Fish finder recommendations

[FYRE926]

:coolgleam I've got an 18ft Deep V Aluminum I've got rigged w/downriggers & beam across the back. I'd like to get input from you guys as to a workin mans priced Fishfinder w/temp & speed and GPS built in. I do not want to start a Mines better n yours Debate, just tell me what your seeing out there & what ya like and if you've used any even better. The only real must is temp & speed as options a GPS feature would be great but not required as I do have a portable I use in a ram mount already. :coolgleam

[Foxy Carp]

Garmin makes some great units...and they are compedatively priced. As for resolution to dollar ratio, you can'y beat Eagle. They are basically a lorance with a differant name and a lower price. For big lake fishing, look for as much peak to peak power as you can. This is probably one of the most important factors in fish finders.

[double trouble]

i have eagle and humminbird. you can do better .furuno is the hot setup.

[bolodunn]

cabelas has a lowrance x88df on clearence for $149.00 320x320! think i'm gonna get one.

[Ed Michrina]

I have a lowrance lcx 15mt and it does everything you want but there are a whole bunch of models to look at. hear is the link .

http://www.lowrance.com/Marine/default.asp

[Gone Fishing]

[QUOTE=FYRE926workin mans priced Fishfinder [/QUOTE]

If your workin a lot of hours, take a look at this Furuno unit:
http://www.boatersbasement.com/storefront/pc-278-186-furuno-gp1650wfnt-6-gpswaas.aspx
I'm pretty sure I have a source that can beat any price you'll find on fishfinders. PM me if your interested.

[Spartazoo]

I also have the lcx15 mt. I like it. I do not have a lot to compare it to. I am chiming in to say this: Do Not go out on Lake Michigan without a GPS. My first trip last year out of St. Joe had the fog roll in so heavy and fast that you could not even see shore in 10' fow. It was scary bad. If I would not have had a GPS to let me know where I was, even that close to shore, hard telling what might have happened. It has been said many times...you can NEVER predict what is going to happen on the big ponds.

[FYRE926]

I agree Sparta had we not had my GPS in the boat we'd not even have attempted to make our way from the state landing to the channel @ Muskegon let alone out on the big lake. I'm looking at the suggestions ya'll have posted, I must say I'm pretty confident the Furuno is out of my price range...the Lowrance LCX15mt appears to be running @ $400 + is that accurate?

[allskater08]

i have found in my experience that you really do get what you pay for when it comes to fish finders. (within reason of course) I have an eagle 320, a humminbird matrix 17 and a lowrance lms480. The best of the 3 is definately the lms480. The eagle is much more of a bottom finder i think allowing you to see contour and structure but is not all that great at showing fish very accurately. It really all depends though i mean you have to know how to use your electronics. there are sensitivity settings and cone settings and graysclae settings that are going to be dependant on you seeing bottom/fish. On the other hand the lms480 i have was $500 i believe, it has a gps and fishfinder. when i am perch fishing with spreaders i can actually see the sinker and both of my baits on my fishfinder. More power is better when it comes to getting a fish finder also so pay attention to peak to peak power. I also spent 200 dollars and purchased a navionics chip of lake st clair and the detroit river, erie, and a few others (they were all one 1 chip). With this chip i can see the actual depths and contours on my gps insted of a bland gps screen. I can see exactly where the shiopping channel is and every little hole and bump in the lake. The gps becomes much more detailed i mean you can see the individual dock slips in each marina its crazy. The one thing i would recommend it to get a color screen if you can. The main advantage with that that is appealing to me is you can see the screen from any angle, where as a gray sclae fades as the angle increases and you cant see it from certain places in your boat. I personally am partial to lowrance but all the brnads do the same thing for the most part. It all really depends what you can afford in the long run. But remember this....The Fishfinder that is really sweet that you want this year that costs $900 is gonna be $650 next year probably so it might be worth the wait. Also remember probably at one point in time for example my fishfinder the lms480 was probably the hottest thing out there and used by many professional fisherman doing tournys, etc. And now its been phased out by all this new color stuff but at some point it was good enough for the pros so there fore its good enough for me.

