The Best Fish Finders 2021

A Mid-Sized Fish Finder with Big Technology

Humminbird is well-renowned as one of the biggest innovators in the fish finding market and they continue to find ways of improving the accuracy of their transducers with the clarity of their screens and the functionality of their software. The third generation of their beloved HELIX series is here, and the HELIX 7 fish finder is one of the finders we’re most excited about. Why? Well, it’s an excellent compromise between price and functionality and we will delve into all the details in this review.

There are quite a few different members of the HELIX 7 club. In our review, we will be looking at the third generation model. In the included comparison chart, we’ll look at the difference between three versions: the CHIRP, the Down Imaging +, and the Side Imaging +.

Legendary fishing tech company Humminbird is back with the third-generation of their much beloved HELIX series fish finder, and we love it. The new models are loaded with features, have crystal clear displays, some of the most accurate transducers we’ve seen, and plenty of different options for all your fishing needs. The HELIX 12 is the biggest and baddest of the series, a dream for the most die-hard fishing enthusiasts.

There are three different versions of the HELIX 12, each providing different imaging options based on your preferences. There’s the CHIRP model, the Down Imagining + model, and the Side Imaging + model.

The Striker 4 GPS/Fish Finder from Garmin comes equipped from the factory with the 010-10249-20 dual beam transducer and uses a 4-pin connector. This transducer is 77/200 kHz capable and uses two cone shaped beams. One 45° beam for 77 kHz, and one 15° beam for 200 kHz. If you need to search through bigger depths, you can use the control unit with a 50/200 kHz transducer. That's because it is capable of 50/77/200 kHz. You should also know that the control unit is capable of only using High and Mid CHIRP sonar.

This fish finder will let you scan to a top depth of 750 feet or 228 meters in saltwater. In freshwater, its limited to 1,600 feet or 487 meters. But, this is possible only if you possess a transducer capable of 50 kHz. The transducer that comes out of the box has a top depth of about 800 feet or 244 meters.

The Humminbird HELIX 9 offers a 9” screen; that gives you a couple of great advantages over other fish finders. The first is that the unit is big enough that you can see a lot of information displayed on the screen, but small enough to fit in setups that wouldn’t accommodate larger HELIX units. That’s a fantastic compromise, because the HELIX 9 still has a lot of the display features you’d look for in a fish finder of this size, like the ability to use split screen views. This allows you to display multiple views simultaneously; you might, for example, have the sonar on the left side and the contour map on the right side.

You can adjust the display so that it perfectly suits your needs. When you’re fishing at dawn or dusk, you can adjust the brightness to reduce glare. You can also up the contrast so you can make it easier to tell the difference between strong and weak readouts. You can change the display colour, you can zoom in and out - basically, you can customize this to suit your environment.

There are three different versions of the HELIX 12 offering various options including: the CHIRP model, the Side Imaging + model and the Down Imaging model.