Color fish finder/gps, what is the best choice?

[jmillsp]

I keep looking at them but can not make up my mind which one is the best for the money. I do not want to spend a bunch and know the prices are starting to come down some. I may be wrong but would bet within the next 2 years everything will be color and the prices much cheaper. At any rate I like the looks of the Hummingbird 97 and the Lowrance LMS330. I do not fish deep water. I see alot written on the Garmin as well. Perhaps I should get a seperate gps unit but having it all built into one unit seems like a good idea. Which one would you buy?

 

[JB]

Re: Color fish finder/gps, what is the best choice?

I don't recommend combo units, jmillsp. If one dies, they both die.<br /><br />I have no idea what your usage or budget is, but I think the best color GPS for the bux is the Garmin 172. At entry level, consider the Garmin iQue 3600 PDA/GPS or the Garmin Quest.<br /><br />If I had to have a combo unit I would choose the Garmin 188.<br /><br />For a seperate sonar, there are a number of good entry level units in the Lowrance and Eagle lines.<br /><br />Look here: http://www.iboats.com/mall/index.cgi?keywords=electronic <br /><br />Good luck.

 

[imported_JD__]

Re: Color fish finder/gps, what is the best choice?

I've owned and used (2-3 times a week) a Lowrance LCX15 MT Grey-scale unit for almost 3 years. It is a SONAR/GPS combination unit, no problems.<br />JD

 

[swist]

Re: Color fish finder/gps, what is the best choice?

I don't know if you've noticed but prices on marine electronics have stabilized a lot and you can no longer count on them going down - as a matter of fact a lot are going up as the trend seems to be more functionality (tft color displays, for example.) There is less choice among low-end units than there used to be, in my opinion.

 

[ThomWV]

Re: Color fish finder/gps, what is the best choice?

One of the silliest things you will ever find on any of these internet sites is that there are some makes of fish finder that are great for fresh water (or shallow water) and some other manufacturer's who make units that are great for saltwater (or deep water) but no good in the drinkable stuff. Absolute nonsense. The speed of sound is different between fresh water and salt and the tendency of sound waves to attenuate is greater in salt than in fresh water but fish finders are all about timeing and timing remains the same no matter what water you're in.<br /><br />If you were to simply rate the quality of fish finders without reguard to use the lineup from best on down would be easy to write, even if you restricted it to the more common brands. Such a list would look something like this:<br /><br />Furuno<br />Garmin<br />Simrad<br />SiTex<br />Lowrance (Eagle is the same thing)<br />Raytheon<br />A whole bunch of other junk<br />Humminbird.<br /><br />Thom

 

[jmillsp]

Re: Color fish finder/gps, what is the best choice?

I never fish salt water so am looking at freshwater. Usually do not fish anymore than 20 feet down at most. From what I am reading so far, it looks like Garmin is the one I should be looking at the hardest instead of Lowrance or Hummingbird. I really like the looks of that Hummingbird Matrix 97 though. I know beauty is only skin deep.