First boat: fishfinder advice

[M3AN Bass]

Hello all,
As stated in the subject I recently bought my first boat and am looking to purchase new electronics for it. The boat is a 2007 Stratos 176XT with an Evinrude ETec 75hp and a Minn Kota Edge 45# trolling motor. I've got some units I'm thinking of and a couple of questions about them. Any advice is welcome and appreciated.

For up on the bow I'm thinking of mounting a Humminbird 587ci HD DI Combo with the transducer on the trolling motor. Would there be any advantage to choosing a unit with SI for the bow? I plan on getting an SI for the console. Also is this unit quadrabeam compatable and if so would it benefit from quadrabeam since it is already DI capable.

For the console I would like to mount a Humminbird 798ci HD SI Combo with a transom mounted transducer. Again, is this unit quadrabeam compatable and would it benefit from quadrabeam? If I go with these units should I add a 3rd battery? One for cranking and two for trolling and electronics? Any experiences with tese units, negative or positive? Any suggestions or advice?

Thank you for any help,
Tightlines!!!
Philip W.

[Doug Vahrenberg]

Side Imaging is awesome for the Trolling Motor and jsut about all I use except when vertical fishing then I use 2D Sonar.

Only thing I might mention is if you want to network where you can share waypoints between units. The 500 Series are stand alone models and have no networking capablities. The 700 Series are.

[M3AN Bass]

Any advice on quadrabeam or a third battery?

[Doug Vahrenberg]

QuadraBeam is an option but SI provides more and higher detail picture like images not need to add QuadraBeam if you got SI.

I don't use an extra battery but if you have a small battery may need just depends on what all accessories you are running. I would doubt you need another battery.

[M3AN Bass]

Thanks for the advice and info, I think I'm going to go with a 700 series DI/SI unit up front and an 800 or 900 series DI/SI unit on the console.

Should I mount the transducer for the front unit on the trolling motor?

[Doug Vahrenberg]

I would. Never understood wny someone would want data from the distance of their boat to make decisions on the bow.