Installing & testing Humminbird 597 CI HD Combo DI F Finder on Outback

After fishing with a $100 Fish Finder for over a decade, my wife treated me to a fancy Humminbird 597 CI HD Combo GPS and chart plotter with a  Down imaging fish finder, for Christmas (bless her heart). It comes with some maps, but you can get it with the Navionics Gold series on a micro SD, that covers most of the coastal United States, including the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, and most of Coastal Alaska (they usually charge about $200 bucks extra for the gold Naviaonic charts -- but you can get them for  about $175).

Unlike other fish finders, this one comes with 166 pp. pdf manual that you can save on your home computer and mark up with different colored felt tip pens. One of the features i like best, is the F Finder comes with  a multitude of split screen views that allow you to examine the bottom with both traditional sonar (which I think is easiest to spot fish in) and to compare it to down imaging which gives you an amazing view of the structure of the bottom (in great detail).  In fact, I was warned by a competitor of Hummingbird, that they'd never seen Down imaging quality that equaled that promised in simulator mode, when compared to that produced in the real ocean. After three trips out with some serious kayak fisher friends, we all were extremely impressed and pleasantly surprised with the quality.

But here's the rub, I've always mounted my transducers inside the hull. However, down imaging technology  loses between 10-15% of detail when it's filtered through the hull on a kayak. The loss of that much expensive image detail, negates my reason for spending the bucks. So for me, it made sense to mount the transducer outside  the hull on a  swing arm (called a TDA -- transducer deploying arm). It works very nicely  and if you're going through sea weed you just swing the transducer out of the water. (See photos)

You can buy the TDA from Mad Frog Gear in Irvine, CA. Here's their contact info. I've included three photos in the attachment, giving you different views of the system. However, I've never posted photos before so I may need some help if they don't show up.  I made my own platform out of marine plywood (Starboard which is compressed black plastic that can be sawed and routed to look like furniture). At West Marine a sheet of this stuff 1/2 in x 12in x 27in costs about $37 and you sitll have plenty left over for other cool projects.

http://madfroggear.com/liberator/liberator.html

How it's used: This is why it's worth the grande dinero

**When you get a strike, hit "mark" if you catch the fish, change the name of the mark from wp001 to "Ling" (or "rock")
**The gps posts the waypoints right on the Navionics chart by species.
** In time your chart fills with with waypoints attracting you back to points where you've caught specific kinds of fish.
**So next time, you can quickly find your way back to a hotbed for halibut or sturgeon by dragging your cross hairs  to one of your waypoints and push "goto"

Just a little pay back for the enjoyable hours I've spent learning about kayak fishing in the Northwest from y'all. Thanks for letting me hang out.

Carl Rischer

You might be wondering why I didn't run my fish finder wire through  the hull.  That was by design. We can easily attach my Fish finder to other Hobies that have a 1 inch ram mount ball, when I'm traveling.

You can also purchase (for about $30) from Bass Proshop, an arm with a clamp on it that attaches my fish finder transducer to the stern of a rental skiff. By the end of next summer i'll have a bunch of waypoints for  various species of fish near Coffman Cove.

Another thought. I learned from Den Farrier of Hobie, that he attached his transducer to the starboard side of his twist and stow rudder of his Hobie, by drilling a small hole for a single bolt. He can take it on and off in a few minutes any time he needs it to fish.

I'll soon be coming to fish Portland with my son Jammer and hanging out with his family. I hope to meet more of you on my next Visit.  Carl R

Interesting write up and mount.  I was curious if the person you know that mounted his on his twist and stow rudder notices any interference from bubbles for the mirage drive.  I was just discussing this topic with kykfshr at the Next Adventure booth at the NW Sportsmen's Show.  I had thought about upgrading and mounting it on the twist and stow rudder.

Thanks,

Craig

I think you got some bad info Carl. You lose the 10% shooting through a boat hull constructed of plywood and fiberglass. Shooting through a few mm of polyethylene, there is virtually no signal loss. Fungunnin', Browneysvictim, myself and a handfull of others all have 597 and they shoot thru hull just fine.

When you hit "MARK" on some Hummers it also takes a screenshot as a .PNG file.  You can remove the SD card, insert in computer and transfer the images.  Anyone with a 597 want to post some down images?  I've be very interested in the salt at depths up to 200 feet.

