Which fish finder to buy?

[thejeepster02]

I fish fresh water lakes and have been wanting a fish finder/depth indicator I would be interested to know what people are using and what problems they may have had.<br />Im leaning towards a Garmin, but there are lots of other makes and models.<br />Should I go with one that has GPS with it?

 

[fishingdan]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

I am going through the same thought process. Our boats are also similar in size. You can choose almost any name brand unit and be very happy. <br /><br />Assuming you are fishing in less than 100' 99+% of the time, you will be looking for a unit with a single frequency 200khz transducer. Transom mount is fine. The remaining features are up to your likes and your budget.<br /><br />- screen size (bigger = more $$)<br />- screen resolution (higher resolution = more $)<br />- color or monochrome (color = more $$)<br />- power (units very widely, more power = more detail and depth)<br /><br />GPS/sounder combo? Many people like to have separate units. This is personal preference. Some believe that if they are separate, it would be a rare to have both fail. The other reason is often screen size. Unless you go with the higher end units, you will be sharing GPS and Sounder information on a 4 or 5" screen. It is easy to swap back and forth. If you are planning on buying a gps and a ff, you will save a little $$ by buying a combo. <br /><br />Good luck with your decision. There are a ton of choices. The good news is that I don't there is really a lot of difference between the name brand units that will serve your needs.<br /><br />Dan

 

[JB]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

Ahoy, Jeepster.<br /><br />I recommend seperate units.<br /><br />If you want a GPS I recommend Garmin without reservation. Not only are the units excellent, the customer service is beyond excellent.<br /><br />For sonar: I have had excellent results with several different Lowrance/Eagle units and I have heard nothing but praise for Furuno. I recommend either.<br /><br />Good luck.

 

[gss036]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

I was looking at Fishfinders the other day and they carried Garmin, Eagle and one other brand. The guy told me the Eagle would get you the most bang for the buck, both in price and technology along with performance. I have a combo loran/depth finder, I agree with JB. Go to seperate untis.

 

[thejeepster02]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

dosnt the gps just tell you location in degrees.<br />why would that take up alot of screen space on a combo unit.

 

[Boatist]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

GPS chart plotter unit most buy today will show you a electronic chart and your postion on that chart. With detailed Maps it will show water depth. Yes it will give you your Latitude and Longitude in degrees but will also give you course heading to steer to next waypoint, distance to next waypoint, estimated arrival time to next waypoint, Speed over ground, How far off course, elevation, location of buoys and much more. If fact the gps will have much more data than the fishfinder.

 

[fishingdan]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

Jeepster,<br /><br />When you have time, go to the Lowrance or Eagle websites and download one of the "emulators". <br /><br />For example, this link will take you to the Lowrance LMS-332c page. Click on Product Emulator.<br /> Lowrance LMS-332c <br /><br />You can download emulators for many of the Lowrance and Eagle units. This will allow you to plan around with the units without physically having one. They are very good and are exactly the same as the real thing. <br /><br />As Boatist stated, you will see that most prefer a GPS with mapping capability. On the combo units, you have the choice of dedicating the full screen to the GPS Map or the Sonar. You can also split the screen between the 2.

 

[thejeepster02]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

will that even show the detail of small lakes?<br /><br />This looks awsome...now I know why the forum talks alot about GPS units

 

[fishingdan]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

If you want to see depth contours and other in-water details, you need to purchase a map from a vendor. The included base map will give you an outline of medium and larger bodies of water, but not all lakes are included.<br /><br />For Lowrance/Eagle, there are 2 sources of maps. Lowrance sells their own brand of map that covers some areas of the country better than others. Navionics sells has 2 sets of maps called Hotmaps Classic and Hotmpas Premium. The Premium product is very good and includes a very large number of lakes. The companies websites will give you a list of included lakes.

 

[kavika]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

Fishingdan, Just downloaded Lowrance emulator.<br /><br />Mahalo,<br />Kavika

 

[whiteman]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

The Lowrance and Eagle are effectively the same product. Both sounders are at 480x480 pixels, including their new colour range. Great units with user friendly software.<br /><br />Units such as Furuno are more expensive and curiously, have less resolution and require a lot of manual intervention to get them working optimally.<br /><br />So if you're inexperienced but want great value for money, go the X125 or the Eagle equivalent. I've got the X135 for fishing bluewater to depths of around 180'.

 

[LazyJ]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

I was given the popular $200 Eagle Cuda 240/GPS for Christmas. The screen is too small to fish for blips but man that GPS good at finding your truck when they bite past dark and you are tickling the limits of your fuel range. <br /><br />Playing with it while fishing for suspended crappie this weekend, I figured out how to tune the audible fish alarms and I think it will prove valuable as a fishfinder in that mode. I don't think I could ever enjoy staring at a screen while I was fishing anyway, no matter how big.<br /><br />Having little use for GPS except while boating and not really needing downloadable maps I believe this was the perfect unit for me. I'll probably mount it in-dash soon.

 

[jtexas]

Re: Which fish finder to buy?

Eagle Fishmark 320 around $160, excellent unit, Fishmark 480, even better.<br /><br />get the most pixels per sq. inch you can, resolution means everything. at least to me it does.<br /><br />none of the above should be construed as advice to not get color or GPS since I have neither I don't know what I'm missing.