Lowrance or humminbird?

Wondering what you prefer and why? I was thinking the Elite 5 is in about my price range and about the size I can afford. But am also thinking of upgrading my electric motor to an ipilot and the humminbird link sounds cool. But I also like the idea of having the sonar/chartplotter at the helm with a sonar/ downimage or side image at bow (this would be cheaper since it wouldn't involve the ipilot with link)? Any suggestions what is best or is it more of a personal preference kinda thing? I am a bit new to all the technology side of fishing. I have some time to research since I'm gonna have to save up for this stuff i spend $200 or so on a new spinning outfit today and the wife just about had a cow

I've ipilot. In old boat I used elite 5 on bow and elite 5 with gps at stern.

On new boat I have a new huminbird basic fishfinder located at helm for the driver. Hard to see anywhere else on boat. Small display.

I'm thinking of hooking the elite 5 with maps to the bow such that have maps running when ipilot up. Then installing last basic elite 5 on the stern for fishing there.

Not using link. Didn't see the value of it if using lowrance. May be different If starting fresh.

I though the link was only available with humminbird? I think it would be so neat to just set it on a course to follow say 12' depth and it would just go.

When i looked into it (and actual users feel free to correct me if i am wrong), the follow the contour feature is only functional with lakemaster chips, not navionics, and lakemaster does not publish a canada map set.

When i looked into it (and actual users feel free to correct me if i am wrong), the follow the contour feature is only functional with lakemaster chips, not navionics, and lakemaster does not publish a canada map set.

I'd forgotten about that deal breaker for link. Doesn't work on Canadian lakes . . .

Thanks

I was out with a buddy and he has the near comparable model, bit newer in Lowrance and i have Humminbird... His had some pretty cool features and using them looked really easy.

I am an old school fisherman, and really don't use my sonare except for depth, bottom type and now the gps/navionics.

Don't see how you're old school?

In my books old school is having only one old fish finder . . .

Or old school is no fish finder?

Or really old school is going out on the lake without cell phone that has Navionics and all the other Bell's / whistles for posting to LSO (Shagdrrotten6969 ) . . .

If you're using gps and maps your ahead of many old school . . .

Thanks

HA HA..

I see old school defined by who is looking ast it I guess.

These newer units have some pretty fancy features and Apps. I use the technology, but I use a fraction of what it can do.

I promise not to use the term old school again when referring to myself....lol

Made the mistake of switching to Humminbird last year. Should have stuck with Lowrance. Now I've got an out of warranty fishfinder that randomly turns off freezes or gives me a rainbow colour screen when I'm out trolling....

X2 Elrik,
I had ordered a Minn Kota 80b with i-pilot link, but when it was confirmed by Johnson Outdoors that ONLY Lakemaster maps will work with
i-pilot, I decided wait. Apparently Lakemaster is focusing on the Bass tourney lakes down south, with the Canadian maps are a way down the road.

hummingbird has a feature called Itracks that comes with I-pilot. It allows you to create your own route to follow up to 2 miles long. Once you have created it you can always return to the same spot and the trolling motor (minnkota) will take you down the exact same path. This is great for trolling, casting or even jigging. That feature alone makes it worth it for me to buy a hummingbird FF and minnkota trolling motor.

Agree - the tracks is nice feature - I've not used it myself yet . . .

For tracks - it is the gps inside the ipilot that sets the route. It is done by travelling the route and recording it. As I'm aware - nothing to do with having or not a Huminbird fishfinder . . .

Thanks

You can only store a limited amount of Itracks or spot lock locations in the link controller 16 I believe. When you connect it to your hummingbird you can have endless amount of both depending on your waypoint storage space . I think someone would be foolish to buy the I-pilot link but not intend to use a compatible hummingbird fishfinder.

It is my understanding you will need at least an "800 series or higher" Hummingbird FF to hook-up the graph up to a Minn-Kota i-pilot link trolling motor.

Have you talked to humminbird? In the research I have done so far; everyone says that their customer service is exceptional.

Thanks for all the input so far everyone!!!