Side Imaging or Live Scope…What’s Best For Me

[Thinblueline]

Hello everyone, I’m a new member to the site and looking to confirm some gut feelings on which way to go as I’m about to buy new electronics. I’ve taken many wilderness fishing trips to Canada, spent a lot of years trolling for salmon on Lake Michigan, and I’ve caught a lot of great gamefish in my life, but I’ve come to a point where the most satisfying thing for me now is casually casting a jig for crappie, or relaxing in front of a spread of bobbers and minnows.

I am in my last boat which is only a 16 1/2 footer with a tiller Yamaha motor, therefore I prefer to keep a new electronics set up to one monitor. I have a seasonal camper in northern Wisconsin where I fish natural lakes, most of which have their deepest basins in the 25-50’ depths, with clear weed lines in the 5-10’ depths. I spend most of my time looking for crappies and bluegills, but I have only an outdated 2D sonar, and I am not real proficient at finding fish in these many lakes, which average 500-1000 acres, with many smaller and some bigger.

My biggest problem is I waste too much time fishing unproductive boat docks and boat houses, and I cannot locate fish cribs and other submerged wood and structures which crappie relate to. I catch a few fish here and there when I get lucky and set up on the right spot, but I might only hit one or two “right” spots out of how lever many spots I try, largely fishing structure I can see above water.

I want to stick to my relaxed style of fishing, where I cast jigs with a single pole or kick back with bobber sets while looking around and enjoying my surroundings. I have watched many live scope videos, and that is clearly the most effective for yanking crappie out of the water, but every video shows fishermen with an inordinate amount of time spent with his head down looking at a screen.

I think I’d really like to unlock the secrets of these lakes by finding fish cribs, downed trees and rock piles, as well as giving myself the ability to eliminate lots and lots of boat docks and boat houses that don’t have fish on them, without having to fish every one of them to do so.

My gut feeling tells me a side scan unit can give me what I’m looking for by revealing many more productive places in a shorter period of time to throw a spread of bobbers, as opposed to throwing them out with a hope and a prayer. On the other hand, you guys with live scope catch fish like nobody’s business so I wonder if I’m going to regret not going that route.

As a side note, spending the least amount of money will be a lot easier to get past my better half. I’ve kind of got my eye on the Garmin Echomap UHD 93SV with the newest GT56 transducer. What do you guys think? Am I thinking right for my situation?

[Slabprowler]

Forward facing sonar is absolutely a game changer .not all but a lot of the forward facing sonar guys use a good Si unit to find their fish then zero in on their target ! With a good Si unit you will be able to cover much more water in less time than you would if you live scoped every target ! I personally wouldn’t go with anything less than a 10” screen and if the money is their I would go with a solix if not then at least a helix !

[cattoon]

Side imaging will make a huge difference in being able to find the structure you want to fish. I have a 93sv unit but I have LiveScope only running on it. If you buy the Garmin unit with side imaging you could later add the LiveScope if you chose to.
I side scan with a Hummingbird helix 10 and toss a marker buoy then use LiveScope to set up on it and determine if there are fish present, I do spend considerable time watching the graph but honestly it’s more to see how the fish act and react to how I am presenting the jig or minnow. It is amazing sometimes to watch how many times a fish will make an approach to a bait and for whatever reason not bite it. It is also exceptionally frustrating to be watching a school of fish and they will not bite.

[peshtigost]

ThinBlueLine,

I live in northern Wisconsin and fish river systems right near my house. With a 2D fish finder I have a heck of a time locating cribs and rock piles. The bottom of the river is NOT nice and flat, so it's hard to tell if it is structure or a feature I am looking for. This summer I got to see a side imaging unit first hand. A couple of guys from out of town found all the rock piles and hammered the smallmouth bass. I talked to them for quite awhile and they took me into their boat and out to the channel to see the rock piles. It was amazing. They didn't know about the rock piles, they just happened to see them on their side imaging. They had a Hummingbird system that was pre-Helix, and even that dated system was amazing.

I am a river rat and only have a 14' Lund with a 10Hp. I have my Helix 7 Mega SI already ordered and will have it early next month. The 7" fits my budget and is great for a 14' boat.

Seeing was believing for me.