[Beave]

FYRE926,

My new (used) boat is coming home in the next two weeks. It has a brand new last fall Eagle Seacharter 480DF on it. It's a 480x480 dual frequency fishfinder with built in GPS. Retail new on the unit is $500. I have a color GPS unit already so I don't need this combo unit. I'm planning to take it off the boat when I get it home and put it up for sale. I'm not usually a Lowrance fan, but this is a pretty slick little unit. Let me know if you're interested, otherwise it's probably going on Ebay.

Seacharter 480DF (http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jhtml?id=0023563016592a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnString=hasJS=true&_D%3AhasJS=+&QueryText=eagle+seacharter&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jhtml.22&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=eagle+seacharter&noImage=0&returnPage=search-results1.jhtml)

[bluefin]

allskater08- The eagle 320 and matrix 17 are two of the units I've been looking into. I know they're somewhat comparable as far as screen size and pixel count, with the matrix having 900W more ptp power. Since you've used both, which of the two would you rate better on the water. Also, how is the dual-beam vs. the single. Thanks.

[allskater08]

Honestly i dont have a favorite between the 2. I have the Eagle on my 14 footer and i use the matrix 17 on my bow mount for vertical jigging. Both are good starting units i suppose. A lot has to do with personal pref. I think you are talking about the cone width when you ask about dual and single beam. If you pay more you can get a transducer that utilizes a say for example a 15 degree cone and a 30 degree cone. the wider one will obviously cover more bottom area but be less accurate in detecting immediate changes and smaller bumps and humps. The smaller cone will cover less area but will be more precise and give you faster updates. Optimally you want to use both in conjuction. If this is your first unit like this i would go with a single cone to make learning the unit much easier.

[Salami]

Hard to beat a lowrance , as for speed your gps is most accurate . How important is surface temp when fish generally are deeper? salami

[allskater08]

There are 2 types of speed, GPS and Water. Many think they are the same but in actuality they are different. When talking about the speed of the boat in general gps speed is fine. When talking about trolling speed i would much rather depend on a water speed indicator than a gps. Take trolling in the detroit river against the current for example. Say the current is 5 mph and you are trolling against the current and your gps speed will say 1.5 mph but your lure is moving at a rate equivilant to 6.5 mph. Current speed will vary depending on depth and wont be the same at the top as it is at the bottom. But lets say we arent talking about the detroit river where the current isnt so obviously swift. The water surface speed indicater will be of great assistance in walleye fishing where the difference in catching your limit or catching 2 might be dependant on a fraction of a mile per hour. If you can afford both the water and gps that is optimal but if not, theres a less reliable but somewhat effective way. You can drift down the river and note your gps speed and when you are trolling up river add that number to your gps number and roughly that will be your surface speed. The importance of this is lure action. 1.5 mph gps speed on the open lake will have 1 kind of lure action and 1.5 mph gps speed on a river will have a greater effect on lure action.

[Salami]

Good Post!

[PITBULL]

I was thinking about the eagle fishmark 480, then I saw the humminbird matrix 27. It has more ptp power 4,000 vs 1,500
They have a cable for about $38.00 availble to hook up a handheld gps unit
or for $100.00 humminbird makes a permanent gps receiver.
HUMMINBIRD (http://www.humminbird.com/home.asp?ID=2)

Has anyone used the gps reciver from Humminbird?
If so how accurate is it?
would I be better off just using my garmin map76
or just take it as a backup?
If I keep getting stuff Im gonna need a bigger boat :help:

[Ed Michrina]

Pitbull I wouldn't get all wrapped up needing a gps/fish finder. I used a hand held garmin for years. It got me out to my fishing spots just as well as my lowrance. With out having a chaart plotter, I would copy all my waypoints or fishing spots .. I'd then go home and get the map out. After a little practice its easy to find the waypoints on the map and mark them with an ink pen.

[Czarthree]

I picked up a Bottomline 480 max a couple weeks ago as my bow unit. Reeds has them on sale for $139. I printed out the add, took it to Bass Pro and they matched the price. They will honor any price as long as it`s not on clearance and they must have a retail store, which Reeds does. Saved me 50 bucks and the Bottomline has almost twice the power as the Eagle. Temp is standard and speed is an upgrade.