Thoughts on Garmin vs Lowrance Fish Finders?

[EMSer]

As a mostly shore bound fly fisher venturing into kayak fishing, I am completely unfamiliar with fish finders. I have been doing my due diligence and reading everything I can find. Both the Lowrance and the Garmin sound great. Does Chirp tech make that much of a difference? I have the opportunity to get a good deal on the Garmin, but am learning that saving a couple of bucks may not be enough to stick with a brand (Garmin) I am familiar with in other applications.

Which unit provides the best usage for the kayak fisher?

Thanks folks!

[Cowpokey]

I don't have any experience with the CHIRP, but I've been really happy with Lowrance Elite-4 HDI. Highly recommend a combo unit with down imaging, traditional sonar and GPS.

The base map in the Lowrance is pretty good for the Bay...no idea how it is for the Garmin units, but heard bad things about the base map that Humminbird come with.

I was originally going to get a Humminbird, but after looking at them running in demo mode at Bass Pro; I went with the Lowrance because the screen resolution was better. As it turns out, that wasn't the only advantage.

[On the fly]

CHRIP does help in separting the arches in the water column and seeing fish on bottom as I under stand the technology