Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to another one today's video we're going to be talking about the best zone our units for small boats that includes kayaks canoes your little 14 foot John boat I've been getting quite a few Facebook messages requesting kind of the best setup that not only has specific needs in order to find croppy specifically croppy fishing but also an optional portability set up so they can use it for their kayak maybe their pontoon maybe another John boat that they have or they want to jump into a buddy's boat and be able to use this system so these are the best units that I think work great for small boats so there's actually four needs before we get into talking about the actual zone our units themselves there's four needs that you need to look at does the sonar unit have this first is the 2D sonar almost every sonar unit has that down imaging and side imaging the fourth thing is mapping and you might put that in the optional category rather than the need depending on what your price range is I'm looking at things that are about 300 to 500 bucks both on the new market and the used market the optional piece of mapping some of these units if you're going to spend less than 350 bucks you're probably not going to have built in mapping and that's okay but they should have side imaging I do get the question on Facebook quite a bit of you know here's a unit what do you think of it if it doesn't have side imaging I personally wouldn't spend my own harder money on that unit so I can't recommend it to you it needs to have side imaging down imaging and 2D sonar mapping is a bonus personally if you can afford the mapping unit I would highly recommend getting that so one more optional thing besides the mapping is portability I've been getting quite a few questions on is there a unit out there that I can take from my kayak or canoe or small john vote and put it on my buddies you know pontoon or something like that and there are options that I'm going to talk about in this video so now let's get into the units that I would recommend for the small boats in Norpric no particular order some of these units do have mapping which probably could be a bonus if that's really something you cared about but the rest of the unit in terms of side imaging down imaging 2D sonar they're pretty much all the same except for when it comes to screen size so the first I'd recommend it is probably a a Garmin striker 5S V or 7S V these units are great side imaging down imaging 2D sonar a lot of people use them the one thing that these units don't have is the built in mapping system built in navigonics on a used market you could probably get these for 350 bucks 300 bucks somewhere in there the big brother to these is the echo map 7 3 SV which also would be a really good unit for a smaller boat the problem with those brand new even if they're on sale they're going to be around 6 to 700 dollars you might be able to find one on the use marketplace for under 500 bucks you got to really shop around Craigslist Facebook marketplace but I think you can find them for under 500 bucks so as far as Garmin goes the striker S V which stands for side view those units are great the 5 and 7 inch green or the echo map 7 3 SV which is a 7 inch touch screen and that does have Navionics mapping the second unit and again in no particular order the second unit I'd recommend would be the Hummanburg Helix 5 or 7 inch screen now the Hummanburg units do have built in Hummanburg mapping I can't remember for the Navionics or they used lake masters they do have a micro sd chip which you can add Navionics or lake masters chips or mapping chips too which is pretty cool the Hummanburg screens they're not touch screen same with the Garmin striker units they're just regular thumbtab but there are solid units it's got the basic side imaging down imaging and 2D sonar and again it does have built in mapping great units I think Helix 5 brand new is about 500 bucks give or take 50 bucks or so this Helix 7 I want to say is like 750 800 dollars but on the use marketplace you can probably get those for about 200 to 300 dollars less than brand new to purchase depending on how old they are these are great units because they also have the portability option the Hummanburg all purpose package or it's like the all water package a link it right here you can get a suction cup transducer so you can actually move from one boat to the next or move from a kayak to a pontoon simply with this suction cup transducer it's extremely portable and that's something a lot of you actually message me about was having a portable option the all purpose or all water package at Hummanburg offers if you can find them they're in high demand because people using for ice fishing as well these are really good packages that give you the option to move from boat to boat and they're super small and portable and I think the all purpose package also comes with a 12 volt battery so it's extremely portable you don't have to link it up to some boat battery you can just got to remember to charge it at the end of each day so that's a really good option as well for those small boats and another package you can look at is the Loran's hook reveal triple shot system now make sure it says triple shot I know that's a mouthful but it's the Loran's hook reveal triple shot triple shot means it has side imaging which is what they call side scan downscan down imaging and 2D sonar and I believe some of these units also have a built-in C map system which is Loran's version of mapping kind of like Hummanburg has lake masters it's a really good mapping system and they might even have Navionics there is the triple shot seven inch screen and the triple shot five inch screen the five inch screen is around 500 bucks the seven I think is around seven or eight hundred dollars again on the used market side of it if you can get these units at two to three years old you might be able to get three hundred dollars off these units they're not touch screen but for what they are the really solid units with side imaging downscan 2D sonar capabilities you can still find your brush piles find your rock piles find your weed edges and again these units have side imaging all these units I mentioned have side imaging I cannot stress this enough if you're going to spend hundreds of dollars on a sonar unit make sure it has side imaging capability at the very least but Loran's offer is a great lineup with the hook reveal series just make sure it says triple shot this actually brings me to the point of making sure these units if you're going to shop on the used marketplace make sure you understand what the letters on these units are so on the hummingbird series if it says SI that stands for side imaging it means it has side imaging down imaging in 2D sonar on the garment side of it if it has S-V it stands for side view which means it has side view clear view which is their down imaging and 2D sonar Loran's has S-S which stands for side scan or on the hook series it says triple shot which it has three different sonar capabilities side scan downscan 2D sonar so if you're on the used market side of it on Facebook marketplace craze list be sure you're not getting scammed be sure you understand what you're buying a lot of these units on the use side of it you can get them into 300 to 500 dollar range just make sure again buy something with side imaging you guys see me use side imaging on a lot of my how to find croppy videos and you're just able to cover so much more water with side imaging versus down imaging or 2D sonar the one i people ask me about these little four inch screens that are basically the size of your cell phone do not buy those i know they're like a hundred fifty to two hundred fifty bucks and and maybe that's all you can afford i would i would encourage you to look on the used marketplace for an older unit four five years old and maybe you can get it for 200 bucks these four inch screens that only have 2D sonar or downscan they're not really going to do you much good to be perfectly honest unless you're fishing a 10 acre pond and you can cover the whole pond and in less in a morning those units are not going to help you you're basically throwing 200 bucks down the drain in my opinion so five inch screens seven inch screens look for them on the used marketplace i'm going to link brand new ones down below but if you can get them two to three years old they're still really good units and you probably can get them for less and 500 bucks put them on your little john boat your kayak your canoe these are great options that a lot of different manufacturers sell that's my opinion for the best sonar units from each manufacturer for your john boat your kayak or your canoe if you got any comments or questions about buying sonar units new or use post them in the comment section below or you can message me on either facebook or instagram i always appreciate hearing from you and i always like helping you out when you're purchasing brand new sonar units or use sonar units appreciate your watching as always good luck on the water this year