Fish-Hawk.Net

Would like to hear from anyone who has changed from regular sonar to chirp sonar. Lots of write-ups on the web speak well of Chirp. Has anyone on this board made the upgrade. I have a Humminbird 787 that I bought 8 or 9 years ago. I fish lake trout. Have fished with others in their boats with regular sonar and see the jig in 80' of water, then see fish coming up to the jig and taking it. Have never seen that with mine. On mine, I only see my jig or lure (large ones) if I drop it directly under the transponder in perfectly calm water. After 40 ft or more, I loose site of it. Any comments would be appreciated.

I had chirp available in my boat this year and rarely used it. I feel it is more suited to the saltwater guys that are fishing much deeper than us. The 787 you are using though is an older unit. With the newer Humminbirds, you should be able to see The jig and fish better. The 2017 Helix's are chirp enabled as well.

toobinator wrote:I had chirp available in my boat this year and rarely used it. I feel it is more suited to the saltwater guys that are fishing much deeper than us. The 787 you are using though is an older unit. With the newer Humminbirds, you should be able to see The jig and fish better. The 2017 Helix's are chirp enabled as well.

I have the 998.
I think I need to take a lesson from you (or someone) on how to use the unit better. Especially how to use it to see the jig and fish. I have tried the unit in "jig mode". That didn't work out so well.
Hopefully next season I will get better at it, or find someone with advanced knowledge to sit with me in my boat (or theirs) and show me.
Bill

I replaced my Hummingbird 598 with the Lowrance Hook 7 Chirp. I was very disappointed with he unit! The processor is really slow and the GPS refresh rate when you zoom in our out takes a couple of seconds leaving you briefly with a blank screen. It doesn't work great in heavy weeds and loses bottom and starts flashing. I used to be able to track my jig when lake trout fishing much better with the Hummingbird. As for the Chirp, I didn't notice a difference in marking fish but the Chirp possibly has better bottom separation. I do love the 7' screen but that is all!

Nightroller, the problem you encounter with you're Hook has been address and it's corrected with this update:

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Software- ... ftware-20/

Thanks wallyandre, I checked a few times this summer but I didn't see an updates for the Hook 7. I will download it and give it a try!

My opinion regarding the CHIRP we are seeing in the "affordable" freshwater fishing market is that it is basically a marketing ploy. All of my research indicates that to see the real benefits of CHIRP, you need to be using the proper transducer. These transducers have a cost of more than the units we are seeing here from Humminbird or Lowrance.

Is this CHIRP they are marketing better than traditional 2D sonar? I would assume so but not by as much as we are lead to believe.

I use CHIRP 100% of the time. I run a Lowrance Gen-3 with a Airmar TM-150 transducer and I'm more then please with that set-up. Everybody that comes aboard are amaze on what they are seing on the screen.

wallyandre wrote:I use CHIRP 100% of the time. I run a Lowrance Gen-3 with a Airmar TM-150 transducer and I'm more then please with that set-up. Everybody that comes aboard are amaze on what they are seing on the screen.

And this is what I'm talking about. You are using a transducer that is $430 (after exchange) on top of the unit. The quality of the image will be leaps and bounds over what someone buying a Chirp unit will be. The transducer that comes with these average Chirp provides nowhere near the image that your airmar will.

IMO it's worth every cent, especially with bottom huggging smallmouth this time of year. Instead of one big mark on bottom that you get on regular units,with chirp I find each fish in that school is much more clearly marked, from then I can decide the size of those fish and if I want to drop down to catch them or move on.

lape0019 wrote:

wallyandre wrote:I use CHIRP 100% of the time. I run a Lowrance Gen-3 with a Airmar TM-150 transducer and I'm more then please with that set-up. Everybody that comes aboard are amaze on what they are seing on the screen.

And this is what I'm talking about. You are using a transducer that is $430 (after exchange) on top of the unit. The quality of the image will be leaps and bounds over what someone buying a Chirp unit will be. The transducer that comes with these average Chirp provides nowhere near the image that your airmar will.

Last year I was using a regular Lowrance 83/200 HST-WSBL and it was not as good but much better on CHIRP then regular 83/200. 90% of the time I fish in more then 40ft of water

Good reading: http://www.airmartechnology.com/uploads ... tation.pdf

I'am thinking Chirp may not be all that it is hyped up to be unless you get the expensive transducer. I'am leaning toward the Helix 7 DI. It does have Chirp and comes with the regular transducer. If later on I can justify the additional cost, then I can get the special transducer. I looked at a Helix 7 this week and it includes the Navionics Chip. Thanks to everyone for all the feedback.

I have a Garmin echomap 52 dv Chirp and am extremely happy with it. I fish deep for lake trout and troll walleyes in 20 to 40 ft and it's amazing the separation and size of the fish is all very clear. I have a little segment about my fish finder and show some lake trout marks in 160 ft have a look here its at 220 in I think :

nighttroller wrote:Thanks wallyandre, I checked a few times this summer but I didn't see an updates for the Hook 7. I will download it and give it a try!

Also another thing that can make your sonar faster is to only put the bodies of water you fish on. Have less data on your card can make it faster too.