Which Fishfinder?

[erdocdan]

I fish Frankfort. 28 foot boat. Generally 70 to 220 FOW. Downrigger and most other presentations. My FF died and I want to replace it once. Which Brand and model would you Pro Captins recommed? Is color important? Single or dual freq? How about the transducer? My old unit used shoot through and sucked. It was basicly a depth finder. I'm looking for top quality and preformance with value comming in third place. Suggestions apreciated.

Doc

[Reel World Fishing Team]

One question is what kind of GPS/Chartplotter do you have, and how many? I like to install redundecy in all my important equipment and long story short do to limited dash space I went with a Raymarine A65 combo unit last year and love it. The Raymarine A60 is a very good combo unit as well that should be just as good and can be bought for around a grand.

This is the first FF I didn't need to adjust manually to get it to perform how I want it. It has it's own computer to run the the FF.

I don't think you really need color, but it's nice. Power is the more important part. I don't have all the facts comparing one to the other but you can figure this out your self looking into data. I have had both transducers and with the new one I went with a transom mount to get the surface temp and speed.

One company I had good purchasing experiance with was www.ultimatepassage.com out of Ohio.

I'm not going to bash any company with my own opinons on what to get or not to get, but for me the list is short one of Furuno, Garmin and or course Raymarine.

[caznik]

Hi Doc,

Hey just like to say hi and I also fish Frankfort as much as possible. I allways go up there in August when they have the car show and craft show.

frankfort is #1,

Rich

[Paulywood]

I bought a Garmin last year and was really happy w/ it. It's a 340C. One thing that I noticed was that I could see it alot better in the sun and from different angles. It was a lot better than my old Raymarine L750. I don't know if it's due to the color or just better technology. I went with seperate FF and chartplotter. The GPS is also a a Garmin, the screen is the same size and you can actually link them to display the FF on the GPS screen. I went w/ 2 because if something happend to one of them, I would still have the other. I paid $400 for each of them. I got them from marinewiz.com. The only electronics that I would look at are Garmin, Furuno, and Raymarine. I almost bought a Furuno but it cost just as much for the sonar as I paid for both of my units. I have heard of people having to many problems with Lowrance and their customer service. I dropped my chartplotter last year and broke it, sent it to Garmin and they sent me a brand new one, all in the same week. Great service.

[Satisfaxion_Gauranteed]

I've had very similiar experiences with Garmin. Thier tech services and customer support is fantastic. The equipment has great functionality and is easy to use.

There are good units made by a few different companies, but my experience has been so good wiht Garmin, it'd be hard for me to stray to something different.

my 2cents,

[GLF]

My old unit used shoot through and sucked. It was basicly a depth finder.

Do you mean shoot through or through hull? Shooting through the hull is not the way to mount a transducer. You loose a lot of sensitivity shooting through the hull. A through hull transducer(hole is drilled in the hull and transducer mounted on the bottom) is the way to go. You do not get the air bubbles on the bottom of the boat you get off the transom. My transducer is mounted on the transom, and I loose bottom contact around 22mph.

I got the deal of deals for a fish finder last year. I picked up a close out model(LCX-111C) for $1,300. The normal price on this unit was $2,400. The LCX-113C replaced the unit I picked up. This unit is like having a big screen tv onboard. From the back of the boat, I can see what is on the fish finder.

One small draw back about the size. It takes up a lot of room. I held my unit in several locations before I decided on a location to mount it. If I would have mounted it up on the dash, it would have obscured my vision while driving the boat.

If you are going for a chart plotter combo, make sure you get one that you can add a navionics chip to. A navionics chip will show you the depth contours of the bottom on your chart. Most of the navionics chips show the inland lakes also.

My unit is a dual frequency unit. I use one frequency in shallow, and the other when I am fishing deeper.

After you get your fish finder you should check the firmware on it to make sure it is up to date. There is a good post in the marine electronics section which talks about fish finder firmware.

Spend a day reading the manual and getting familiar with your unit. A lot of people buy a fish finder, put it on the boat and dont know anything about the features.

[Yooperdad]

Paulywood and Satisfaxion, am I glad to see your posts. I was bitching about the Lowrance I had on the boat, and the family surprised me with a Garmin 340C for Christmas this year. I had identified that as the unit I would get when I got a new one and they surprised me with it.

Have a separate Garmin 182C gps and I love it. Hope I am as satisfied with the fishfinder.

Yooperdad

[Icemann]

One thing to think about is if you decide to have more than 1 F/F on the boat.

