Hey BFT crew! i love this forum, lots of good info. I have been tube fishing for the last 2 years and it rocks. I have never used sonar, but my fishing club that I belong to all say i need one. I starting to figure out how important depth and structure is. I was looking at getting a fishing buddy or maybe just the regular Fish finder and mount it on my Fish Cat. (Thanks for all the pics of the pimped out tubes, they are sweet.)
I have heard the fishin buddies suck batteries and don't last through a day of fishing? Is that true?
So I thought it would be wise to get an SLA battery and mount one up on my tube.
Has anybody used humminbird PirahnaMax are they any good?
Any recommendations on what brands and models to buy for a fish cat 4?
Thanks for your help, and thanks for a cool webpage.
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Well I will be no help because I am just beginning in float tubing and just wanna here what people say about the sonar. I plan on getting a fish finder so I cant wait to hear what people say about which ones are good and stuff.
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I am no expert and I have only had two Fish Finders and my son has had one. FIrst my son's finder is a Buddy 110. It seems to be ok, and battery use is also ok. My fir5st one was a Eagle Cuda 300. This unit is [url "mailto:JUNK!@!!!@#$"][/url]JUNK!@!!!@#$[/url]. I had enough and got a Eagle fishmark 480. I do like this unit. I have learned to adjust it and read it.
Overall, the 110 buddy is better than the cuda 300. Again the cuda is only good for temp and depth and both of those are questionable. The 480 is what I would consider a entry level unit. I would not even think about a unit less than 1500 watts, and I think if I were to get another one soon I would go no less than 2000 watts.
This is another place where you get what you pay for. Here is a couple of pictures of our FF set up. Mine is a stand alone system. My finder has the battery box on it and the whole thing will unsnap and can be removed in a couple of seconds. Jacobs 110 is about the same but is a little taller due to the mount it came with. Ron
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I just purchased the fishin buddy 120 with the sideview finder...only tried once and I am happy with it..... my theory, if you are fishing close to shore, you wont have to many fish detected under you(you spook them away), the sideview finder enabled me to scan towards the shore as a kicked alone the shore line....
in one pass of a shore line, the side view finder detected 3-4 fish....i went back to this area and stripped in a leach and landed a fish.....
You have to add about 1.5ft to depth reading because tranducer is about that much lower then water level the way it mounts on my echo pontoon...I also considered the piranah max, but the lake I fish is shallow and I really wanted to give the sideview finder a try...
match
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Thanks for the info, I was interested in see your pictures, but the link didn't work. B
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the side view finder intrigues me. How do you find the battery life on the fishing buddy? Do you use re-chargeable batterys? How many hours do you get out of new batteries
Thanks for your help
B
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[cool][#0000ff]As you have discovered, there are a lot of different sonars on the market. Many of them are way too much in function and price for what we need as tubers and tooners. On the other end are some cheapie units that do little more than consume batteries and give you false hope with fake signals.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The Fishin' Buddies have improved a lot in the past couple of years. A lot of our ilk have found them to be just dandy for floatation fishing. But, as with all things fishing, you should make your choice based on several factors...budget, type of fishing you do and what kind of readouts you want or need.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you do not leave your sonar turned all all day, on every trip, you can get decent life out of the D cell batteries. But, the lower the power/wattage the less real info you can get and the less accurate both the bottom structure and fish ID readings. Power equals output. A good 12 volt system with at least 1500 watts will make you a better sonar fisherman.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The sidefinder feature is good if you fish for trout, crappie or other suspending fish...in water less than about 25 feet deep. Otherwise a "regular" sonar with a cone of at least 20 degree angle is better. And you hardly ever catch the fish you see on sonar anyway because unless you are vertical jigging you are casting away from the beam on your sonar. But it is good to know at what depth the fish are cruising, relative to the bottom.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you spend some time looking through past threads and using the SEARCH feature on BFT you can find lots of discussions on sonar. Here is a [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=514351;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=unread#unread"]LINK TO HUMMINBIRD 565[/url] that I put up a while back. Quite a few of our members use that unit. However it is out of production now and the new version is the 570.[/#0000ff]
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Thanks TD, that was helpful, I usually fish for trout, but i think I would lean toward the 565 or 570 humminbird, I think i would rather have more accurate readings.
