A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Barry, I have the 798 c si. And yes, you'll have to use Navionics mapping.
I suspect all of the mapping companies get their data from the same source. That said, I see no difference in the mapping quality from Garmin and Humminbird. However, the operating systems are different, and the Humminbird will take some getting used to. Otherwise, one is as good as the other.
One concern I had before buying the Humminbird was getting all my Garmin data transferred. When you register your new unit with Humminbird it opens up a user/owner area on the Humminbird website. As a user you can download a piece of software that will convert your Garmin waypoints to the Humminbird format. Copy the data to a standard SD card and plug it in.
Another nice thing that Humminbird does is release software updates/upgrades. They are very good about adding features. I bought my unit before they developed "Down Imaging". Humminbird released a software update that added "Down Imaging" to my old machine. They also made software upgrades simple. Download the software upgrade. Copy it to a blank SD card. Plug it in the unit. When you turn the unit on it automatically loads.
Side Imaging is a whole nother subject. It's fascinating. Learn to use it and it opens up a whole new world. When you see something on the side imaging move the cursor over the object and mark it. You now have a waypoint for that object. Switch to down imaging and navigate back over the object and see what it looks like. The upper and lower right images you have posted are side images. The lower left is a down image.
All that said, If you want a good chartplotter and bottom machine it doesn't matter which you go with. The difference is the side and down imaging.
I just got the Garmin 541S and if you want one you better hurry. They are going to a 546 and adding 200 to the price. West Marine still has the 541S without the transducer. You can buy the transducer separately and out the door is about 750 with tax. The 546 starts at 950 plus tax.
So far I love it. You can buy the Blue charts for the 541S as well but the regular charts are already loaded into it so I really did not see the point.
I had the Hummingbird 383 and liked it but it did not have chart capability so I have never had them. The bad thing about my Humminbird is I had to manually take the numbers out of it too. They are not all that way but this one was.
I just put all of my numbers in the new machine last night and it was very easy to do. The unit seems very user friendly.
I just got the Garmin 546s a few months ago and absolutely love it. i bought it without the transducer because my previous Garmin was compatible. It has changed my world out there with all the preloaded maps and charts. I have just been using the regular charts that came preloaded and it seems like all I need right now. It does have the SD card and you can also download satellite imagery as well. Very user friendly and would highly recommend it.
