OK, heres something that doesn't appear to have been discussed in awhile. At least not in the direction I am curious about.
The lake where I boat has slim to none charting coverage (actually, I think only Navionics has a chart). The only solution I could come up with was a Humminbird 997SI or a 1197SI with chartplotting and sidescan sonar.
From what I have been told I could troll the most common areas of interest (or the whole lake if I was retired - sigh) and survey the bottom for shallows / water hazzards then plot them as hazzards on the gps/chart mode. Apparently there is also a module that allows the unit to update that information to your PC thus allowing you to create your own a printable chart which concievably could be shared with your friends or maybe even sold to others for a couple of bucks.
I figure I would only have to avoid wrecking 3 SS props or one good drive smack before the unit paid for itself and plus you would be able to relax in any nook of your preferred lake that anybody else would fear to go. Check out some of the screen captures from these things - they look quite amazing. Anyone have one or ever seen one in action? I get that by the time you see it you've run over it but you could survey a prospect from up to 150' away I guess. Real or Hype do you think?
Product Desc -
http://store.humminbird.com/humminbird- ... 970-1.html
Screen Captures -
http://www.humminbird.com/on_the_water/ ... llery.aspx