Fish finder

[thomcat]

those who use boats which fish finder do you like, or do u even use one,, the reason i ask is im getting a boat for next season....

[Mutt]

id never be without a finder its a very usefull tool. I have it setup to go off at certian depths so i dont get in to shallow of water while cruising along etc. Best invention since sliced bread.

[blackwaterkatz]

I prefer Lowrance, or Eagle (made by lowrance) as a less costly option. I have an eagle fishmark 480 that does an excellent job, and I recently installed a lowrance x-107c that is great, too, with the color screen. It all depends on what you want out of it. If you just want to know depth, most anything will do, but if you are serious about locating fish or structure, then you get what you pay for. The eagle does an super job in grayscale for less than $200. Remember that higher resolution (pixels) is better, as is screen size. I wouldn't personally recommend less than 5" screen size or less than 320 pixel resolution.
Now, if you can spare the cash, I would definitely recommend getting a combined gps/sonar unit. Gps is a great tool, especially for larger lakes, or if you travel around fishing.
Go to www.lowrance.com and they have great tutorials that may help you decide, even if you go with some other brand. Most of the manufacturers have lots of good info on their sites.
There is a section of this forum with reviews of depth finders, too. You can read what others think of their units.
Take your time to learn about them, make an informed decision to buy what suits you, and then take the time to read the manual and learn to use it properly. You'll never regret it.

[fishhook]

I have a Lowrance 339c GPS which I like. It has a color screen and takes the cards with really great maps that have plenty of detail of over 8000 lakes and includes the rivers. A fish finder will let you find the stucture and put you on the fish which will really up the odds of you catching fish.

[rcneman]

i am certain the others that have already replied have much more experience than i do with finders. I was faced with buyin my first one early this year.

I would have loved to gotten a large screen color unit with dual frequency transducer and 4800 watts+...but it was much more than i could afford.

i ended up goin with a greyscale model from lowrance with 480x480 resolution and 2400 watts. i really wanted a color unit, but after doing quit a bit of research (reading many, many articles and posts on various fishin websites) i went with a greyscale or B/W model as i could get a much higher resolution and sonar output with a larger screen, if i dropped the color.

The body of water that you will be frequenting seems to have an impact on the type of tranducer, meaning the cone angle available, that you choose as well.

well, i'm not sure if i helped much or not...good luck

cyas
rc