I run a Si-Tex color sounder with a 120 kHz ducer up front. That way it doesn't interfere with the 50/200 kHz ducer that is on my Garmin F/F @ the back of the boat.

Brian

[erdocdan]

I thank you for your replies and advice. I have a Garmin 178c plotter with both data cards for the great lakes. I have not had any problems and it actually has a sonar built in. I have not used this feature but it supposedly has 500w RMS. I could get by with just buying a transducer but I'm not sure if it supports dual frequency. Whatever I do I will be installing a bronze through the hull ducer. I probably will buy the Garmin 340c that way the ducer will be compatible as backup on the 178c plotter/sonar. That 340c comes in two different models, one for salt and the other for fresh water. The cone (beam) angle is different. Does anyone know what difference that makes? I want to make the ducer flush to hull so I don't foul the trailer bunks during launch and haul out. Where is the best online place to buy?

Doc

[Paulywood]

The saltwater version is a dual frequency. Freshwater is dual beam. I got mine at marinewiz.com. I just looked around until I found the best deal. Good luck.

[Priority1]

The cone (beam) angle is different. Does anyone know what difference that makes? I want to make the ducer flush to hull so I don't foul the trailer bunks during launch and haul out. Where is the best online place to buy?

The Cone beam angle makes a huge difference. A very narrow beam is used for extremely deep use, and a wide beam for shallow use. In other words a narrow beam will show a normal amount of detail when focusing on the depth it was intended for. If you use a narrow beam focusing on shallow targets, you may be only be viewing an area the size of a dinner plate.

[medic]

ErdocDan,

Another consideration is Garmin's 50/200 hz transom mount transducer. I am currently running this with a Garmin 2010 chartplotter and the GSD 20 black box fishfinder. I have run this for 4 seasons without an issue. Your current unit is dual beam capabile. I run both at the same time and you can differentiate weather the fish is off to the side or directly under you, just by the look of the hook. It is also capable of picking up the thermocline, once it's established. Very good equipment.

[erdocdan]

I'm trying to avoid having a wire run over the gunnels or transom. Would like to keep it below deck. I don't see a duel beam (2 element) ducer which is bronze and through hull. The duel freq must have a single element which alternates frequency. Those have different angles then the duel beam transom mount.

[medic]

I'm trying to avoid having a wire run over the gunnels or transom. Would like to keep it below deck. I don't see a duel beam (2 element) ducer which is bronze and through hull.

Here's a link for a bronze dual beam. It's about half way down the page. $329.99. I used the transom mount with the Big Jon wire cover(?) Just drill the hole in the transom, run the wire through (I went into the engine compartment) then pop the cap over it and seal it in with 3M 5200. Works great, easy, and looks good too. Only wire visable is running down the transom to the transducer. Good luck and I hope this helps.

Bill

[medic]

Ok..Apparently I cannot add a link to my post. West Marine has them. If you go into their Garmin FF section, on page two about half way down on the left side there is a 200 khz ducer that says "From $62.99" click on that and it brings up a list of transducers. The bronze dual freq through hull is about half way down the list. It says it is in stock right now. Once again, Good luck.

Bill

[Priority1]

Bill, Sent you a PM on how to post a link.

[GLF]

Ok..Apparently I cannot add a link to my post. West Marine has them.

Bill,

There is a time limit on how long you can edit a post. You should be able to add links. Sometimes the links are to long and the website software does let the link work properly. What you have to do in this case is:

• type a word or what you want to call it
  
• left click, drag accross it and highlight it
  
• click on the insert link(globe with chain link)
  
• copy the link from the page you want into the box(make sure you do not put 2 htp:// in the link)
  
• click on OK
  

Is this the page you were referring to?

Give a shout if you have any more questions.

Mike

[medic]

Thanks Mike... Someday I'll get it...Not so much!!

Erdocdan,

I just checked Garmin's website and you can buy them (The dual freq bronze thru hull) directly from them for $247.00.. DEFINATELY better than West Marine!

Good Luck,

Bill

[medic]

Ok...I'll attempt this link thing again!! Here is the link to buy directly from Garmin.

[medic]

Wow..I did it..

THANKS MIKE!!!

[GLF]

Short links usually work without having to use the "insert link" feature. Its the links that are a couple of lines long that do not work properly.

[erdocdan]

Thanks. I Googled it and found it here for 157.99. I won't have to drill hole in transom. The angle is optimized for salt water instead of fresh though and it is a dual frequency single element not a dual beam like your transom mount Bill.

[medic]

Definately a better price than the two I found. There are definate advantages to going to a thru hull, like getting good readings at speed. My next one will be a thru hull also. Good luck and enjoy!

Bill