Your Opinons on Fish Finders

UPDATE ON THIS

I picked up an Elite-4 CHIRP and it's a great unit.

BUT - I'm searching for a SECOND finder, now.  Glutton for punishment, I guess.  This will be for the smaller kayak I use in lakes and GPS is optional.

"Why," you might ask, "don't you just move the finder from one hull to the other?"  Wiring.  The cost of a second transducer and power cable and miscellaneous bit and pieces costs nearly as much as a new, non-GPS, finder...

So thank you for the recommendations and especially thank you for pointing out the sales and discounts.  Very timely.

I'm still having trouble pulling the trigger on a specific FF. I'm strongly considering the Elite 5 HDI Gold package I found on Amazon for $380. As I'm not familiar with any of them, I'm wondering if this is worth the dough or if I'd do just as well with the Elite 4 on sale at Westmarine for $170. I haven't been able to put hands on either to learn anything, but I do like the look of the bigger screen on the 5.

I think your answer will have more to do with your eyesight and how you mount it, and if you prefer running multiple windows. The 5" is definitely nice if you have the scratch! Keeping it within arms reach is important on these newer finders to take advantage of all the different screens and settings. You will want to navigate through the pages and mark way points etc. on the water. If you run it in split/multiple screen mode (sonar/downscan/GPS) the windows get even smaller.

I'm still having trouble pulling the trigger on a specific FF. I'm strongly considering the Elite 5 HDI Gold package I found on Amazon for $380. As I'm not familiar with any of them, I'm wondering if this is worth the dough or if I'd do just as well with the Elite 4 on sale at Westmarine for $170. I haven't been able to put hands on either to learn anything, but I do like the look of the bigger screen on the 5.

It just depends where you fish and how often. If you are going to fish the salt a lot and want to be able to split screen between the map and FF, then go with the 5. If you mostly just want a good FF but aren't too concerned with finding and holding structure then I'd probably go with the 4. Not to say you can't do the same with the 4, it's just going to be a lot harder to ready. Both of the below are good bang for the buck options though. With 4 being smaller it will get in the way less, however it's also harder to read if you don't have the best eyes or want to run the FF and map at the same time. The 5 is obviously bigger but will also sucks a lot more battery. The 4 isn't a bad way to go for your first FF. You can always upgrade later after you figure out exactly what you want. Then again the 5 is about as much FF as you will ever need. I'm not help, just flip a coin and get out there and fish! 

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/lowrance--elite-4-hdi-chartplotter-fishfinder-with-83-200-455-800khz-transducer-nautic-pro-cartography--17030388

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/lowrance--elite-5-chirp-fishfinder-chartplotter-with-83-200-455-800khz-transducer-nav-cartography--15631542

Alright. I did it. Just ordered the 5 from WM. 

You did the Elite-5 so this isn't going to help you, but...  I have the Elite-4.

I played with the idea of an Elite-5 and decided that a Hobie Revo doesn't give me a lot of room within arm's reach for a unit that size and went with the Elite-4.

It's just my opinion that Lowrance missed a large and growing user base by putting the Elite-5 controls to the side, rather than to the bottom like Raymarine does on the Dragonfly units.  The Elite-5 wouldn't need to be a lot more narrow to fit more kayaks.

Noah is right that the split screens on a 4 are so darned small they are pretty useless for me, but in sonar view, it's plenty big and I don't find it difficult to find and hold on structure.

You flipped a coin?  It landed good.  You won't regret going with the larger screen, and I'd have gone that way if it had fit the spot where I wanted a finder.  I'm not giving up anything in the way of function, but you'll have a better user experience.