I'm still looking for an SD card for mine. I read you can't use SDHC, and about all the retailers sell nowadays is the high capacity cards.

It hasn't been that high on my to do list, but viewing images would be cool, and the older technology becomes harder to find, so I'll get on it soon.

Interesting write up and mount.  I was curious if the person you know that mounted his on his twist and stow rudder notices any interference from bubbles for the mirage drive.  I was just discussing this topic with kykfshr at the Next Adventure booth at the NW Sportsmen's Show.  I had thought about upgrading and mounting it on the twist and stow rudder.

Thanks,

Craig


Hi Craig, the friend  that does it this way, claims he has no problems  with rudder noise and can install his unit with the transducer attached to the rudder in just  a couple of minutes. On our annual trek to fish Coffman Cove,  AK,  he uses it on on his rental skiff with no problems and often travels at mach 1 (well maybe not that fast) across the Inside passage to his next waypoint. Then he easily re-attaches to use on his yak when he's off on another kayak fishing adventure.

In my own case, I find no problems with transducer noise, even when I'm probing another scum line or eddy vortex looking for fish. Occasionally  I'll pick up eel grass or reeds on my TDA, but have noticed no interference problems from it. I just pull the debris from the vertical bar and keep on pedaling.

Carl

(Sorry, I may have just screwed up the NWKA quoting system)

I think you got some bad info Carl. You lose the 10% shooting through a boat hull constructed of plywood and fiberglass. Shooting through a few mm of polyethylene, there is virtually no signal loss. Fungunnin', Browneysvictim, myself and a handfull of others all have 597 and they shoot thru hull just fine.

Hi Ling,
Perhaps we could substitute your word “bad” info, for say “different” info. I think we both agree, the Humminbird 597s are amazing fish finders, but all versions are not created equal. The latest iteration includes “traditional sonar” and “down imaging” in the same unit. That is quite a different package than traditional sonar which does easily pass through polyethylene  hulls.

My source of Info:

•   The electronics expert at the local Bass ProShop in December, helped me select my first fancy fish finder. When he demonstrated the Humminbird 597ci HD DI combo with an internal gps and I was instantly sold. By now we’re friends and he was showing me photos of his own OK prowler fishing kayak.

•   He told that me that since I’d chosen the “down imaging” option that the high frequencies used in that operation, unlike traditional sonar, did attenuate by about  10% as they passed through the hull and it was not a good idea to mount the transducer inside the hull. But the traditional sonar still works fine.

•   He was well trained and he sensed he was losing a sale and instantly volunteered the url to MadFrog where they sell the external transducer mounting TDAs,  which Bass Proshop does not sell.

•    I purchased my first mad frog TDA from a local Hobie dealer, indicating that not all people agree that it’s okay to mount some fancy finder transducers inside rotomolded polyethylene hulls and that some Hobie dealers recognized there is enough disagreement to make some money by selling them the equipment.

Since we both have unanswered questions, we might work together to learn the answers.

•   I’m assuming that all 8 (3 plus a handful) of your friends have mounted their 597 transducers inside the hull. If that’s true, then there is no control and there’s no way of determining if there is a difference in the quality of the images since you are not comparing fish finders with different methods of transducer mounting.

•   I’m in a similar situation. Most of my friends are choosing to mount them externally – so they can move their expensive fish finders from boat to boat.

A possible solution

•   Craig may provide the answer (though a sample size of one is shaky). If he gets a 597 ci HD DI combo with internal gps, and mounts it on his rudder, then you can compare the quality of his down imaging images to those of your friends that have mounted transducer inside their hulls.

By the way

I have sent our question to Humminbird Support and expect their answer in 3 – 5 days. I’ll share.

Whew! That was fun. Carl

I'm still looking for an SD card for mine. I read you can't use SDHC, and about all the retailers sell nowadays is the high capacity cards.

It hasn't been that high on my to do list, but viewing images would be cool, and the older technology becomes harder to find, so I'll get on it soon.

Ling,

My 597 unit uses micro SD cards ... which I saw on sale at Cosco today. Eight gigs (perhaps too much)  for $17 and it comes with the adapter so you can put the micro card in the SD slot on your computer.

Carl

My 597 is the old fashion kind that only shows depth and temp and GPS and about 800 other things I don't need but no DI so my in the hull mounting is kinda mute for this conversation. The external mount is nice but I can see myself snapping that thing on my first surf launch or landing .... usually the landing.