Better unit for map creation, Garmin 73SV or Humminbird Helix 7?

I am looking to upgrade my current Humminbird unit, I have been running with GPS/DI for a while but am very interested in these newer units that allow you to create your own contour lines live while on the water. Main reason being is the lakes we fish in Canada for 10 days every fall have absolutely no mapping available through any company, not even shoreline lines. We do mostly vertical jig fishing for walleye, so the humps/drops/channel areas we focus on the most, and I would love to build a contour area for these areas and gauge what we are working much better than just throwing waypoints around certain depths (which my Humminbird GPS isn’t very accurate anyway). So my main priorities for a new unit will be clear imaging, GPS accuracy and the map creation.

I have been pretty dead set for a while now on going with the Garmin Echomap Chirp 73SV. I like the DI and SI aspects, but what really got me going on it was their contour creation. I believe last year when I started researching, the Helix 7 did not offer their Autochart Live option, so I wrote them off. Now that I have fired my research back up with our trip being in 2 months, I have now found that the HELIX 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2N does indeed come with Autochart Live.

So I am basically looking for some feedback on these 2 options, the comparable Lowrance unit does not build these maps on the water so I am not interested in that. Anyone have experience and utilize either unit often for their map creation abilities? The pricing is not far off from eachother so I am not too concerned with that.

Any feedback would be great,
Dan

I have the helix 7 g2 and so far i like it makes fishing a whole lot easier thru the ice as well..biggest thing i would check into is the zero line card for canada..you dont need it but you only have so many hours of internal data
I can not speak for the garmin

I haven’t used both so I can’t compare the quality. One thing to consider though is that with Humminbird you have to (as far as I know) use a Zero Line Map Card. With Garmin you just use any regular microSD card.

edit: I was wrong, you don’t have to use the Zero Line card. https://www.humminbird.com/faqDetail.aspx?id=6100

I have the 73sv and love it. Use the mapping feature almost every time on the Minnesota river when its low. I did not have good lick with my helix si but it was first year first gen so hopefully they are better now.

I’ve been having really bad luck with gps and not overly thrilled about the mapping quality of my 73sv, but with that said my 73 mapping is kick butt. Again not sure how it compares but covers a much larger area than I thought it would with only a couple passes.

I purchased a 73DV specifically for making my own maps on uncharted lakes. Still frustrated with Lowrance and their lack of solutions with Gen 2 touch units.

I’ve been very happy with the Garmin’s mapping abilities, especially for the price.

What kind of gps issues are you having nHamm? I have noticed the more I go over an area the more detail I get on my maps.

I have nothing but awesome things to say about the quickdraw contour feature on my 93SV’s. I barely ever turn it on when fishing a lot of the lakes around MN, but I never turn it off in Canada. The level of detail is crazy good with my Panoptix transducer doing the mapping.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I’m finding myself leaning towards the Garmin and I honestly don’t know why. My HB has given me some fits, especially with GPS tracking. I’ll mark a waypoint on top of a reef while jigging for walleye in 18fow, come back to that waypoint later in day and I’m in 34fow probably 125ft away. I know they all have some deviance allowance but when finesse jigging an area at least getting close is very important. Also, anything under 3mph was all over on speed, so on the rare occasion of trolling ect speed is all over the place. Its a few years old tho, model 688DI, so I am sure all of the companies have advanced in terms of GPS, especially with the internal antennas.

The one thing I did like about my HB, and I dont even remember how I did it, but I had loaded up google earth, traced out the shoreline of the lakes we fish in Canada that have zero mapping and I was able to convert that into my locator so when boating I at least had a general reference to a spot or area. Although, plenty of times the GPS wasn’t right and I’d be driving over the shore line while out 100ft from shore.

Pat- I’ve watched some videos that I can find as far as the contour creation process goes, but I have never really heard or read anywhere that describes a little more how many passes for an area to properly build it? Ive watched one where they drove over an area 2-3 times and it changed the contour lines and depth every time. Also, at what speed do you typically draw at? I wonder if it can be too slow, like if we set up to vertical jig a reef area slowly and I left it on, if moving at that slow of a speed does it mess with its building of an area? Also, I would be using the ducer it comes with, I can’t quite swing the Panoptix at this point, lol.

