Fishfinders and maps

[YUPPY]

Looks like there are many options for fish finders and purchased maps. Can you please advise best course of action? I am looking for a starter level setup for bays and state water nearshore with mapping capabilities so I don’t have to navigate with my phone and google maps while crawling around the bays at Port O and Port A.
Should I buy Lowrance/Garmin/Humminbird?
What brand coastal maps should I buy?
Is there any compatibility issues or do most just take a card purchased with maps?
Dont really know what else I should be asking.

Thanks in advance

[Lawhunter]

livescope or nothing.

[Brett A]

I was always a Lowrance guy, but Livescope has me running Garmins now.

[muzzlebrake]

From my limited experience it seems to me that Birds and Garmins have kinda left Lowrance in the dust. Only ones I have ever had are Lowrance and Humminbird. My nephew just got the Garmin livescope system but I haven't had the chance to fish with it yet. If I were buying a new system today I would not even consider Lowrance. I had a full suite Lowrance on my last boat linked to the Motorguide and it was OK but I liked the Bird better on the previous boat. Birds were just easier to use IMO.

[TexasBob]

Following. Thinking about getting a better map card for my Humminbird.

[Walker]

Unless there are some new cards out, the bay maps are sorely lacking. They show areas of depth but no contour lines.

[TexasBob]

Unless there are some new cards out, the bay maps are sorely lacking. They show areas of depth but no contour lines.

This was my experience for sure. I thought about getting the card from trout support to show structure.

[Mayhem]

I’m running a Texas 1 card by standard mapping. It has things marked on it and google earth overlay.


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[Keith]

For me, it's all Garmin if I was starting from scratch. I've had a Humminbird Solix since 2017 and bought a Garmin 8612 with Livescope in 2020. We won't even talk about all the electronics I have on my boat now.



Bass Pro and Cabela's has a big sale on lots of fishing electronics through March 29th.

[Garbuster]

Unless there are some new cards out, the bay maps are sorely lacking. They show areas of depth but no contour lines.

Hummingbird has a new lakemaster card out. I was previously running the original card and can tell you on lakes it's an improvement can't say on coastal

[Walker]

Hummingbird has a new lakemaster card out. I was previously running the original card and can tell you on lakes it's an improvement can't say on coastal

My platinum card had good lake contour maps but nada for the inland coastal waters.

[YUPPY]

Is Livescope useful in bays and nearshore? I’ve only seen it for stalking crappie and ice fishing

[glen]

I have a Hummingbird 997 I think you can have it. Just gotta buy a bracket and power cord. I’d just use it for the GPS. The side scan and down just are not worth a flip in my opinion. It will be good enough to get you stuck in the mud and back home

Unless you are trying to video fish redfish schools or looking for wrecks offshore I don’t have a lot of use for much more than a GPS in the bays. I trust my vision much more than electronics and can see sand bars and oysters reefs. Plus if your navigating by electronics I think people run over or past a lot of fish signs

[Snowflake Killa]

Hummingbird mapping is really good on lakes. I bought a new map for my garmin it really good to. I know nothing about lowerance

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[YUPPY]

I have a Hummingbird 997 I think you can have it. Just gotta buy a bracket and power cord. I’d just use it for the GPS. The side scan and down just are not worth a flip in my opinion. It will be good enough to get you stuck in the mud and back home

Unless you are trying to video fish redfish schools or looking for wrecks offshore I don’t have a lot of use for much more than a GPS in the bays. I trust my vision much more than electronics and can see sand bars and oysters reefs. Plus if your navigating by electronics I think people run over or past a lot of fish signs

Sounds like a deal too good to pass up!
And Yes that makes sense. Still a lot to learn about seeing the fish signs