Humminbird 385cxi DI Combo

[metro_fisher]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to buy a new sounder/gps combo.

I currently have a Eagle 350 Cuda which I'm not impressed with (mostly from a sounder perspective - not that the gps is any good, but it's what I expected).

Don't have a great deal of sounder knowledge apart from doing basic research.

The budget is <$1000 (which is already stretching it as I'm doing a centre console conversion on my Brooker Safari) but current contenders are the Humminbird 385 DI combo, Lowrance Elite 5 DSI combo and Lowrance Elite 5 Combo.

Does anyone own any of these and/or have an opinion on them?

At the moment I'm heavily leaning towards the Humminbird. They are all similarly priced (once you add Navionics to the Humminbird - others already come with it) but the Humminbird offers a traditional sounder, gps AND the down imaging. The Elite 5 does not offer down imaging while the Elite 5 DSI only has down imaging. The positives for the Lowrance models are they have bigger screeens and I THINK a slightly better sounder in the Elite 5 (could someone confirm this?).

The Lowrance DSI is probably last place in my mind as being down imaging only my understanding is while great for looking at structure (primarily in fresh water looking for trees etc) it is only useful for shallow waters (I fish coastal to 70m) and is more difficult to identify fish.

Thanks for your help!

[Spiderpig]

I love my humminbird, have always had them and they have always been reliable easy to us units. I have a furuno on my cat as well but find myself looking at the humminbird most of the time.

I have two of the 900 series SI units 997 and 998c SI, absolutely fantastic.

My advice:

1. If your fishing in more than 20m of water, forget about DI or SI, you might as well spend the dollars on a bigger 2d sounder - which humminbird make really well too. Something like the 858C - $825 +p&h out of the USA. You won't have the navioniocs, but you can always save up for the card once the CC upgrade is finished. Keep an eye out there are a lot of navionics cards floating around second hand.

2. If you have your heart set on the DI, the 3.5 inch screen is too small. Go for something like the 798C SI with a 5 inch screen (IMO this is even too small). This will give you GPS SI and DI for around $875 + p&h out of the USA.

If you are going to import, both of these options are under $1000, which means you dodge import duty.

I could never go back to using a small screen like the 385, especially for GPS and Sounding.

[jerson]

Metro,
Do you have room to use the eagle as a stand alone GPS. Then you can get a colour 500 series Humminbird with a 5" screen, $1000 will go a long way.
I,ve found it a lot easier to have seperate units.
Jerson

[lucee81]

i would stay away from the dsi (i have one used maybe 4 times sitting in the shed) i would be looking at a more user friendly device either the bird or the hds. may not have a nav card but its always easy to add later.
The DSI in my opinion is a cheap option out with the HDS you can always add side scan etc later but if you plan on doing that i would look at a bigger screen or add another 5 inch later.