# Screenshots from Humminbird's new side imaging sonar



## Frank_Sebastian (Oct 15, 2007)

Thanks for posting Tom. I have rigged up several old sounders with transducers I could "point" in different directions. They all worked more or less, but the Humminbird fishin buddy I have now works well enough to catch bait I can't see. You can also find fish under the bridges, but finding and catching is two different things.

Frank_S


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## TomFL (Oct 2, 2007)

> Thanks for posting Tom. I have rigged up several old sounders with transducers I could "point" in different directions. They all worked more or less, but the Humminbird fishin buddy I have now works well enough to catch bait I can't see. You can also find fish under the bridges, but finding and catching is two different things.
> 
> Frank_S


For sure you hit the nail on the head with that one, Frank! 

The humminbird just makes fishing that much more frustrating sometimes!

So far it has come in handy marking bait schools offshore, and I am really just learning about it and what I'm seeing on the screen. I've marked some cool fish along the seawalls and under docks. But yes, catching them is another thing entirely. 

-T


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## Tarponator (Mar 17, 2009)

Any updates on the Humminbird? I am really looking hard at the 898c si, how do you like yours so far? Any info would be appreciated.


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## TomFL (Oct 2, 2007)

> Any updates on the Humminbird? I am really looking hard at the 898c si, how do you like yours so far? Any info would be appreciated.


So far I really like it. I'm still learning everything the unit can do. I've been traveling a lot and usually bring the manual with me to browse on the plane and have at least one "AHA!" moment on each read. Suffice to say there are enough features on this thing to satisfy any fisherman. 

As far as performance, I think it's great. The unit holds it's reading perfect up to about 40mph, which is better than any unit I've had that has a transom-mount transducer. There was no shoot-through hull transducer option when I purchased mine, might be one coming though. GPS fix is instantaneous. 

I've been able to mark schools of bait offshore that were not visible on the surface; this alone is a great feature on days when bait is tough to find. Hard to put a price tag on this feature when you've got a boat load of guys, and are burning gas and fishing time looking for needed bait to hang from a kite. 

Side scan is great to look at tree-lined shorelines, docks, etc. The only thing I find is that when I don't see fish on the screen, I tend to start off thinking "there's no fish here" and might not give a spot enough time. 

For flats-only fishing I don't think the side-scan is a worthy feature. Seems it needs about 5-7' of depth before it'll show things far enough away from the boat that you don't spook them. 

The installed maps are decent inshore, and somewhat lacking offshore. I bought mine flashed with some navionics upgrades, and it's got just about all the wrecks and hotspots on it which I think is worth the $$ rather than having to enter all those waypoints. All the channel markers are in the unit as well, which helps with navigation at night in areas you're not familiar with. 

Overall I love the unit. It's easier and easier to use the more I play with it, and finding bait on tough days, for a live-bait guy like myself, is tough to put a price tag on. 

The downside is that the accessories are expensive. I bought a second transducer and GPS antenna so I could swap the unit between boats, and honestly it was about 3x more than any other unit I've had. Seems about all the accessories are expensive, even if you just wanted to add features to the unit like a barometric pressure or storm watch feature, etc. So shop wisely if you're thinking of buying and get everything at once.

-T


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## tom_in_orl (Dec 9, 2006)

I have serious toy envy on that one. Those things are just too cool. Thanks for sharing.


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## fsae99 (Apr 8, 2010)

Tom,
On the flats use the 400 freq (800 freq is 86 deg), this gives about 89 deg of coverage and if your transducer is fairly close to the waterline you should be able to "see" far enough not to spook fish. With the bottom locked at up to 40 mph, I'm guessing that you transducer is underwater a good bit at scanning speed.

Also, in screen shot of the bridge in the SI potion notice how the piling shadow is almost perpendicular (very good) to the boat track shown in the water column, either speed up or slow down the boat or SI scroll speed get this as perpendicular as possible for best results.

For areas that you do not see fish on SI but you catch fish, try turning sensitivity down so only hard returns show up. I use this technique in 2 -4 water around cypress trees bass fishing and works great. I have my transducer very close to the waterline. 

The picture shows your are in approx. 9 ft scanning 150 ft to both sides. I'd set SI to scan one side and reduce the range to better pick out individual fish. The idea here think of the 150ft space taken up in the screen and then the size of 3ft fish, it would be 1/50 of either side of the water column. By reducing the range to 75 ft and scanning just one side, the same 3 ft fish would occupy 1/12th of the screen. Look for the bright ovals.

Just some of the things I have learned using humminbird SI.


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## TomFL (Oct 2, 2007)

Jim, thanks for the tips, you've made some great points there. 

As a disclaimer to anyone looking at the pics, these were from the first couple days I owned the unit, and as I'm still learning you can do a ton more with it/fine tune it like Jim mentions. 

I'll try to post some better pics here in the next few days. 

-T


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## tom_in_orl (Dec 9, 2006)

You guys are killing me. ;D


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## TomFL (Oct 2, 2007)

> You guys are killing me.  ;D


Like you don't have enough toys already..... 

Jim's got me itching to get back on the water and try his tips..


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## fsae99 (Apr 8, 2010)

Tom in Orl, don't be jealous of me I recently sold my 798 and don't have SI unit right this min. However by Xmas an 1197 should come my way. 

Tom in Fl,
Just in case you are unaware, there are 3 forums for SI users all 3 have at least 1 Humminbird factory guy that replies regularly. The knowledge the other users have is very high. My personal favorite is http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php. The have tools to download to view recordings on you computer. I have found a lot of things reviewing recordings that I had missed on the water.

I you have any questions you can PM me. I check MS at least once a morning.

Jim


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