Northwest Fishing Reports

Anyone have one of these Humminbird Fishfinder 597ci Hd Di Combo - Down Imaging Combo and do you like it?

I have what I think is a pretty similar model: Humm 798ci SI
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I am very happy with it, but unfortunately it is one of those expensive electronic items that we often buy, and then wind up using only a portion of the great gizmos within said electronic item. (Think of all the fancy settings on a high end camera, and you wind up pointing and auto-focus shooting.)
There is a guy on this forum that goes by Rseas, if you send him a PM he is very dialed into this unit, and could prob. speak to the functions on the Hum. 597 as well. Good luck.

Just Installed it now come on spring. $529.99 plus a $50.00 rebate

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I purchased this unit a year ago and I am pleased with the overall capabilities. The GPS saved me more than once in dense fog on the pacific coast. I have yet to experience any visuals such as a shipwreck but I can usually distinguish between stumps from fish using the down-imaging. All fish finders have their flaws i'm sure and I did notice a few with this one. 1: The GPS speed, it varies a lot in the range of .3 when trolling at slow speeds, I would guess that a external GPS would be more accurate. 2: Mine does not read shallow water very well and seems to malfunction at depths shallower than 15ft. If anyone knows how to remedy this problem I would be pleased to hear it. With that said I still like the unit but I would most likely upgrade to the 7 or 800 series for charting.

I have the 797 c2 and it works great. Not just for finding fish and lake structures either. 2 years ago, I answered an ad on craigslist where a guy wanted someone to help find his sunken sail boat. We went to the general location and started searching with the sidefinder and down finder imiging. We found the boat in 20 minutes, in about 30 feet of water. We marked it with a bouy and the next day he and his buddy came back, hooked on to it with a tow rope and a big ski boat and towed it to shore where he could bail out enough water for it to get upright and pump the rest of the water out to tow it back to the launch.

Kind of cool