Lowrance Elite5 vs Elite5DSI
 

Good afternoon everyone. Newbie to kayak fishing, I am trying to outfit my Hobie Adventure yak for some so cal costal action. I'm looking for some advice about ff/GPS. I am leaning towards the Lowrance Elite5 because of its 1000 foot depth capacity, however I also like the DSI for hoop netting but it's capacity of only 250 feet seems shallow. So do I need a ff that can go deeper than 250 feet for fishing off so cal? Thanks everyone.

I've been running the Elite-5 for a year on my PA. It's a really good unit but I'm already looking to upgrade to the HDS-5. My advise is to spend the extra $$$ now on the HDS if you can. For socal fishing I don't ever go deeper than 300 ft in the settings. The only other advise I would give is to make sure you get the 50/200 kHz transducer so you can run a true high/low.

Idk how much money you are looking to spend but I have a Humminbird 581i HD DI Combo and absolutely love it, very good clarity and strong reads. I should also mention that I dont hoop met or anything like that so im not sure what things you need for that but im very happy with it. You should give it a look.

you don't need a ff to go deeper than 250ft, unless you plan to fish deeper. I have a ff with both color 83/200khz and dsi 455/800khz transducer.

dsi 455/800khz works good in saltwater depths less than 90ft, I know is says 250 but thats freshwater.

My pick goes to the elite-5.

West Marine has the Elite5 DSI Gold on sale for 400 this week. I just installed one on my Cuda 14 with a RAM mount and RAM ducer mount for a truer reading with the DSI. I works great and runs all day on my 12v 10.5AH battery.

I picked up the lowrance elite 7 hdi which is a broadband plus a dsi unit that you can split screen or have a chart the broad band image and the dsi image all up at once. It also has a feature that overlays the broadband and dsi to create one image. I will be installing it on my new yak that should be here any day now and will let you all know what I think.

which transducer did you go with? 83/200 or 50/200

I'm starting with the 83/200. The 50/200 doesn't fit in the pro angler under mount. I understand that lowrance is engineering a solution. I may change after that is done if I am not happy with the results.

Yah gonna have oex install my hds 5 tomorow and was wondering cause I have the 50/200. I'm hoping they can modify it to make it fit.

I have the same one. you won't be dissapointed.

should not be a problem if it's 50/200 only and not 50/200 455/800

what color is ur cuda?

dam, if you don't find or catch fish with that high tech ff, I don't know what else you can do:)

So it sounds like the DSI with the 250 feet capacity should be good? Thanks everyone.

I agonized over teh decision and went with the DSI. I am more interested in finding structure that could be holding fish that I can't see than seeing potential fish that may or may not respond.

call lowrance and tell them what type of fishing you are doing first. in my experiance dsi will not be as helpfull in saltwater conditions over 90 ft.

I can see the need for DSI.. Im looking into getting the elite 4 DSI as that would meet my needs for color FF plus be able to get better images for structure..

Will hope the elite 7 in the future.. but overkill..

Does anyone have the Gold version with the better charts? How is the bottom detail?

suggestion
 

strange how the lowrance only scans to 90' ? this is supposed to compete with the hummingbird. hummingbird has a new model 500 series with down imaging and side imaging . unit is not cheap , needless to say , but either is a lowrance . the hummingbirds are definitely putting out a lot of power. i am barley learning how to switch from 80 / 200 , so i am no expert . :confused: . good luck . the one thing that might be more advantageous is the hummingbird transducer , as opposed to the lowrance transducer . they both need to be in the water to work properly , but the lowrance transducer is long and thin , about 10 " . the hummngbird is 4" x 5" , and 3/4 " thick . this is on the higher units . correct me if i am wrong?

I got the red and black- Black widow

i had a pa12 and the 50/200 fit fine

Just picked up mine from oex for the install and the 50/200 fits fine with my pa12 also.

Good to know. Thanks guys.

So I am reading that the 50/200 transducer will fit in the Lowrance ready cover plate? Is this without any modifications? I have been hearing conflicting answers. Some say that it will fit and some say only the smaller 83/200 transducer will fit.
thanks,
Ron

That was my number #1 concern when I took it to OEX. When they installed it they said it fit fine with no modifications . Can't beat there price also $20 bucks

Ditto! My Elite 5 dsi craps out around 100ft depending on where I'm fishing. It supposedly is accurate to 250 but I think that's only in freshwater.
Missing my old Humminbird 535 lol!

Will it fit?
 

...that what she says... Sorry, Michael Scott reference...

If I'm not mistaken, people are referring to 2 different types of transducers. The standard 83/200 or standard 50/200 ducer will fit in PA's space for a ducer, BUT that is only for broadband sonar. In order to get DSI function from the Elite unit (why else get the Elite 7?) you need the Hybrid Dual Imaging (HDI) ducer which has the other set of numbers at the end (455/800) indicating HDI. I'm pretty sure that the 50/200,455/800 HDI ducer is 10 inches n won't fit. Not sure about 83/200,455/800 HDI ducer. Also, I believe the 83/200 ducer setup should suit quite well for kayak fishing purposes inshore. In shallower (under 100 ft) water should give better image theoretically. I've never compared them, so just my hunch- check around and or ask Lowrance.

This is the 83/200 for the elite 7. It also has a built in 455 for hdi. Fits fine in the PA 12. This is a brand new transducer for this year.

http://store.navico.com/Products/000-10976-001

This is the link. Sorry meant to post it in above reply.

update
 

I'm thinking about getting the Elite 7 DSI so I spoke w/ technician at Lowrance. He confirmed that 83/200 transducer is good choice for shallow water saltwater application and choice b/w ducers has more to do w/ depth than anything else. I'm going to get one w/ the 83/200 ducer based upon his info feedback from others who used it.

Tech seems to believe that all the ducers (including the HDI versions) will fit in PA now, so I was in fact mistaken. I guess the HDI ducers are smaller now or I hallucinated seeing larger ones in past.