Agreed, I fitted my outback with a Garmin because I prefer Garmin, but fitting the transducer was a mission, I had to do a bit of cutting and molding which was not a good feel for me. For whatever reason, Hobie have designed their stuff to easily work with Lowrance.
But the other question is your budget. When it comes to fish finders, getting all the bells and whistles costs a surprising amount. For lake fishing side scan is best but the cost will mount up. As opposed to a basic depth sounder / fish finder which can still be high quality in terms of seeing what is right below you, and be done very cheap.
Watching a few YouTube videos may help you decide, you see guys seeing fish on their sidescan and casting exactly to them, watching on their screen as the fish go to the hook, and catching them.
Me, I fish the ocean. The fish are pelagic and fast moving, and the water is deep. So I'm mostly looking for structure where fish may hang out, or for schools I could drop into. So side scan would be interesting but likely less value for me, I have a straight down sounder which pretty much tells me what I want to know plus didn't break the budget. And, runs all day on a very small battery.
_________________ 2014 Hobie Outback set up for rod and longline fishing
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