Do you know of any good place to buy the humminbirds websites or stores?
Also where do I get an SLA battery? Is that what you should get to run these units? What size do I get?
Also had a question on you mount of the unit. Do you have a wood block or frame inside the pocket to attach the PVC to?
I couldn't tell from the pictures.
Thanks
B
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[cool][#0000ff]Cabelas is a good place to find the 570, but you can also find them at Sportsmans or even Wally World. Cabelas also has a good 7ah SLA battery and charger combo for a reasonable price...but again, they are available at other outlets. I use a small 4 amphour battery on my 565 and it still has plenty of power after a full day of fishing. They do not suck power.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=579430#579430"]HERE IS A LINK[/url] to a recent post that shows some of the modifications I make, using wood frames inside the pockets. That should provide some of the info you are looking for.[/#0000ff]
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Your mods rock by the way!
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The Cabelas in Lehi had a couple of the 565's in the bargin cave last week. I think they had them for about $165. My brother uses the 565 and I have the 575. Both have been great units on the tube and on the ice.
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For the record, the old FISHING BUDDY was a Bottom Line product.
The new ones are Hummibird and SOOOOOO much better. I will probably be getting one myself. They have an excellent range and killer side finder.
The 570 features an ultra high resolution 16 level grayscale 640V x 320H 5" display and Dual Beam sonar with 2000 Watts PTP power output.
Dual Beam
200 kHz / 20° @ -10db
83 kHz / 60° @ -10db
Depth: 800 ft.
POWER OUTPUT
250 Watts (RMS)
2000 Watts (Peak-to-Peak)
The 120 Fishin' Buddy offers a 8 level grayscale 240V x 160H 4" display, Down and Side looking sonar with 1000 Watts PTP power output.
Single Beam Down/Side
200 kHz / 34° @ -10db
455 kHz / 10° @ -10db
Depth: 240 ft.
(240 ft Down, 120 ft Side)
POWER OUTPUT
125 Watts (RMS)
1000 Watts (Peak-to-Peak)
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They had one of those too. Not sure of the model or price. He could always call and ask I guess.
I should work there.[:p]
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I have a Humminbird 565 in my pram and a Humminbird Fishin' Buddy 140c for my Outlaw Rampage. They both work great. The color display on the 140c is way easier to read than the greyscale 565 though.
I like the sidescan on the 140c too. Shows you fish off to the side you aren't going to catch in addition to the ones in the main downward cone you aren't going to catch.
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I used an older Fishin Buddy III that I got back in the 90's for years. It worked pretty good. I liked the side finder and everything. I just upgraded to the Humminbird 565 and I like what it is doing now. I also just picked up a fishin buddy 110 for the wife and kids to play with for a while. Reading the insruction book it is just like the old fishin buddy III but with a different battery box. I would recommend both! Got my 565 at cabelas. I know they had them online in their bargain cave for the 565 was replaced this year by the 570.
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You can still find some stores with the Humminbird 575. It is the 565 with side view. The transducer is almost twice as big but you can look sideways when you want to. I don't use that function very often but it does come in handy at times. If I hadn't got a really good deal I would have just bought the 565 like my brothers.
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Now that 110 is a single beam. I would think it similar to the Bottom Line. They were so limited in what they could do. The did give a good reading of the bottom, but not much else.
I have heard the side finder was okay on a few, but not mine.
Michael, I would love to hear more about the color as that is the one I am looking at.
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The side finder on the buddy III is the same style and type as in the 120 and higher. Not much has changed in the way of technology on these. I really enjoyed my side finder on the buddy III. I haven't played with the buddy 120 to find out how much different it is from the bottomline technology.
I know that the 110 is single beam but for my 9 year old I don't think he will need much more at this time. Plus I got it for a great deal at Cabelas Bargain Cave.[cool] Plus they got my old one to play with too so that makes three sonar on the water with us.
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Bdawg, I got the links working. Ron
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