[cevans]

If your thinking of SI, I would go with a Humminbird Helix 9” or 10” G4N model as fished with a 9 for a few years. Humminbird is super clear so get their latest which would be the G4N models. If you ever decide to add another, then you have the ability to network the 2 as well as you have the ability to add Mega 360 and/or Mega Live. Been using Mega 360 since it came out in Dec of 2019 and I can do side scan with it besides the full 360 of seeing fish all around me. When you learn to use SI you find blue gill and other fish beds, it will show all structure and submerged weed beds,,,you name it. You will also have Down Imagining and 2D as well as fishing charts. The helix models are push button and fairly easy to use as you will learn to adjust it when in soft or hard bottoms. Side Scan is hard to beat. Mega 360 rocks to where I seldom use SI anymore. Mega Live will give live viewing of fish in motion. Go as large a screen as you can because once you learn and use SI, your hooked and wish you had went bigger. Check a retailer out that has units working and on for you to play with as well as you will be able to compare Humminbird, Lowrance and Garmin all at the same time. I now have a Helix 12 DI, Helix 10 DI up front for Mega 360 and Mega Live along with a Helix 7 DI for charts/2D. The helix 9 SI is on the back when I run my 16’ g3 jon. Electronics is additive. Everything is networked also.

[cevans]

You will see more detail with the larger screens also.

[6poundtest]

I'd go with the side scan, based on your intro and chosen method of fishing. As mentioned above, get the biggest screen you can afford; it will pay big dividends. I'd say the 9" would be about as small as I'd want to go for good detail with SI.

[Bricks]

It sounds like you are an older Dude like me when it comes to SI size does really matter, if you want to find just structure smaller is OK but if you want to pick out fish then a Helix 12 is what you want, so much easier because of the size of the image. A fish only being 2-4 pixels on a smaller unit may be 9-17 pixels. Humminbird has the best SI out there. I have had true blue Lowrance guys in my boat and they admit Hbirds SI is much better.

I can take a run thru 20-25 cribs and tell you which cribs have fish if any, SI has taught me how much these fish move from one crib to the next with in a few hours or here today gone tomorrow. Open water suspended fish SI can find them, where I fish these are normally the bigger Crappies.

It hurts to spend $2,500 on a depth finder, if you keep your eyes open there are good used units Humminbird Helix 12 SI Gen 3`s out there in that $1,600. I know because I have updated to two Gen 3`s for that amount each. You could also find a Helix 12 SI Gen 1 for $800 and they will more then get the job done not as sharp an image but nothing wrong with them as long as you do not plan to update to Mega 360 or Mega Imaging.

Once you purchase one take the time to actually learn how to use and read it. What I had to finally do is leave my rods at home and spent the day doing nothing but playing with my SI. To start I went along a shoreline I kind of new and looked at my screen and compared to what I see on the shore. Would make multiple passes changing settings until it looked the way I wanted it. Did this over different types of bottom structure changing settings as I went with multiple passes. Find some fish do the same thing adjusting settings as I went over them many times.

Learning your electronics and how to set them up according to conditions is the best thing and hardest to do, once you get it then life and catching is so much easier.

[DockShootinJack]

Sidescan for my vote as well. As has been said the biggest you can afford

[Thinblueline]

It sounds like you are an older Dude like me when it comes to SI size does really matter, if you want to find just structure smaller is OK but if you want to pick out fish then a Helix 12 is what you want, so much easier because of the size of the image. A fish only being 2-4 pixels on a smaller unit may be 9-17 pixels. Humminbird has the best SI out there. I have had true blue Lowrance guys in my boat and they admit Hbirds SI is much better.

I can take a run thru 20-25 cribs and tell you which cribs have fish if any, SI has taught me how much these fish move from one crib to the next with in a few hours or here today gone tomorrow. Open water suspended fish SI can find them, where I fish these are normally the bigger Crappies.

It hurts to spend $2,500 on a depth finder, if you keep your eyes open there are good used units Humminbird Helix 12 SI Gen 3`s out there in that $1,600. I know because I have updated to two Gen 3`s for that amount each. You could also find a Helix 12 SI Gen 1 for $800 and they will more then get the job done not as sharp an image but nothing wrong with them as long as you do not plan to update to Mega 360 or Mega Imaging.

Once you purchase one take the time to actually learn how to use and read it. What I had to finally do is leave my rods at home and spent the day doing nothing but playing with my SI. To start I went along a shoreline I kind of new and looked at my screen and compared to what I see on the shore. Would make multiple passes changing settings until it looked the way I wanted it. Did this over different types of bottom structure changing settings as I went with multiple passes. Find some fish do the same thing adjusting settings as I went over them many times.

Learning your electronics and how to set them up according to conditions is the best thing and hardest to do, once you get it then life and catching is so much easier.

m

I’m not too much of an older dude, just crossing the half century mark a year ago, but if you knew my wife, you’d know why I’m not likely to be buying anymore boats, and it took some fast and sweet talking to get approval for an $1,100 unit in the Garmin, lol. I would love to have the luxury of the larger and more advanced units, but there are some other non-recreation things I actually need to spend money on, such as a broken down riding lawnmower I need to replace, and an ancient a/c unit on my house.