Thanks again all for the input, anything more on either unit would be helpful. Getting my motor back next week and hoping to get out with a new unit for a few trial runs before Canada in a few weeks. Out for Salmon tomorrow on Lake Michigan

Dan Halicki wrote:

Pat- I’ve watched some videos that I can find as far as the contour creation process goes, but I have never really heard or read anywhere that describes a little more how many passes for an area to properly build it? Ive watched one where they drove over an area 2-3 times and it changed the contour lines and depth every time. Also, at what speed do you typically draw at? I wonder if it can be too slow, like if we set up to vertical jig a reef area slowly and I left it on, if moving at that slow of a speed does it mess with its building of an area? Also, I would be using the ducer it comes with, I can’t quite swing the Panoptix at this point, lol.

From my experience the more you go over it the more accurate it becomes. I actually leave it on all the time on lakes that either have no or very poor mapping. It doesn’t seem to mess up the map at all when i’m going ultra slow. To your point though it is always changing. Once you have gone over an area 3 or 4 times it just makes very very small changes to the contours. If i’m happy with an area that I mapped and don’t want it to change, (ex. I’m used to the contours and know exactly which little inside corner the fish like) I will just shut the mapping off when I go to that spot. I tend to just drop waypoints on those specific little spots, but I know some guys don’t like the clutter.

If i’m in mapping mode and not fishing, ill map at 5-10 MPH. In regards to using the transducer it comes with the way I understood is that the panoptix is able to cover a bigger swath than a regular side imaging / 2d transducer. The accuracy of it does’t really change.

If you’re OCD like me and fish canada lakes that have zero mapping its going to drive you crazy not being able to finish mapping a reef that tops out at 6 inches. That one blank spot in the middle of the reef is the worst.

I usually map at 5-10 also and it seems to cover about 160-200 feet wide depending on depth with the stock transducer. My gps tracks are way more accurate with Garmin than my helix was and my depth readings are more accurate also. And i haven’t noticed the maps getting screwed up by leaving it in mapping mode while anchored either, I would think if anything it would get that area really good?

Dan Halicki wrote:

I’ll mark a waypoint on top of a reef while jigging for walleye in 18fow, come back to that waypoint later in day and I’m in 34fow probably 125ft away. I know they all have some deviance allowance but when finesse jigging an area at least getting close is very important.

I can say for sure my Garmin 73SV has never done that. Last time on Namakan, where there are a lot of really sharp depth changes, I made at least 50 waypoints and they were all right on. Most of them I would mark by scrolling back in my sonar history to mark fish and when I drove back to the spot they were there every time.

Thanks again for the info. I do believe I will be ordering the Garmin unit this week. I should have motor back in next 2 weeks and will get it out and mess with it before Canada next month.

I really like what you guys are stating as far as leaving it on while fishing to cover an area more exact, and also that you can create the contours at a pretty decent speed, I had a feeling it was going to be a much slower process.

Do you guys know which transducer you have with yours (the guys running factory ducer it came with)? The one I am looking to grab has a good price of $652 shipped and it states it comes with the newest ducer model 010-01802-01

The scrolling back to mark a GPS waypoint from sonar screen is something I am really looking forward to. Some of these pockets of aggressive walleye I will stroll through while exploring a spot I can never seem to find again. So you can drive over an area while in sonar mode, notice pocket of fish and even past that spot off the screen you just scroll backwards and hit a waypoint spot?

I believe mine came with the gt-52 transducer. I tried to mark a spot where a navigation buoy was supposed to be by scrolling over but it marked where I was instead. But once I got to my spot I was able to scroll back about 7 miles and mark it then and erase the first ones I made in the wrong spot. I will need to play with it some more but it will do it.

When marking a waypoint that is in the past or off to the side you need to hit MENU, PAUSE SONAR, scroll to where you want to mark, hit SELECT, CREATE WAYPOINT.

