I am fairly new to the board and I know that Phils opinion is very well respected but I have to totally disagree with him. The SI from Humminbird is the DEAL! Expensive, yes, but worth every single penny. If it was $10,000 I would finance the thing to have one after spending time with it for a season. To answer your question I would say one solid (that is solid not fishing time) afternoon spent in areas where you have a very good understanding of what is on the bottom will key you in on what you are looking at. It took me a couple of hours and the light bulb came on and now I wouldnt fish without one. I would go back to a 14 ft aluminum before I would give up my SI. If you look at Yahoo (I think it is Yahoo) they have a group of guys that post lots of pictures of screens. If you spend some time looking at the screens you will be keyed in before you buy one.
