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Posts: 81
| I'm planing to upgrade electronics this year and would like to hear from muskie guys that own or have used side imaging. Is it worth it? If so, help me understand what you primarily use it for. A couple of my buddies have it, but don't really use it.
Thanks
Joe |
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Posts: 670
Location: mercer wi | Spend the extra couple bucks and get side imaging. It's nice to see deep weeds, turns and fingers off bars. Cuts a lot of time off finding areas especially on new water.
Get the biggest screen you can afford too. |
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Posts: 1000
| musky fishing is all about chances and closing them. side imaging is a great way to give yourself more opportunities. when you can run down a weedline and see exactly what you'll be fishing, that's huge. |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Initially, I'd say no. I think it's a lot like iPilot, where guys think if you get it it'll make you a better fisherman. No, not at all. Not even close. Boat control is still boat control, same as reading sonar is still reading sonar.
That said, I like it even though I don't use it as much as the advertisers would have you think. But there are times when I'm like, "I really want to see exactly what is over there...." and I turn it on. But for just fishing down a weedline or a long drift, I don't normally have it on. I'd say if you've never had it, you'll never miss it. But once you have it, you'll want it. But either way, I can't say it'll put more fish in the boat for you. |
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Posts: 1000
| I think another fun part about it is for confirming past ideas you had. How a spot lays. If there's a transition from sand to gravel.
I recently put a helix 9 si on my boat. I've been on the water ~12 hours and have yet to pick up a rod. Another sweet feature on the new humminbirds is autochart live which allows you to build your own high definition maps. A lot of the smaller lakes I've fished for years don't have very good maps. Mapping those lakes is incredibly eye opening. |
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Location: 31 | yes for me! |
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Posts: 1209
| If you fish new water it can speed your search up. If your not a curious person on your normal lakes that you have figured out its not necessary |
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Posts: 815
Location: Waukee, IA | Necessary? No. Fun to have and occasionally useful? Yes |
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Posts: 271
Location: davis,IL | I guess it depends on how you fish. I fish mostly uncharted waters in Canada, where its invaluable. While some just blast from obvious spot to spot, on the slower times I'll just cruise along at 5mph and find new spots nobody else is fishing. Its great for finding the reefs or other structure that has no obvious signs from the look of the shoreline. Also lets you truly see and track the structure on a known spot to help identify that spot on the spot. |
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Posts: 355
Location: Vilas County, WI | tkuntz - 5/11/2016 6:44 PM
Necessary? No. Fun to have and occasionally useful? Yes
X2. Definitely not required, but like some of the circumstances mentioned above it could be helpful.
My buddy and I both updated to newer HB's this off season. Neither one of us opted for SI |
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Location: 31 | Agree that it depends on your style of fishing.
If you primarily cast, and don't explore new water much, side imaging (structure scan) would not be a must. However, if you troll and explore (especially larger bodies of water), you should find it to be a worthwhile asset.
With that said; for me it has not been as big a game changer as when GPS was introduced, but it's still something I’ve found to be a must have for my style of fishing.
Edited by Jerry Newman 5/12/2016 12:41 PM
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Posts: 797
Location: North Central IL USA | tolle141 - 5/8/2016 10:31 PM
musky fishing is all about chances and closing them. side imaging is a great way to give yourself more opportunities. when you can run down a weedline and see exactly what you'll be fishing, that's huge.
^^THIS!!!^^ |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | Worth
Every
Penny |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Absolutely a must have, it can tell you where to cast too! It will also show you structure you may have never seen before.
Al |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Is it a necessity? No, we caught muskies before SI existed. Is it a good tool that can help? Yes, without a doubt.
Non musky related, it was simply amazing to mark cribs on SI, mark them, and catch walleyes off them this weekend, without ever having to drive over the crib and disrupt it. Really cool. I've marked what I thought might be a musky or two along a breakline and then gone back and caught a fish. Not sure I would buy it relying that you'll mark fish with it and go catch them, but it's incredible for finding and marking up structure. |
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Posts: 1023
| It definitely marks baitfish pods and larger fish like over 5 lbs when over a soft bottom.
Great for smallie fishing. |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | I've had Hummingbird side/3D imaging since the first versions came out in 1995. I used it a lot before I got a GPS with 1 ft increments, but rarely since. I bought what was available on my current boat in 2003 which was an upgrade on the 1995 system, but its nothing like the current models out there.
A few things about side imaging:
- It scans out to the side and gives a view that one cannot get from normal down sonars. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't.
- It can help find pods of bait fish and locate larger fish like Muskies if they are away from structure at least a foot or so.
- It can also locate schools of carp that one thinks might be Muskies, causing one to cast for hours to carp. Been there. Done that. 
- It can help find structure that one would normally miss.
- It has been used to locate drowning victims and sunken stuff like boats, cars, and old tires - if that sounds like fun to you.
I hope to someday get a new version of a side/3D imaging system, but doubt it would help me catch many more fish. For me, it would mostly be something to do when the fish aren't biting. "Hey, lets go look for dead guys." 
Edited by Herb_b 5/16/2016 5:53 PM
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Side imaging a must?