More great info, thanks. I just received my Garmin today in the mail and quite excited to get it set up. My motor is still in the shop so it might be a bit until I get it out but I want to get it updated ect. Also, have you heard how easy/difficult it is to copy over Way points ect from a Humminbird unit? Unfortunately the boat is stored at my brothers about 20min away or so, so I can’t just go out and get it hooked up. If only there was an easy way to power these units up away from the boat/base/battery.

Another thing that drove me nuts is we didn’t install the transducer low enough for my current unit so I’d lose all sonar anytime I went over 5mph. I’m a little nervous mounting slightly below bottom of boat with all the rock shores ect we pull up on in Canada for shorelunch ect, but I’ll just have to be very cautious.

It’s worth hooking it up and first learning the menus and such, more so to configure all your combo sonar chart windows. Putting 2d here, SI there, nav chart etc then changing the window siZe of each makes it quite nice. You’ll be changing it as you go but to get some good starting points is worth it.

One thing to get use to is making sure to select the window you want to change while in use. PIA zooming in out of SI when you thought it was the nav chart, or zooming the 2d which makes it manual mode where you then have to go into the menu and unselect the manual mode you just put it in. Small gripes that you just get a hold of with more use.

Excellent, thanks for the tips.

This is likely a dumb question, but I am trying to register it thru Garmin website and its asking me to connect to my PC. If I am not mistaken, there is no way for me to connect it to PC other than through the SD card correct? I would love to be able to at least fire it up and mess with it some but I am not near my boat right now and it’ll be a bit until I can wire it in. There isnt some random way to get it fired up to tinker with settings ect without the actual boat wiring is there?

You have the whole assembly I’m assuming, if so make shift the wiring to your vex battery using wire nuts so it all comes undone easily enough. Fuse for safe measure which I believe they include if I remember correctly. Have at er.

The mini SD acts as your unit. Garmin express will act as your update, download it and throw the updates and maps on it.

To be clear which unit did you get?

I’ll definitely give that a try, thanks.

Unit is Garmin 010-01802-01 Echomap Chirp 73SV with transducer

So I received the unit and was able to get it all installed last night. Today I decided to transfer my way points over from my Hummingbird 688 and also update the unit. I followed directions to load update onto SD card and loaded into my humminbird and loaded on the way points. I drove over to the boat and first tried the update. The whole process was about 20 seconds long after selecting to update. This was what it read all 3 times I tried, update never happened.
Scanning
Initializing region transfer
Scanning card
Region transfer complete
Preparing to reset the network.
Restarts normally and no update. Takes total of about 20 seconds.

Also, it doesn’t locate any files on SD card for the way points from Hummingbird. Am I just doing everything wrong here?

If you are updating the firmware, Turn on the unit first. Once its up and running, insert the micro SD card and it should ask you if you want to update the firmware. Follow on screen prompts from there.

As for the waypoints…I am not near my Garmin right now, so my directions may be a little vague. Anyway, in the settings, if you drill down under the “User Data” selection you will eventually find options like “Merge Data” or “Replace Data”. I have never merged waypoints from anything other than Garmin to Garmin, but I think there is a place where you can specify the file type from the device you exported from. Sorry for not being very specific, but the waypoints won’t automatically load from your card. They need to be pulled into the machine and if you explore around in that “User Data” area, you will find what you need.

Thank you for the reply.

Regarding the system update, I did exactly that. I followed them straight from the Garmin website. I inserted after unit was turned on, screen prompt came up for software update, I followed the prompts through and it looked like everything was going to plan. However it went very quickly and did not update. As the progress bar was showing as if it was loading it kept giving me the prompts that it was doing what I listed in the above message, then would reboot normally and show still as old software.

For the waypoint transfer I did some research on that also and was able to find the location where it has the option to merge the waypoints so I selected that and it said none found on SD card. There is also a prompt on that screen that allows a format change, there are 2 options, I did try both and neither way did it find any waypoints.