797c2si

[hatchetman]

Hey....New to the site, been lurking and reading. I have a question and hope someone can help. I just aquired a new 797C2SI with external GPS and am setting it up in my boat now. I notice the manual is 184 pages. This is the first GPS unit I have ever had. Can someone give some short cuts to at least get me on the water and play with it ? I know I've got to study the manual but can you tell me the MOST important points to bone up on. I've got the transducer mounted correctly, I hope, and made a bracket out of 1/8 aluminum plate like Humminbird sells so I can mount the external antenna behind the unit on my Ram mount. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank's in advance....Pete

[Darryl Morris]

Hey Pete, welcome to the site and congrats on the new tool. Finish mounting that baby and get her on the water. The downward looking sonar (200khz and 83khz) is just like all other sonar units. The SI (455khz and 800khz) is your search tool. Until you get used to reading what you are looking at the best pictures in the SI mode will be while you are moving 3-5mph. Get yourself a good SD card and when you see something of interest, hit your right cursor key. This will freeze the screen. Move your cursor over the object and then press mark. This will save a waypoint of it for you. Now you can return to that spot and fish it or look for it with the downward looking sonar. Of course, that is just the quick startup explanation. Play with it and just learn to use it fit your fishing style. Good luck.

[reelcrappie]

Like Darry says just get it hooked up and play with, don't let the size of the hand book intimidate you. The more you use it the better you will like it. Once you get comfortable you can start getting into the more advanced menus and find out what it can really do. Try to fish a little while you are playing with it. LOL

[rancherlee]

don't worry too much about the placement of the GPS "hockey puck" when I first got my 580 in the mail (same gps puck) I hooked it up to my Vexilar battery in the house to play with the fish finder and It was locking on to GPS satillites IN MY LIVING ROOM with no issues, works even better outside!

[hatchetman]

Thank's alot for the info guy's. I probably won't make it out till Wednesday. About the only thing I have to figure out is where to mount it. I have a tiller Lund 1675 so I would like the first hole I drill to be the right one, unlike what I usually do....Pete

[[email protected]]

The 797 is the best thing since white bread (except maybe for the 997, lol).

To use the GPS, all you have to know is that the view button will advance you through screens till you find one that shows what you want to see. The exit button will back you up a screen at a time if you pass the screen you want. By zooming out (zoom -) more area will be shown for getting around, while zooming in (zoom +) will zero you in for getting to a precise location. When you find that brushpile, move the cursor over it by pushing the appropriate part of the oval shaped cursor control. Once the cursor is on the correct spot, press the mark button to save that spot as a waypoint.

Once you have saved the location of all those honeyholes, the next time you go out just zoom out till you see as much of the lake as you need to to see where you are and where you want to go at the same time. The saved waypoints will be visible on the map. Once you get close to the waypt. just keep zooming in until you are over the spot.

GPS is great for night fishing. The unit will draw a line from where you turn it on showing everywhere you have been. You can follow that line back to the landing just like breadcrumbs. Just be sure not to turn the unit off while on the water because the trail will be lost unless you have saved it. Also, when you start in, zoom out till you are sure that you are going the right way on the right part of the trail. Went backwards one night on an unfamiliar lake following the line because I had been all over that day. Took a while to catch my mistake. Once you are sure you are going right way, zoom way in and just keep the boat on the line.

Repeat, you are gonna love it.:D :D