Well, it's becoming clear to me that I need to get myself a fishfinder for Christmas. Now that I've come to that conclusion I need a little help from you guys. I don't know alot about finders, so I have a few questions:
1) Can I get a decent (not top of the line expensive, but good quality) finder for around 100$ to 135$?
2) Are finders pretty specific for the kind of fishing you do? i.e. one kind for ice fishing, different kind for a boat, ect.
3) Have any of you rigged a finder on a pontoon kickboat? Was it difficult?
4) Who are some of the reputible manufacturers that I should look into?
5) Do they run off a rechargeable battery and if so do you have to re-charge for every day on the water?
Any tips or info will be much appreciated. Thank you.
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For some reason, my text died, so see the posts below [
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To add to those, I have a Humminbird 565. Amazing features IMO. Has 640 vertical pixels (most on the market), about right on the power it sends the signal down and back, has a real time area for Vex type signals (best feature on it) and has 2.5" seperation (very similiar to a Vex). IMO it gives you the same features of a flasher, yet all the features of an LCD. Amazing unit and also has dual beams. I bought mine for $200 and worth every penny. Vex's/flashers will run you $100-$200 more than that.
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Hey ScottyP,
1. Yes - there are quite a few available in that price range.
2. Yes - And No. Any fish finder can work for either soft or hard water.
3. Yes - Lots of folks have - Like me.
4. Humminbird, Bottom Line, Lorance, Vexilar, Marcum, etc...
5. Yes and Yes - Get a small 7 amp gel cell battery and you can use a low amperage motorcycle battery charger. Charge the battery every night after using the finder.
Go to the float tubing board on this forum. Follow the link I give below and then scroll down through until you find the section about Sonars - click on any of the titles and it will bring up the information. Most of the stuff is about Tubes but, almost all of it is applicable to pontoon boats as well. The sonar stuff is general and there is also a battery section right below that.
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/Float_Tubing_C66/Float_Tubing_General_F81/BEST_OF_THE_BEST_P184642/"]Click here for the link to answer all of your questions:[/url]
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#1 Yes. Stick with Lowrance/Eagle (same manufacturer) or Garmin. Even the lower end units are decent.
2. Yes and no. I use mine from my toon and from the ice. You are better off to pick up a couple of different transducers for this though. Something like a fishin' buddy can be used both places as well, but they aren't very powerful.
3. Yup. Not too hard, just need an extra transducer.
4. See number 1.
5. I have a Garmin 240 and it will last about 8 hours on one of the 7Ah SLA batteries. More Ah equals longer run time.
I have heard that Sportsmans is clearing out a nice Eagle unit for about 150. If this is the case, I'd spend just a tad more and get that unit, it's much better than the cuda or smaller garmin units.
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Thanks for the link Fishhound-- I just put it in the favorites. I tell you what, that Tubedude is one amazing fella. And thank you f4f and killerbee for your responses as well. Now the research begins......................................
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I have done alot of research lately on finders and finally decided on the lowrance x-65. It has the flasher mode like a vexilar or marcum and also a graph mode. And it is color! I found it at the Cabelas bargain cave for $180. (best internet price I found was $249) Even if this is not what you are looking for you may want to try the bargain cave, I have seen some good deals there on finders. Also Cabelas has the best deal on batteries. They have 12 volt 7 amp hour batteries for $25 (on the web site) got my battery at the bargain cave for $7.
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I have the Eagle 320 that you are talking about. If they have any left at Sportsman's, get one. A great finder for the price.
I also bought the plastic ammo box that has every thing you need in it for the ice.[Except for a battery]
I can even see perch on this unit.
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That Eagle is a great finder! No doubt about it. I have one on my boat right now. And I've rigged a way to use it on my float tube too, by making a mount for the transducer that I can strap into place.
But if you're looking for something to use just for the ice, I'd save another 100 bucks and go for the Vexilar
FL-8. You will NOT regret it!
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[cool][#0000ff]Hey Scott, glad you found the tubing board. Maybe you did not dig around and find the Picture Board. On there are some pictorial and informational shopping guides. Here is a link to the [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=202637;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread"]SONAR SHOPPING GUIDE[/url]. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You have been given some good advice. If you can only afford one unit, for use both with pontoon and on the ice, you need to choose something that will do the best job for what kind of fishing you do most.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have been "exposed" to just about every kind of sonar system over the years, from the first Humminbird flashers to paper graphs to the newer combo sonar/GPS systems. IMH0, the only place for flashers is for ice fishing, or for a guy that fishes only by vertical jigging. Even then, a good display screen sonar will often tell you a lot more about the fish and what they are doing than a flasher.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]For tubing, tooning and basic ice fishing, you can GET BY with some of the lower priced units. They will tell you the depth, type of bottom and whether or not there are fish in the area...and at what depth. Unlike flashers or higher powered display screen units, however, you will not be able to track your jig in "real time". That one feature on flashers and higher performance sonars is often worth the extra investment. There will be many times over the years when you catch fish by taking advantage of real time display, that you would have never known were there otherwise. Most guys who learn to use the Vexilars and Marcums sing the praises of being able to keep their jigs in just the right zone, and claim that a high percentage of the fish they catch can be directly attributed to knowing when and where to move their jigs. Knowledge really is power, and it takes power (and $$$$) to get the best possible performance from a sonar system.[/#0000ff]
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You may want to check out the hummingbird 565. It has all the great things that a high end unit has for 200 dollars. It has dual beam transducer and real time sonar which is a must for ice fishing as well as excellent screen resolution. Send fish4fun a PM and he'll give you all the details. He loves his.
