Raymarine Dragonfly 7 PRO Review

Great screen, incredible detail, very easy to install and use. The transducer is really big and it’s also sturdy, it survived a few collisions with underwater stumps without a problem. And on top of that Navionics Gold card is included.

I fish in the Pudget Sound, Washington, water depth of upto 400ft. For the last few years I’ve been using HB 788 but I decided to upgrade to Dragonfly7 and I’m glad I did, this unit is amazing. The down imaging is 10 times better then Humminbird’s, I can see bait fish in the seaweeds at the depth of 300 feet. The display is nice and big and the unit is easy to use. Buy it, this one is no-brainer. I got mine at Amazon.

This is by far the best fishfinder at this price range. The fish are marked by by clear and sharp arches. You can even see the fish when using down image, they show as small specks of light in the display. I bought the one without Navionics Gold card and then bought Hotmaps Premium separately. For only $75 more Hotmaps cover 18000 lakes vs 3000 lakes included in Navionics Gold.

The Dragonfly 7 Pro is an excellent unit and I recommend the product. I am not being given anything in consideration for writing this review, I just think the unit is awesome and anyone on the fence shouldn’t hesitate on the current price war on marine electronics. Before I bought the product I was in search of a 7″ combo plotter/fishfinder with downscan, a navionics+ mapcard, and a final cost below $500.00 I was able to purchase my Dragonfly 7 pro with a Navionics+ card for $593 (+9.95 shipping), with a $150 rebate from Raymarine my final cost was $453. Considering the Navionics+ card and run from $150-$200 alone $453 is a steal. Comparing apples to apples LOW and HB can’t match it.

One of my goals was to also have a 3 year warranty on the unit. I was willing to buy the extended warranty when I purchased the unit. Wally World did not sell the 7 pro with the NAV+ card. Cabel@@@ no longer has a extended warranty program, and the other big box marine retailers that warranties were selling the 7 pro a the $699 price point. After doing more checking I was surprised to learn that if you register your Dragonfly with Raymarine they will extend your 1 year factory warranty to 3 years. I don’t see LOW or HB doing the same thing.

As far as the installation goes, it’s easy and straight forward. If you are losing the bottom at speed it is user error in the placement of the transducer. It needs to be deep enough in the water to have clean water to read through. If it’s in the turbulent water caused by the boat then you have installed it wrong.

The specs I wanted were chartplotting, chirp sonar, and chirp downscan. I was running two 5″ legacy Low units, 1 plotter and 1 sonar and was going to get 2 HB Helix units, but they lacked chirp sonar and the cost was too much. The Helix 7 combo for $600 lacked chirp sonar, chirp downvision, and a map chip. I have been researching for a month and found too many issues with the Low units to take a chance on them. My friend has an elite 5 and the plotter can’t keep up at speed and loses the bottom at speed. The hook model (from my research) are a rebranded elite model and have the same processing issues. Another friend just bought the Elite 7 Ti and it has had issued from day 1. He contacted tech support and the offered him and upgrade to a larger unit for an addional $160. I also looked at the G@rmin units, but to get into the chartplotter combo you had to buy the echomap series and the price point was too high to even consider.

I mainly fish the bay of green Bay and inland lakes under 5000 acres. The Dragonfly is fantastic on the water. I couldn’t read the LOW units in direct sunlight, and polarized glasses made it worse. I’m able to read the plotter, sonar, and downscan in direct sunlight with ease. The mount is very easy to adjust the angle so I can turn the unit to other people on the boat can read it also. The wireless fishing option is awesome. works great with both smartphones I tested. With a 10″ tablet I could used the dragonfly as a stand alone potter and used the tablet for a dual view sonar/downscan. I went to the big box store and looked at all the 7 inch units with a plotter, sonar, and downscan. The Raymarine blew them away on the clearness, quality, and brightness of the screen. The wifi option is a gamechanger, expecially if you take kids fishing as they can look at the sonar with their own phones and take pictures and video of the screen without looking at the main unit. The competitors dropped the ball with that option.

The unit is easy to learn. I was able to figure most of the settings out without having to look at the manual. For those that complain about not getting a printed manual, the manual is 136 pages long, and you only need about 10 pages to learn the most important parts, so download it and print off what you need.

I downloaded all the NAV+ maps I wanted and then put the card in the unit. You have to select the card and then upload all of the map files you downloaded from the card onto the unit. The Navionics map data on the unit is basic, so you have to select your new NAV+ card, and then add sonar an user edit data if you downloaded that also. It was an easy process to complete. The 72 channel GPS exceeds all of the competition in it’s class and locks on in seconds. LOW only has a 16 channel gps,

The powerup time is not that long, less than 30 seconds, and the power off time is less than 4 seconds. Hold the power button for 2 seconds to turn the unit on, and hold the powerbutton for 4 seconds to turn it off. The display has a count down timer when you turn it off. Easy as pie.

The sonar and downscan are outstanding. I found that the factory auto sensitivity is so good that I didn’t need to mess with the settings, although they are readily accesable. It’s easy to use the plotter and sonar when trolling planer boards, and then switching to downscan when I want to see what the blob on the sonar actually is.

One thing that is noteworthy is the fact that the downvision of dragonfly has a range of 600 feet, almost twice the depth of the 350 foot range of the LOW and HB counterparts. The chirp sonar depth range is also 300 feet deeper than the competitors. These facts alone tell me that Raymarine knows what their doing when it comes to fishfinder technology and is ahead of a curve in freshwater units.

