I always have ran lowrance, and still do. I'm pretty knowledgeable about the HDS units, and they play a huge roll in my fishing. But, If I were to get a new boat with no electronics and have to start from scratch. I'd make the switch to the new Helix units w/ Mega imaging. Just watch out with the Birds if you want networking capabilities. The 5's & 7's won't share waypoints, mapping, etc.
I don't fish saltwater much, but I would think you'd be able to find quite a bit of oyster reefs with the side scan. Or any hard/soft bottom transitions. Even with a blurry image you can easily tell hard from soft bottom. The general rule of thumb with SS is set your range 3 X's the depth you're in. So if you're only in 5 FOW, you're really only getting a decent image at 15' out each side of your boat. But that's still better than only directly under your boat IMO
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