Which Lowrance to buy?

Hi Guys real newbee here. Just picked up my PA14 today and want to get the right fishfinder for the money. I'm comparing the Hook 4x and the Elite 5x. Both I belive list for 199.00 at Bass Pro. Any suggestions or preferences?

I got mine in January and went with the Hook 4, because I wanted the chart plotting. I went with the hook series as well because I likes the adjustable backlighting, and the smaller size. There are advantages to both to be honest.

I bought the Elite 4 about a year and a half ago. I bought it to sit on the center hatch of my Cuda kayak, and it was small enough that it did not take up to much of the limited real estate. I also almost never used it on the Cuda, I had the transducer glued to the inside of the hull. The sensitivity had to dropped or I would get artifacting, and I could not get accurate temp readings. I thought I would use the heck out of the charting. But truth be told, almost never used that either.

But since installing it on the PA, it is running constantly. Now, after finally figuring out how handy it is, I am starting to understand the power of the down scan, the chart plotting, everything. There are so many videos out there it is crazy. My dad is just about an expert on his and he has both an HDS7 and HDS12, and he has been instrumental in helping me over the learning curve.

All that being said, I now find the 4 to be a touch small. I looked at the 5, but it seemed an incremental move...just not big enough to justify. So now, I have my eye on the 7ti. It can use the same transducer, and same mount as the Elite 4. With all the extra room on the PA14, I would welcome the screen size, still small, but robust. I almost always have mine in split screen, which would be so much more usable on the 7" screen.

This boat is going to break the bank...

One last thing. I used to go weeks between charges on my battery. Now I barely get a weekend out of my 9amp/h battery. I am thinking about installing a second battery in parallel since I purchase lights and some other goodies, that are going to be drawing power.

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STLKayak
2020 Pro Angler 14 360
St. Louis, Missouri
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005695487937

The Hook5 is replacing the Elite5. Mostly just a rebranding although one guy in a forum claimed that he was told by Lowrance support that the Hook had an upgraded(faster) processor. Physically they look identical except for the logo. Even the instruction PDFs you can download are the same feature wise.

I purchased a Hook5 and had it fitted to my PA14 about a month ago. I'm not going to say the usual cliches like "couldn't be happier" because it's my first fish finder so there's some learning involved [SMILING FACE]





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