I own and use both. I fish mostly in 25-150 fow in Lake Michigan. I use the DF in a 2016 PA14, and the Helix in a 2016 Outback or for ice fishing.
I like the DF better for simple open water use. The controls are simpler and the fish marks are clearer. BUT ... the DF transducer is long and really hard to mount in the Lowrance Ready hull pocket of a PA. It requires either some custom plastic surgery or a relatively expensive 3rd party solution. And I am not aware of any smaller CHIRP transducer that could be used for ice fishing. Also, the WiFi on the DF is sketchy, with frequent disconnects that make it worthless. Too bad, because the potential, when paired with Navionics Live mapping, would be great.
The Helix requires way too many keystrokes to remain dialed-in when moving from shallow to deep, marking waypoints, deleting course logs, etc. (None of that matters on the ice though.) I see far fewer fish arches on the Helix than with the DF when fishing the same areas. I can easily see individual perch (most 6-12") in a large school 100 ft down on the DF, but the Helix just shows a blob of reflections, looking like an invertebrate hatch-out or baitfish. So I waste a lot of time jigging ghostly shadows on the Helix that I could quickly identify and just drive by if viewed on the DF.
Short answer: for kayak use only, where transducer mounting is a one-time problem, I would get the Dragonfly.
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