[greylion]

2 7612xsv's, Reactor autopilot with smart pump, GMR 424 xHD2 Open Array Radar and Pedestal, [b]Garmin GT51M-THP – Stainless Steel Thru-Hull Pair DownVü/SideVü 500 W (CHIRP 260/45 transducers,  VHF 300 Marine Radio, [b]GNX 21 Marine Instrument[/b][/b]

Boat gets launched April 17th.          

[trit21]

2 7612xsv's, Reactor autopilot with smart pump, GMR 424 xHD2 Open Array Radar and Pedestal, [b]Garmin GT51M-THP – Stainless Steel Thru-Hull Pair DownVü/SideVü 500 W (CHIRP 260/45 transducers,  VHF 300 Marine Radio, [b]GNX 21 Marine Instrument[/b][/b]

Boat gets launched April 17th.          

That is a sweet setup, very nice ! What is that vertical piece above the radio, top left? I think it says fishhawk maybe? 

[greylion]

2 7612xsv's, Reactor autopilot with smart pump, GMR 424 xHD2 Open Array Radar and Pedestal, [b]Garmin GT51M-THP – Stainless Steel Thru-Hull Pair DownVü/SideVü 500 W (CHIRP 260/45 transducers,  VHF 300 Marine Radio, [b]GNX 21 Marine Instrument[/b][/b]

Boat gets launched April 17th.          

That is a sweet setup, very nice ! What is that vertical piece above the radio, top left? I think it says fishhawk maybe? 

That is a gauge for my Downrigger speed, depth and temperature probe. I fish for salmon on Lake Michigan.

[Fiddlehead]

Looking good!

Interested to hear how you like the Garmins.  Heard lots of good things about them.  Went with Furuno myself, but only because I have a great dealer close by.  Congrats on the new gear!

[greylion]

Looking good!

Interested to hear how you like the Garmins.  Heard lots of good things about them.  Went with Furuno myself, but only because I have a great dealer close by.  Congrats on the new gear!

Now that I have used these new electronics for a full season I have some thoughts. For the first couple of months, Garmin kept issuing new software upgrades that added some new features, but it screwed up other features, like blinking depths and a confused autopilot. It was frustrating, but their last 2 updates in July and September have fixed everything. No issues anymore and the ease of use of this Garmin equipment is awesome.

I installed a Garmin Reactor autopilot with smart pump. My last Raymarine autopilot would not hold a heading with one engine trolling at salmon speeds, approximately 2 mph, but this new autopilot has been fantastic, no problems holding a heading at 2 mph and I really like the zig zag feature when trolling out deep with a straight line troll because turns triggers strikes and I don't have to be at the helm to do it. Great autopilot.

I also really like the radar. The twin range display is pretty useful with all the fog we have on Lake Michigan especially during a tournament with 30-50 boats all leaving a harbor at once in lowlight or dark. Easy to use, great bright displays.

The chirp sonar works as advertised and the side vision is pretty cool, but I don't feel it has put any extra fish in the boat, but you sure can see what's underneath you. I like it.

All in all, now that all the bugs seem to have been worked out by us early adopters and Garmin's software team, I'm very pleased with all this equipment, it is light years better than my old Raymarine equipment and should last me quite awhile. I'd buy it again.

One gripe I have is with the chartplotter, mainly the charts. The G2 vision card doesn't place the wrecks or depth contours in the right places on the chart. The old Furuno charts I had on another boat with C Map cards was right on the money, Garmins maps suck on Lake Michigan, but there isn't any way to use another companies chart card, Garmin won't allow it. That is a drawback.

[bigboatben]

Looking good!

Interested to hear how you like the Garmins.  Heard lots of good things about them.  Went with Furuno myself, but only because I have a great dealer close by.  Congrats on the new gear!

Now that I have used these new electronics for a full season I have some thoughts. For the first couple of months, Garmin kept issuing new software upgrades that added some new features, but it screwed up other features, like blinking depths and a confused autopilot. It was frustrating, but their last 2 updates in July and September have fixed everything. No issues anymore and the ease of use of this Garmin equipment is awesome.

I installed a Garmin Reactor autopilot with smart pump. My last Raymarine autopilot would not hold a heading with one engine trolling at salmon speeds, approximately 2 mph, but this new autopilot has been fantastic, no problems holding a heading at 2 mph and I really like the zig zag feature when trolling out deep with a straight line troll because turns triggers strikes and I don't have to be at the helm to do it. Great autopilot.

I also really like the radar. The twin range display is pretty useful with all the fog we have on Lake Michigan especially during a tournament with 30-50 boats all leaving a harbor at once in lowlight or dark. Easy to use, great bright displays.

