# Down Imaging Hummingbird for walleye



## goosehunternd (Mar 10, 2006)

I am thinking about purchasing a down imaging depth finder. I fish walleye in devils lake wich is highly structured and I think would be a awesome tool and Lake of the woods where I think it would be handy for locating schools of fish on the mud flats. Do you think a guy should hold out and wait for newer better technology? Has anyone heard if it will work threw the ice to locate fish and structure? Since it came out this year Im also wondering how long it will take for the price to come down a little. $1200-$3000 is alot of money to throw around. Thanks for any input


----------



## ruger1 (Aug 16, 2006)

As someone who's been running the HB side imaging technology for sometime now. I suggest you dropping the 3k without hesitation. My only regret is that I bought the 997 instead of the 1197. I have been nothing but happy with this setup.

I am a little bummed that HB does not support radar and I'll need to install Raymarine or Lowrance to have Radar in the boat.

Jason Halfen has used his 1197 on the ice and posted some pics and a report about it on IDOfishing.com. Hope that helps.

HB offered side imaging a few years ago. Three years ago I think. Lowrance has just offered (this year) their version of side imaging called structure scan. I've heard a lot of bad things about Lowrance as a whole. Bad customer service, bugs in the new system, etc.

Next time around I'm going to seriously consider Lowrance as I can get side imaging, radar support, instrumentation cluster, and satellite weather. However that's a good 3 years away.

http://www.idofishing.com/forum/showflat.php/Number/856380/fpart/1/some-side-and-down-images Check out this link of some cool images I took with my 997. The first couple are schools of bait fish. The last on is a school of sauger hanging at the edge of a drop off.


----------



## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

I use the HDS sidescan. I use it most when trolling off the channel on Lake Oahe. It nice to see clear definition between the dropoffs and the flats. You can pinpoint structure and make them on GPS in a flash. It really makes a difference driving between flooded treelines. We fish Oahe a lot like Devils, find flooded trees off deeper water and the fish are usually there.


----------

