Customer Reviews

Humminbird 596C Color Sonar Only

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This had the potential of being great. My home fishing spot is full of submerged stumps and many of transom mount transducers have bit the dust. The removable one was a plus. I also fish with several other friends and the portability was nice. However, the display was so bad you could hardly even see it in the sunlight. I would NOT recommend this because of the weak display. I promptly returned it.

I just finished installing the fish finder and took it out on the lake for the first time.
Installation was pretty easy. I had to read and follow the instructions but I had no problems. I will say I found it very hard to drill holes in a perfectly good boat.
On the lake, the GPS was great. The fish finder was very good also. It put me on fish, just not the right ones.
The only complaint I have is the fish alarm won't go off unless I show the fish icon. Maybe I just haven't figured that out yet.
Overall, it is everything I wanted and I am very satisfied.

I did a lot of research before buying this unit, I couldnt decide between this and the almost identical Lowrance Elite5 chartplotter unit. After reading countless reviews I chose the Hummingbird. The Lowrance has more color palete choices but the hummingbird had the old style sonar ability otherwise they seem the same to me. I am soo glad I chose this one! The downscan is awesome, truly showing great detail of structure and bottom, but its really hard to see fish and baitfish on it. The old style (seems like an updated version)shows fish and baitfish great and will mark them on the screen. This unit allows you to split the screen and use both sonar types at the same time, and its freaking awesome. The chartplotter is nice for navigating the big lakes but the included mapping is bad on small lakes showing just a blank white screen with your boat in the middle. But you can mark a waypoint for the dock to help you get back and view your tracks as you go to help navigate blindly. The coolest part of having a chartplotter is being able to mark locations of structure or fish zones and be able to return to them later without wasting time having to troll over dead water trying to find "that spot" again later in the day. Sounds crazy but this thing truly has changed the way I fish and made me a better fisherman! I just cant imagine what they can come up with next.

I wasn't certain how useful down-imaging would turn out to be for my style of fishing. After several months of use I've found down-imaging indispensable. It helps me precisely locate structure & fish that I previously would have missed.

Easy to install, works well on calm waters. The built in maps for coastal waters are pretty vauge. I guess I will buy the chip to improve the maps.
Trouble with the power connection while traveling in rough water. Must be coming loose for a second. Cuts off but immediately comes back on when I hit the power button.
not 100% satisfied but not ready to send it back either.

This fishfinder replaced an earlier model Humminbird which didn't survive an encounter with a hammer-wielding angry ex-wife. The unit was easily installed on the existing base and worked well for the week of the guys' fishing trip. I've found Humminbird to be reliable, even moreso than some of the "higher-end" brands out there. The one thing I dislike about Humminbird is their penchant for changing transducer footprints, but this won't keep me from buying another if I need to.

Overall I really like the unit, but not Humminbird.
I sound harsh, but I would just get a 2D, or move up to a larger screen unit.
I was very let down by the down imaging hype and pretty pictures that humminbird shows on their ads.
The unit is great, and I love it, but don't think for a second that you'll see what the ads show. You might if you are running on an indoor swimming pool with NO wind and crystal clear water. The best pictures I have seen so far after 4 weekends using it will not even tell you if you are above a tree or an old concrete slab down below. What a waste. Other than a worthless down imaging feature that you spend an extra $100 for, the unit is a great GPS and 2D sonar. I already wasted my money, too late. Do you really want to waste yours? Humminbird, you really need to improve your "trick them into believing we can do anything" ads.
Also, I was at 3 stars, but the included "charts" are nothing but an outline of the lake. My 6 year old cell phone gps shows that much!

Great Product!!!!!!!!!! Very easy to install !!!!!!!!!!! I
was a little reluctant at first, but great product for the
amount of green.

This was an excellent product and was what I was looking for. It works great! It makes fishing more enjoyable and easier.

I bought this as a Christmas Present in 2011; I know almost nothing of depth finders. Only that he had an earlier version purchased 10 years ago. I am so glad that I bought this; installation was fairly decent. It took us an hour; what do you expect when installing something on a boat? The product easily replaced the old one; is working as best we can tell without being in the water. Love the new technology that it offers. It will do everything we need it to which is telling us how warm the water is and how deep the waterway is when we are boating thru the inter-coastal waterway which has shifting sand bottoms. I highly recommend this product. I checked them out on their web site and found them to be a very reputable product.