Going a different way on fish finders, wanted input.

[DaveInGA]

I was originally planning to put two Eagle fish finders I bought new (a 480 and a 640) into my boat when I finished restoring it. Now that I'm getting close, a buddy of mine has talked me into putting my Eagle Fish Elite 480 Black and White up for sale (It's new in box and in the swap and sale if anyone is interested.) and getting a Humminbird 898 CDI.

Was wondering if anyone has this unit with Lake Master or Navionics software and what they thought about it.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[fender66]

I have the 798 CI SI and love it. The SI will give you a lot of noise if you put it on your trolling motor though. I can only use it in the back of my boat. BTW..I use the Navionics chip.

 

[HBT Chris]

I have a 997 with the Navonics chip and it's pretty nice. My biggest grip with the Navonics though is that it only has 3/4 of lake Allatoona mapped, and that is where I fish most of the time. The northern most quarter of the lake is just blank, so depending on where I am fishing, I may or may not use the chip.

I know the Lake Master chips are really sweet, but don't work well on my particular unit. Because they are so detailed, it slows down some of the older depth finders. But, I'm pretty sure the unit you are talking about should handle it just fine. But, I would try and do a bit of research just to make sure. If it can run the Lake Master without causing any performance issues, I would suggest that in a heart beat!

 

[HBT Chris]

I have the 798 CI SI and love it. The SI will give you a lot of noise if you put it on your trolling motor though. I can only use it in the back of my boat. BTW..I use the Navionics chip.

A lot of people have the interference issue. I have my 997 on the console of my boat and it gets interference from the trolling motor as well. Since I don't see it though, it doesn't bother me too much. With that said, H-bird has a few suggestions you can try that may remove the noise you are seeing. It may be looking into if you want to move your SI to your trolling motor.

 

[fender66]

I've looked into all of them. About the only other thing I can try is to add an internal ground to the troller motor. That is getting too expensive for me. I think it was about $170 if my memory serves me right. And...it might help. There's no guarantee.

I'm moving it to the back of the boat this weekend.

 

[gillhunter]

I have a 597ci HD with the transducer mounted on the transom. It is working well now but the transducer was really fussy. I relocated it once and adjusted it several times to get it to work right.

 

[DaveInGA]

Sounds like the best thing to do is to mount the new transducer on the transom right out of the box and not even both with putting it on the trolling motor.

 

[Jonboat Jerry]

I have the 798 CI SI and love it. The SI will give you a lot of noise if you put it on your trolling motor though. I can only use it in the back of my boat. BTW..I use the Navionics chip.

X 2, my 798ci Si COMBO was mounted on the transome and with a few adjustments was trouble free and worked great.
I recently replaced it (it's in the sale section) with a HB 1197c. I got a smoking deal from some SAR guys that had a spare.
Mounted the 'ducer where the old one was and it works great. Trolling motors and FF's don't get along very well, and can
be a PITA to get working. Jerry

 

[Bugpac]

Hds only way to go IMO!