Garmin vs Lowrance vs Humminbird

DJP

Sealiner
Help...

I'm looking to save up to invest in a decent fish finder that I can map the farm dams in my local area. These dams range between small farm ponds to sections of bigger municipal waters.

I will be doing this off a kayak, so won't go bigger than the 7inch models.

There are three options:
Garmin STRIKERâ„¢ Plus 7cv , Price R 8 699.00
Humminbird Helix 7 Chirp GPS G2N, Price R 13,950.00
Lowrance ELITE 7 TI², Price R 13,900.00

The price point of the Garmin seems to be way better than the other two, but my experience with fish finders are limited and these charting programmes I know little about.

Please give me some feedback if you have used any of the above models and also general feedback on these fish finder even if you havent used the charting options.
 

DJP

Sealiner
Upon some further Googling I found out that the Garmin STRIKERâ„¢ Plus 5cv and 4cv Plus also have the same mapping function whereas it seems with Lowrance you only get it in the higher end and larger spec i.e. 7inch and up models.

The Garmin5cv Plus recommended retail is R 6 499.00, the 4cv R 4 299.00 so probably a better purchase for a kayak.
 

Pylstert

Sealiner
I have the 4 for a kayak, comes with a contour mapping system. I just havent found a way yet of getting your data off the thing and you are seemingly not able to get anything new onto it. EG transfer maps. Don't understand why Garmin can't build in this functionality, a R500 cellphone can do it.
 

DJP

Sealiner
That's a bit of an issue since the idea I had was to give the farmers a contour map of their dam. Not much help if I can't get it off the fish finder, it looks like you have to upload it to the Garmin website to get access somehow.
 

Pylstert

Sealiner
I have seen on mine you can transfer from one Garmin to another although not straightforward and definitely not to the internet. Maybe some of the higher u models can do that. Plan B - get students to measure it for you the old fashioned way with dumpy levels and plumb lines 😀 I remember doing that in limnology.
 

bassbug

New member
from what i have read, garmin only produces 1 foot contour whereas lowrance does half foot contours. for a better detailed map lowrance is better and comes with extras. price comparison is huge but with every cent
 
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