[jfhojo]

At present I have a Garmin 182c GPS and a Lowrance X67c Fishfinder, Both are doing a good job. Im looking to upgrade to a Garmin GPSMAP 740S Chartplotter with all the bells and whistles, including Radar, Sonar, Weather, Nema 0183 and 2000, also a BlueChart G2 Vision Data Card.
I could use any advise anybody has to offer before I drop a little bundle of $$$$$. I mostly fish the Del Bay. My main perpose is navigation, weather and the Sonar. I would appreciate any advise.

 

[BT3100]

Hard to go wrong with Garmin.. A lot of us went with Lowrance. I installed an HDS 10 with Structure Scan, Sirrus, and Radar last season. It is an amazing unit. Right now Lowrance is running rebates for the First Gen units as they have moved to a second Gen HDS. Talk to some guys who use lowrance I think you will be surprised at how much they love their set ups. The structure scan is unreal. You can run side scan which gives you a full view on upto 300 yards on each side of the boat. This makes finding reefs so easy. I fished Reef Sites #1 and #2 last fall for bass. The structure scan made it so easy to locate the concrete and set us up on some great structure.

 

[toolguy73]

Garmin is a solid product.

IMHO, with a 740S, it might be tough to use everything you have when you need it because of the screen size. The smaller screens on the MFD's don't have the split capabilities of the larger screens. It definitely wouldn't work for me, but that's mainly because my eyes are getting old.

This year, I'm installing a radar. I went with the Lowrance 3G with an HDS 7, 1st Gen. Light weight, low power draw, great in close and priced right with rebates. Currently there's also an SVS650 FF and a 192C GPS on board.

If this Lowrance unit works as good as everyone says it does, I see a single HDS biggun on my helm in the future.

It's tough to give advice to anyone without knowing exactly what you'll use it for. But, most of the bay is less than 60' deep, and it's only 27 miles wide at it's widest.

 

[snakehead]

I have the older lowrance LMS-520 network ( radar,sonar, and plotter) I will never goto anything else. I find that lowrance is powerfull unit for the serious recreational fishermen. Ive used Garmin on a buddies boat. I find them to be more entry level units - no offense. But lowrance would be my top choice for the delaware bay. I have the Nautic Path USA chip - this is must for any plotter. It gives you so much information.

 

[BT3100]

Guys check out the shots of the school bus via structure scan in this thread.. outragous..

http://www.sealine.co.za/view_topic.php?id=24086&forum_id=20

 

[jfhojo]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice. I have a appointment this Saturday to have the GPSMAP 740S demonstrated. I now will also look over the Lowrance models.

 

[Catspaw]

I know nothing about the 740, but found this on You Tube. Apparently there's a malfunction when wet. It may not matter, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QGRpyrVHGg

 

[MakeMeNuts]

the "structure scan" features are incredible...not cheap but what a great tool for finding bottom structures!

 

[jfhojo]

the "structure scan" features are incredible...not cheap but what a great tool for finding bottom structures!

Thanks, I had a deminstration of it at West Marine Saturday. It looked great. Also, I asked him about the malfunction when wet. So, we soaked the screen with a wet towel, no problems. All the features looked good.

 

[dbayfish101]

looked at the garmin 740s at OC M D boat show, one of the many neat thing about the 740s is it can be hooked into your fuel line and monitor all the fuel you use each trip .That would save me close to 400 bucks from installing a flow-scan unit

 

[jfhojo]

looked at the garmin 740s at OC M D boat show, one of the many neat thing about the 740s is it can be hooked into your fuel line and monitor all the fuel you use each trip .That would save me close to 400 bucks from installing a flow-scan unit

Yes, I seen that. It does have all the bells and whistles. Garmin.com has a lot of demonstration video's on the unit, also on You-Tube.

http://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthewater/ This is one of the video's

 

[EDD]

We sell all makes after you what you want give us a call or email.We have great prices.