The chirp sonar works as advertised and the side vision is pretty cool, but I don't feel it has put any extra fish in the boat, but you sure can see what's underneath you. I like it.

All in all, now that all the bugs seem to have been worked out by us early adopters and Garmin's software team, I'm very pleased with all this equipment, it is light years better than my old Raymarine equipment and should last me quite awhile. I'd buy it again.

One gripe I have is with the chartplotter, mainly the charts. The G2 vision card doesn't place the wrecks or depth contours in the right places on the chart. The old Furuno charts I had on another boat with C Map cards was right on the money, Garmins maps suck on Lake Michigan, but there isn't any way to use another companies chart card, Garmin won't allow it. That is a drawback.

Have you tried the Garmin Helm companion app yet? It's amazing for the type of fishing you do. Free in the App Store and gives you full control of your screens and auto pilot on your smart phone or IPad. Your 7612s have a built in wifi router. It's very easy to pair up and fun to watch your fish finder and make corse corrections from the cockpit!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ReelMagic]

I installed a Garmin 7612 last summer as a replacement for a Northstar 6000i and have been quite pleased with the unit. I integrated it with my other electronics which include a Furuno Radar/chartplotter, Simrad Autopilot (including rate compass), & a Standard Horizon VHF. Integration was quite easy and all works well.. Upgraded SW late Sept to latest release and am please with its performance as well. Would like to see some changes made to the SW that would provide direct access to waypoint and route lists as button actions. Currently several actions are required to select a stored waypoint or route. Have installed the Helm Companion app on several IOS devices (IPAD & IPHONE) and it works as advertised..   Also loaded  Homeport (Garmin PC app) and used it to port all my Waypoints & Routes from the Northstar 6000i to the Garmin 7612..... So far I like the Garmin 7612 as much as the Northstar which was a great machine in it's day.. M2C

[Silver Rush]

It is a shame you can't flush mount the fish hawk in the dash, I use the Depth Raider and that unit flush mounts great and no transom mount transducer issues. I get about 2 or 3 seasons out of my coated down rigger wire.

[greylion]

It is a shame you can't flush mount the fish hawk in the dash, I use the Depth Raider and that unit flush mounts great and no transom mount transducer issues. I get about 2 or 3 seasons out of my coated down rigger wire.

No room left to flush mount the FishHawk. I'm installing Bennett auto trim tab control this offseason.

[Silver Rush]

I have the Garmin AP with smart pump on my 96 31 open and it will not hold in 4'+ seas trolling one motor and a sea bag.  I think I need to re run the wizard, while running one motor and a bag when doing the slow learn function and then run both motors a running speed on the fast learn. by chance do you know the numbers in you AP for slow and fast gain and anti-gain? 

Looking good!

Interested to hear how you like the Garmins.  Heard lots of good things about them.  Went with Furuno myself, but only because I have a great dealer close by.  Congrats on the new gear!

Now that I have used these new electronics for a full season I have some thoughts. For the first couple of months, Garmin kept issuing new software upgrades that added some new features, but it screwed up other features, like blinking depths and a confused autopilot. It was frustrating, but their last 2 updates in July and September have fixed everything. No issues anymore and the ease of use of this Garmin equipment is awesome.

I installed a Garmin Reactor autopilot with smart pump. My last Raymarine autopilot would not hold a heading with one engine trolling at salmon speeds, approximately 2 mph, but this new autopilot has been fantastic, no problems holding a heading at 2 mph and I really like the zig zag feature when trolling out deep with a straight line troll because turns triggers strikes and I don't have to be at the helm to do it. Great autopilot.

I also really like the radar. The twin range display is pretty useful with all the fog we have on Lake Michigan especially during a tournament with 30-50 boats all leaving a harbor at once in lowlight or dark. Easy to use, great bright displays.

The chirp sonar works as advertised and the side vision is pretty cool, but I don't feel it has put any extra fish in the boat, but you sure can see what's underneath you. I like it.

All in all, now that all the bugs seem to have been worked out by us early adopters and Garmin's software team, I'm very pleased with all this equipment, it is light years better than my old Raymarine equipment and should last me quite awhile. I'd buy it again.

One gripe I have is with the chartplotter, mainly the charts. The G2 vision card doesn't place the wrecks or depth contours in the right places on the chart. The old Furuno charts I had on another boat with C Map cards was right on the money, Garmins maps suck on Lake Michigan, but there isn't any way to use another companies chart card, Garmin won't allow it. That is a drawback.