Fish finder/ Sounder Recommendations

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lhpdiver

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I'd like to put a new fish finder/sounder on my 25' Outrage. Its sole purpose will be to show bottom profile in the 40-140 foot range (diving). I probably want a brass transom mount transducer. I think I'm much more interested in definition quality than color (unless that makes a big difference). Currently I use a hand-held GPS which counts down distance from my coords. When I get 0-30 feet from the coords I've entered I toss the anchor. Works great most of the time but... time to build on that approach. I guess I'd like to cap expense at about $500 (with transducer). Any suggestions appreciated.
 
Even the $130 Fish finders are pretty good. Probably
good enough for what you want.

Brass transom mount? Can't remember seen any. Brass
transducers are through hull which can be mounted on
only a very few whalers. Transom mount are generally
plastic (are some through-hull).

Humminbird is the big name.
 
Humminbird sells a lot of low end stuff. Again, prolly OK for what you want but if you have that muched wraped up in a plesure boat, how about some real electronics? Furuno is my first choice. They make sounders in your price range. Also have radar GPS and chart plotters in single units. Makes for a clean helm.
 
I have a Garmin 160 that works really well. Plastic transom transducer. Sometimes I make out boat structure but usually I have to tell my driver to hold his course on the GPS and watch the fishfinder. When the bottom comes up suddenly and you see lots of fish yell dive, dive, dive! It picks up dropoffs and pockets pretty well on the reef and tells me bottom type roughly. I think most fishfinders would suit your needs as a diver, although a transducer designed for a narrow scan width might show more detail.

I'm in Lake Worth and dive mostly during the week but can go on weekends. Wanna' go diving?

Don
 
lhpdiver:
I'd like to put a new fish finder/sounder on my 25' Outrage. Its sole purpose will be to show bottom profile in the 40-140 foot range (diving). I probably want a brass transom mount transducer. I think I'm much more interested in definition quality than color (unless that makes a big difference). Currently I use a hand-held GPS which counts down distance from my coords. When I get 0-30 feet from the coords I've entered I toss the anchor. Works great most of the time but... time to build on that approach. I guess I'd like to cap expense at about $500 (with transducer). Any suggestions appreciated.


Hi, i to just bought a 21' Angler, in which i just started buying my eletronics for. Im gearing up also for diving off it, and was recommed a few options by fellow freinds who dive off their boats. Here they are:

Furuno 600L goes for $650 without transducer
Sitex they make a few good ones for the $700 range
Raymarine has the 600x for about $950 if you want a digital display thats probley the best in the market.
And there is the Navman, and a few other's.

Two things i learned is dual transducer is good, from 50-200 hz
Also bottom lock is a must for structure, like wrecks etc, drop me a email at mdelano@cfl.rr.com if you need any help, im going through the same thing right now, and been reaching this topic for the last 2 weeks and learned alot :wink:
 

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