Does any have a BottomLine Tournament 5100 sounder? Whadda think about it?

[BearLakeFishGuy]

I just received an order from Cabelas and inside the box was another sale catalog. There is a great sale on the BottomLine Tournament 5100 fish finder unit with transducer for $199. Does anyone have this model? What do you think of it? Any other people use BottomLine finders? How do you like them? I do know that BottomLine finders are made by Humminbird so if they are as good as the Humminbirds then they are pretty good units. I currently use a Humminbird 4000 LCR and it has been a great unit. This new Bottomline has 350v and 640h pixels which is a step up from my current unit. The Bottomline website is not working properly (I spoke with them today) so I couldn't get any info from them. Feel free to chime in.

Now the caveat: I don't want a GPS/finder combo. Any brand-loyal users of other brand finders: Lowrance, Furno, Garmin, Vexilar, etc. , please keep your comments to yourself. I don't care about them. I just want feed back about the BottomLine finders. I have seen other posts where someone asks about one product and then someone responds with comments about a totally different product. I just want to know about the Bottomline brand product. Thanks.
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[BigBuck3333]

ihave one that came with my boat.its a side finder tournament pro.not to impressed compared to my lowarance,athough the speed and temp are very accurate the speed matches my jps. and i prefer to look at arches. not fish symobls. so the only time i turn it on is to check water temp because the tranducer on the front isent the exspensive one its on the rear.
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[kokeking]

I have a bottomline 310,they don't make this model any more.I have used it for over ten years,with having the updates installed a couple different times.That was one thing I liked about bottomline, before they merged with Cannon.For a small fee I was able to update my finder.BLFG one thing I didn't like about my bottomline was it took me along time to know how to really get the most out of it.It wasn't as user friendly as electronics are today,technology has come a long way.

As for showing fish and structure it has worked very well.I have fished the gorge from end to the other ,and it never let me down. Once I learned how to read it,I quit using the fish-detect,as I felt I was missing fish that were holding close to the top.Over all it has been a very good unit. I might be in the market for a new finder later this year,and will definelty give the 5100 a look. If you do decide to buy it,I would be very interested in what you think about it.
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

Thanks Kokeking! That is what I was looking for! I have used the Eagle 480 and was disappointed with the size of the screen, but other than that it was an awesome unit. I sold it and reverted to my Humminbird. I agree that all finders need to be totally explored to get the most out of them. Reliability was a main concern of mine. Power on the BL5100 is 3200 watts peak-to-peak which is way more than enough for anything in Utah or even the Great Lakes for that matter. My old 800 watt peak to peak Humminbird was enough to see down to 120'+. Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted if I get the new finder.
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[AFDan52]

Hi Scott, I have the Bottomline Tournament Master HR. I really like mine, it has a large screen and you can split the screen if need be. Also Has GPS capabilities, The only problem I really had with mine was learning to read the manual before using it. It tracks the bottom well and marks fish well.

AFDan52
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[Coldfooter]

I've been running the 4100 (2000 peak to peak) for 3 years and dont have a lot to complain about other than,, I think its transducer cable is the weakest link. I bought the unit new on a clearance for 80 bucks.. Within a year I'd repaired its ducer cable and last winter I finally replaced the ducer. (I might add),, with a ducer from a 5100 that had been brought back for some other problem (still in the box). So,, I'm a tad on the fence where Bottomline is concerned.. But if I do pick one up of the 5100's atleast I already have a replacement transducer. I was lucky in that I got the new ducer for 10 bucks, (Thanks ol' Buddy),,,,,, from the company their 90.00 [crazy]
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[wiperhunter2]

Hey Scott, thats the exact unit I have, I paid $300 for mine two years ago, so $200 is a steal. I really like mine, it is so much easier to use than any other unit I tried before I bought my 5100. I went to Sportsmans and tried them all in the same price range before I choose the bottomline. The menu is a pleasure to use and if you decide to get the speed function all you need to do is pay $15 for a clip on paddle wheel, no extra cables[]. The screen display is huge, the largest of any finder in that price range. It has the split screen with the zoom function like all the better finders do, so you can got a close up view of the bottom. Let me know if you have any other questions.
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[Lunddude]

Lowrance all the way. Had a fishing partner that had Bottomline electronics in his new $40k Lund, had problems with them (3) all the time. The kicker was when we were fishing the Cabelas NTC in Iowa in 2005. We went a week early to prefish before the tourney and about the second day of prefish his electronics start acting up (false depths) so he calls back to Boise to BL and gets a brand new unit, including transducer sent over night. The next day we install it and after about 4 hours on the water it starts doing the same thing as the other one did. I forget which model he had (TV size screen tho) I think it was the T 5100. I know at the time it was there top of the line unit with GPS. He had a smaller unit on the back of the boat that would do the same thing. At least he didn't have to pay for those POS, as they sponsored him. After that trip, you could not give me a Bottomline fish finder. Think about, there's a reason why there on sale. That same guy just ordered a new Ranger 620 this spring, and can anyone guess what brand of electronics he's putting on it? I'll give you a hint it starts with the letter L !!!
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[BearLakeFishGuy]

Again, the Lowrance units are nice, but they are overpriced in my opinion (and yes, the Lowrance units are on sale just like the Bottomline, so that is hogwash to think that just because something is on sale its not good!) Plus I've always been a fan of Humminbirds. Goes back to the late 1970 when the "super 60's" first came out. Never had a problem with them and really been impressed with their reliability. As for your friend's luck it may have been the electronics, but more likely something wrong with the wiring in the boat! Lund is a great boat but the last few years their quality control sucks! I know of two Lunds that have leaked right from factory and both were under warranty. But the tear down and fix of the leaks took almost a month (time when my friends both wanted to be fishing). The other friend had a problem with his Lund wiring. Live well and on-board charger were constantly giving him fits. The moral of the story is that I'm willing to roll the bones ($200) on the Bottomline. I looked at one today (Saturday) on a friend's boat and was very impressed. I did almost a sidebyside comparison of a Humminbird 565 with 640 vertical pixels to a Bottomline with 320 vertical. I could not literally see a difference and then I could barely see the Humminbird's screen which was less than 1/2 the size of the BL. I'm now convinced that anything above about 320 vertical pixels is all you really need to see things <2.5 inches long and the fish I'm after are much larger than than that. I'm a big screen person rather than high resolution. Literally the Humminbird 565 was nice but the screen was the size of a 3"x3" post-it note. I'll report back on the BL after I get it figured out and proof test it for a few months. Thanks all for everyone's input.
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[Lunddude]

Yea right, I'm sure it was the boat and not the fish finder LMAO!!Good Luck To Ya!!
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