Thread: Hds8

Originally Posted by RangerZ21

Go Lowrance! I've seen em both. You'll see things with the Lowrance that you never will with the HB. I've got 2 HDS10s and 2 LSS1s so when at the trolling motor your transducer is not 21' away. Works for me!

I don't prefer one over the other to be honest but I have to disagree with the statement above especially when your talking side imaging. My uncle and I trade off trip for trip. He has the hds8 on his boat and I have the hb997 on mine. I find the his down imaging to be a little better than my bird but when It comes to the side imaging there is no ifs ands or buts about it my bird is far more superior to his hds.

Ill give you a very good example. This spring we had loads and loads of shad in our creeks off the ohio river and man you could actually count the shad on the screen of the 997 and each individual fish had a shadow directly underneath them. With his hds unit no matter what settings we had on his unit you just got almost the same as if you had propwash on both sides of the boat. It was just an absolute no brainer so we started taking a lot more trips on my boat for finding structure when scanning the creeks. Tree tops just showed up as clutter where with mine it was like you painted a tree top on my screen. Don't get me wrong, with the hds we knew the structure was there but the detail just wasnt quite as good as the 997. As for the 2d now I like the lowrance a LOT more than my bird.

Hey maybe his transducer isnt quite set right or something but Ive got to see the same structure on both graphs and im just not as impressed with the hds as with the bird. Not to mention I got a screen just as large as his, only have to deal with one transducer, and payed a hell of a lot less.

Originally Posted by CrappieCrazed

I don't prefer one over the other to be honest but I have to disagree with the statement above especially when your talking side imaging. My uncle and I trade off trip for trip. He has the hds8 on his boat and I have the hb997 on mine. I find the his down imaging to be a little better than my bird but when It comes to the side imaging there is no ifs ands or buts about it my bird is far more superior to his hds.

Ill give you a very good example. This spring we had loads and loads of shad in our creeks off the ohio river and man you could actually count the shad on the screen of the 997 and each individual fish had a shadow directly underneath them. With his hds unit no matter what settings we had on his unit you just got almost the same as if you had propwash on both sides of the boat. It was just an absolute no brainer so we started taking a lot more trips on my boat for finding structure when scanning the creeks. Tree tops just showed up as clutter where with mine it was like you painted a tree top on my screen. Don't get me wrong, with the hds we knew the structure was there but the detail just wasnt quite as good as the 997. As for the 2d now I like the lowrance a LOT more than my bird.

Hey maybe his transducer isnt quite set right or something but Ive got to see the same structure on both graphs and im just not as impressed with the hds as with the bird. Not to mention I got a screen just as large as his, only have to deal with one transducer, and payed a hell of a lot less.

YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN, now i'm leaning HB.

WHAT'S A FELLOW TO DO?

but it's all good.:D

keep researching.

As soon as my rich uncle gets out of the poor house. Great imaging on both units.

Originally Posted by JESSE JAMES

YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN, now i'm leaning HB.

WHAT'S A FELLOW TO DO?

but it's all good.:D

I would not let one guy from either side decide your purchase for you. If you have friends with both units, go out with them and see for yourself. But also consider the waters that you fish. I fish a lake with tons of structure, and I have used the side scan on my lowrance a total of 3 times. I use the down scan in place of 2D at all times. I find what I need with downscan.

Be sure of what you are buying before swiping your card. Don't want to be second guessing.

Originally Posted by mduncan62

I would not let one guy from either side decide your purchase for you. If you have friends with both units, go out with them and see for yourself. But also consider the waters that you fish. I fish a lake with tons of structure, and I have used the side scan on my lowrance a total of 3 times. I use the down scan in place of 2D at all times. I find what I need with downscan.

Be sure of what you are buying before swiping your card. Don't want to be second guessing.

thats one of my problems, no friends with either unit.

well jessie next time or first time you get to mo. look me up we will go fishing and you can use my HD-7 I can find the fish just don't know how to catch them.

deal, beagle

Wow,nice Beagle Man. Mouth shut here.

Originally Posted by mduncan62

I would not let one guy from either side decide your purchase for you. If you have friends with both units, go out with them and see for yourself. But also consider the waters that you fish. I fish a lake with tons of structure, and I have used the side scan on my lowrance a total of 3 times. I use the down scan in place of 2D at all times. I find what I need with downscan.

Be sure of what you are buying before swiping your card. Don't want to be second guessing.

The Lowrance down look is super. As you said, you don't really have to have the 2d screen. I gave the downscan the old "jig test" today. There was no tweaking the sensitivity to detect the jig. I saw the jig immediately (default setting).
I mainly concentrated on the downscan today. It is awesome.

Also on the downscan, the cone angle (if it exists as an angle) seems to be relatively large. Lets call it the area of detection. I could detect the jig a couple of feet away from the transducer in only 5 feet of water. The image of the jig was crystal clear. If I held the jig still, the image was a straight line. If I moved the jig, the image followed the jig. Very interesting and educational. I was led to believe that the "cone angle" was very narrow. Well, someone from Lowrance is full of olive pits about cones..

I didn't fool with the side imaging and I didn't turn the GPS on at all. I have my Garmin.