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I'm thinking that the best thing for me to do is hold off 'till about February (tax return time) and get something above the price range I initially listed. I want to get something thats going to keep me happy for awile, and not feel the need to upgrade right away. Thanks again guys for the advice and links.[cool]
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Scotty, I went through this same hair pulling debate last spring. I was trying to get a corvette on a geo's budget. I took f4f's advice and bought the Hummingbird 565. So far I love it. I have only used it on my boat trolling and once vertical jigging. Hopefully I can use it this friday on the ice. The one time I did use it jigging was at bear lake and I could see my jig and swivel at 60'. It was pretty cool to watch those lakers move up and down following the jig movement.
I really wanted to get a vexillar but couldn't see buying a finder just for ice fishing. I used to have a fishin buddy and that was a good unit for a float tube but it's not that great for trolling. For what you would pay for a fishin buddy you can almost get the Humminbird. ($145 vs. $200)
I would maybe suggest going out with someone who has one your interested in and see just what it does.
Later.
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Scott,
I have a freebie if you want it. It is an old bottomline. It was the first digital I ever saw so I bought it. That was the first year that year around fishing opened in Utah. It is old to say the least but still works great for basic ice fishing. pm me if you are interested.
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Thanks tightline. I sent you a PM
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it seems that a lot of you guys are liking the humminbird 565. ive had a little trouble with mine. at strawberry, deer creek, and flaming gorge i got a lot of false readings. i would be trolling along in 100 feet of water and all of a sudden the finder would read like 10 feet- or sometimes even less. meanwhile my downrigger weight was tracking just fine at around 90 feet. so, why the bad reading? i originally thought it was the sensitivity. but, after fooling with that i saw no improvement. the only thing that would straighten it out- temporarily- was to shut it down and restart it. anyone else have these problems?
someone told me it was the cliffs at the gorge, but ive experienced the same problems on strawberry and deer creek. another guy told me it was all the growth in the water- but i had the problem just as much in april as in july. when it is working right its a great unit. heads and tails above the fishin' buddy i was using before. i will say to anyone thinking about adding the speed option on the unit- its a waste of 40 bucks. it just doesnt work that well. a gps is much better. i wish i had known that before hand, but i guess you live and learn.(maybe the humminbird units that are gps capable would have been a better bet for me)
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I have a Humminbird Matrix 67 GPS/Fishfinder that I really like. But then it's the only fishfinder I've had. I've got a problem that's inherent with mounting the transducer thru-hull. When I get up on plane and open up the four barrel it will sometimes lose the bottom. I believe this is because of all the turbulence under the boat in front of the inboard where I have the 'ducer mounted. It shouldn't happen with a transom mount.
When using the unit on Lake Powell with all the canyons and sudden depth changes, It always had the bottom nailed. Even though I sometimes had a problem with identifying what I was looking at on the screen. With the Quad-Beam I have on it there is quite a wide cone and it will see the canyon walls as well as the bottom.
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Might be worth a call/contact to Humminbird? Doesn't sound right to me. I've never experienced that with my 565, but I'm not a good one to lean on. I use mine for ice fishing. Wish I had a boat to use it on!! LOL
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The only problem I've had with my old Hummingbird finder was interference. It would mess up the readings on any other finder within 30 yards! And even my new Vexilar couldn't squelch it out with its Interference Rejection dial. So I traded it off. I have 2 Eagles too, and neither one interferes with the Vexilar.
Don't know what the deal would be.
? ? ?
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Its all about frequency and power. If the transducers are even close to the same frequency there is potential for interference. Usually the more powerful unit wins out and causes interference on the lower power unit.
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i only have the one transducer right now, so i dont think its interference. and its not like im fishing very close to other boats most of the time. im afraid i may have to call customer service about it. its good to know that there are people out there who arent having these kinds of problems. that kind of justifies calling and getting it looked at. hopefully i wont have to just learn to live with it. and, its not like im all that demanding- all i need is a definate read on depth. its a real pain to try and use a downrigger when the finder goes wacko!
thanks for your responses guys!
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