fish.

The weeds would definitely be hard to gain an advantage from with any FF.

I cannot feel any drag from the SI transducer at all and have had it on an Outback and Pro Angler both.

Yes, you can use both transducers (there is dual input) for the down and side imaging.


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 1:46 pm 
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I was hoping the side image was a gimmick that didn't work too well. Dang, with what you are saying, I am going to have to spend more money. Any drawbacks you have found with the side image? I am trying to decide what to get for my PA. I fish the great lakes for salmon, trout, walleye and bass. I figured the SI would really help to locate structure that might hold fish. Do bait balls show up on it well?


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 2:46 pm 
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Location: Dallas
Sorry to tell you this but........Bait balls show up great.

fast moving individual objects (fish) go right through the plane of echo without spending much time, therefore do not show up much.. Individual fish usually show up as a very bright spot as they are more reflective than the mud or organics.
The down imaging gives a different but great downward looking image also. I don't think I would want to give up either.

On the SI a ball of shad looks like a christmas tree lit up. A large school of larger fish looks something like that with the expected changes. Larger and looser and usually below the bait.

When I am striper fishing and find a bait ball I mark it with gps (you can do this without having to go to it just by moving a cursor on the screen ) several times and that gives me the bait ball direction of travel and relative speed. It is easy as long as they are not in a full panic to get in front of then and be close if they surface again. I have been driving the striper guides nuts getting in front of them sitting in the middle of schools as they surface. Theoretically they could do the exact same thing but with the big power boat they flare the school before it surfaces even running on trolling motor. The yak sure helps here.

One of the things I was pleasantly surprised by was the stability of the image even on a yak, I use one on a pontoon boat which is super stable and it is better, but not much. My yaks are usually very heavily loaded also and that makes for some stability.

I fish against power boats in crappie tourneys and seldom have the luxury of pre-fishing the lakes. With a bit of forethought, I can pretty well predict where brush-piles or PVC condos have been dropped. We all look for the same kind of structure when we are setting piles out.. I can head out before sun-up and cruise past some likely looking points in the general depth of 20' and will always mark a nice handful of populated structures one side or the other. I mark them with the gps as I find them and start working shallower ones at sunup going deeper as it rises. The Pro Angler and Side imaging make me look like a much better angler than I really am. But thats OK, I'll take charity in this instance.

If you go to the Humminbird forum look for a link to a program called "DR. Down".
It allows you to download all of your days scans and location data and reassembles the echoes back into a relative space using the ever present GPS data with every ping.. In other words you can assemble your own very accurate 3-d map that you can work from in the future. In the boat everything is just shown in a straight line passing you by just like any graph does. This lets you build a 3-d model that you can pick GPS points from at home at home on the PC.

I have an iPhone app I am working on that will take this info and pull data from it as required. Marks from fish caught, weather data and more details than anyone really wants but it was fun to put together.

I have let three folks demo my Pro Angler and to the man they all now own Pro Anglers and two have SIde imaging. They weren't even kayak fishing before that.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:00 am 
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Okay, one more question. If I buy the 798si, are you using 2 transducers, or just one? Well maybe two questions. If there are 2 transducers, the SI mounts outside the hull and you lower in into place, the regular transducer, can you just shoot thru the hull or do you have to exchange it with a special one to shoot through the hull? Actually three questions, is the 5 inch screen big enough or would it be worth spending the extra money to get the 898 with the 7 inch screen.


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