The interface is easy to use and switching between views is easy, when you switch to a dual view there is a thin yellow line around one of the two views, this makes the highlighted view the one that responds to the zoom in/out buttons, and options for that view. It’s easy enough to switch in a hurry and very easy to get used too, no 6 levels of menu settings.

The $150 rebate is up on Sept 5th so take advantage of this great unit at a great price.

I love the Dragonfly! I’ve spent years fishing off the coasts of Northern California, mostly for rockfish and salmon. The Dragonfly Pro 7 helps me find even small pockets of fish so I can target and catch them. Now my catch rate is way up, higher than ever before. The navigation is easy to use and works very well. You can even post your position in the Navionics chart to find your way in the worst fog. It’s easy to set up, find, and track waypoints. I can’t wait to go fishing with my Dragonfly.

The only thing I didn’t like was that the manual doesn’t tell you that the sun cover listed is for flush mount only; if you want to install your fish finder free-standing than you’ll need to find a different item.

I’ll save you some trouble and just tell you to stop your searching and take a look at the Dragonfly 7. Buy it and you get great graphics, plenty of options, and all the functionality you could want. My friends and I always take our Bass Tracker out to fish the lakes around here. We’ve tried our share of fish finders and this is the best. Accurate recordings on depth and great detail on fish. I can see what’s under the boat in amazing, crystal clear images. To give you some idea how useful it is, my Dad had a very expensive model on his big 28′ boat, and turned it in to get a Dragonfly! You won’t regret buying this. Just follow the directions and placement on the transom and you’re going to find more fish.

This is the first time I went with a Raymarine, and I’m glad I did. The Dragonfly 7 seems like a quality device, and I have used several fish finders over the years. It was very simple to set up and use. The controls are simple. Connecting the power and transducer are easy. Even a newbie shouldn’t have any trouble using it.
My two complaints are 1) that this isn’t just a push-the-button-and-go device. You have to hold down the button for 5 seconds or so to power on and off, which seems unnecessary. And 2), you can’t turn off the Wi-Fi, which is irritating to somebody who rarely uses it.

Yet – wow! The images are crisp and bright. The CHIRP down-imaging sonar is better than some much more expensive models. The Dragonfly 7 looks good and it delivers.

First of all…WOW!!! The Dragonfly 7 is a God send for a guy like myself! This unit is awesome, the screen/graphics are not only a breeze to see in sunlight but the imaging is unreal, you can not only see fish but you can see them in the weeds too!!! The “God send” part is its EASE OF USE!!! It’s simple to learn and off ya go! I researched lots of finders, reading tons of reviews etc., to the point I had no idea what the hell I wanted, and to be honest I just went with the Dragonfly to get it over and done with! boy am I glad I did! So if you’re in the market for a fish finder, just buy the Dragonfly 7 and save some trouble for yourself! Seriously this unit is awesome!

Bought this unit in 2016. Very good unit for the money and especially with the rebate they offered. Still can’t figure out how to setup the date and time. Sometimes the water temp doesn’t display. Otherwise the mapping is really good and quality display. Easy to take on and off boat.

The Dragonfly 7 was the answer to my sonar prayers! We have a large houseboat, with flybridge. I wanted detailed sonar both on the flybridge, and at the lower helm. That would require 2 separate units with long runs of expensive cable extensions. With WiFi, I can monitor my sonar anywhere on the boat-bow to stern.
Its mounted at the stern, so knowing depth & water temp for swimming activities is perfect, as well as fishing off the stern, or just watching the underwater activities. I often set my iPad inside the salon, just to monitor fish activity on the WiFi. So many benefits, & so highly rated for an affordable price! Prayers answered!

I can’t believe all the good reviews on the Dragonfly 7 pro. The only reason I give it 2 stars is the imaging is awesome. Chart plotter should not even be used describing this unit when it won’t even leave a crumb trail. If you create track, it locks out the go to way point. What good is a track when you can’t put in a destination? I guess if your on a lake that’s fine but not in the gulf!
I talked to technical support and they admitted that it lacked those basic features. I was told I bought a bottom of the line unit and I needed to upgrade!!! Even a $80 handheld has a crumb trail. I was basically told that it’s a depth finder that will show you your position and will draw a line to a way point.
They also offered NO resolution to this except take it back where I bought it. Now I have to pull the boat out the water again to remove it. Thankfully the place where I bought it at has awesome customer service and agreed to let me return in.
If you fish lakes where you don’t need chart plotting capabilities, it would be a great unit. I sure didn’t expect this out of Raymarine.

I would say this is a fantastic unit but I just can’t. As a fishfinder/sonar it is a serious piece of kit with a great display and features. My problem is the GPS. It takes a long time to acquire the signal then randomly loses it resulting in an annoying alarm which can’t be disabled! Apparently there are many pro units with this issue and I was advised to return the unit for repair which I did. Turns out they cant repair these units as they are factory sealed but were kind enough to offer me money off in a trade in for another one! I am currently looking at a new Garmin.

Have had two most popular brands and once I obtained this one I realized how crappy previous fishfinders were. The only disadvantage is gps position, it takes time to catch all those satellites, but once they are there works good.

Just bought a Raymarine Dragonfly 7 Pro,

Really disappointing first experience. Bought and tried 3 different SD cards. Formatted the cards etc etc. None of them work. They cant be read by my wifi connected iPhone. A friend of mine had the same experience using an android and ended up returning the unit and went with Garmin. I guess i will do the same or get an iPad for the same price.