I am thinking (again) about buying a fish finder. Would love to keep the cost around $200 ( less is better), but willing to listen to what others think. I mostly fish in eastern NC, and mostly freshwater fish, but will do a little lake fishing also. I fish inshore salt, some lake fishing, mostly river and creek fly fishing for bream, etc. Not sure about DSI, or SI, or GPS. I know this has been hashed over many times. I just got done looking through some past threads on this. Most likely I'll mount this one on my 14 ft jon boat. I also have a kayak, but don't fish on it very often now.
fish finder
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Seems like the under $200 units are all pretty basic and you don't see a lot of difference between brands. I would say a Lowrance Mark5x or a Humminbird 561 both around $150. A lot of guys upgrade often so don't be afraid of a used unit form someone you trust, one of us. LOL.. The cheap $79 units are tempting and compact but go ahead and get the larger screen and better resolution. Our eyes aren't what they used to be!!
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Dennis if you add $35 to that you can get yourself a fine little unit that's easy to use and pretty easy to see. I've been tickled to death with mine(and these baby blues ain't as baby as they used to be).
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=humminbird+346&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=humminbird+346&rt=nc&LH_BIN=1
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The Side Imaging units allow you to look 100'+ to either side of the transducer as well as directly under the boat. You can see structure & fish which aren't directly under the boat. In theory, considering your normal haunts, SI would be the best for you. You can see a lot of water even when shallow. You can see under docks and around bridge pilings. You could see a little of what was against the banks. In practice, except in ideal conditions, you don't get much target separation in very shallow water and it would be very difficult to pick out fish against a bank or under a dock in 3' of water. Biggest issue is you won't get one for under $500 that I know of(more like $800 or $900 for a good unit). While it might be the best, it's probably way overkill for what you do.
*Side Imaging is the same technology as Down Imaging it just "looks" out in 2 directions instead of just straight down.
Down imaging, just like traditional sonar only "looks" directly under the boat so you'll be getting a very narrow picture of that unless you're in deeper water. The thing I like about DI is that it draws a pretty good picture of what is directly under the boat. I cut my teeth on the old flasher units and have slowly, sort of, kept up with the technology. I could pick out fish on the flashers, the graph type units made it easier, but the DI makes it a no brainer. What I like best though is the ability to make a good judgement on the type structure I'm passing over. Trees are obvious, there's no guessing. Rocks and oyster beds show up pretty clearly, and it's fairly straight forward to pick out individual fish, even small ones. (They don't look like fish of course, just blobs.)
In shallow areas no unit is going to give you much of a picture and a lot of times all you can hope for is a good depth reading. For your kind of fishing I think you've got your budget set about right ..... prolly $250 is all you need to spend unless you want to add GPS. The HB 346 will give you a good(not GREAT but good) DI unit, a traditional 2d color picture and accurate depth readings in shallow water. It's compact but the screen is large enough to see pretty well. I like the HB 561 but IMO trading the slightly larger screen for color on a little smaller screen is worth it. Color readings are much easier to interpret.
The one thing I will say is if you're willing to bump up to $300 - $350 you can add GPS to the mix and it's a good addition. You can mark specific spots, get a general map of the body of water you're on and gauge your speed very accurately(important for trolling). I feel much more confident leaving the ramp before daylight and have at least one time used it to find my way through the fog. I like being able to mark the ramp and wander new waters all day knowing it will be easy to retrace my steps when it's time to go home.
*Side Imaging is the same technology as Down Imaging it just "looks" out in 2 directions instead of just straight down.
Down imaging, just like traditional sonar only "looks" directly under the boat so you'll be getting a very narrow picture of that unless you're in deeper water. The thing I like about DI is that it draws a pretty good picture of what is directly under the boat. I cut my teeth on the old flasher units and have slowly, sort of, kept up with the technology. I could pick out fish on the flashers, the graph type units made it easier, but the DI makes it a no brainer. What I like best though is the ability to make a good judgement on the type structure I'm passing over. Trees are obvious, there's no guessing. Rocks and oyster beds show up pretty clearly, and it's fairly straight forward to pick out individual fish, even small ones. (They don't look like fish of course, just blobs.)
In shallow areas no unit is going to give you much of a picture and a lot of times all you can hope for is a good depth reading. For your kind of fishing I think you've got your budget set about right ..... prolly $250 is all you need to spend unless you want to add GPS. The HB 346 will give you a good(not GREAT but good) DI unit, a traditional 2d color picture and accurate depth readings in shallow water. It's compact but the screen is large enough to see pretty well. I like the HB 561 but IMO trading the slightly larger screen for color on a little smaller screen is worth it. Color readings are much easier to interpret.
The one thing I will say is if you're willing to bump up to $300 - $350 you can add GPS to the mix and it's a good addition. You can mark specific spots, get a general map of the body of water you're on and gauge your speed very accurately(important for trolling). I feel much more confident leaving the ramp before daylight and have at least one time used it to find my way through the fog. I like being able to mark the ramp and wander new waters all day knowing it will be easy to retrace my steps when it's time to go home.
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Prolly easier to keep up with and cheaper to get both in one .......... unless you plan to fish with Uncle Curtis and steal his spots. You could slip the little hand held in your pocket and mark the location of all them ole biguns!
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ha ha ha , good one dave , ya'll know i don't have any secrets !!!!
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Sundrop...Your comment..."Our eyes aren't what they used to be!!" You aren't kidding. I'm thinking about getting one of those lighted magnifying lenses that a dentist uses and put clips on the end of the electric cord and hook it to a battery just to tie knots on my hooks. I sure wish I still had the eyes of a twelve year old!!!
Add arthritis to "Our eyes aren't what they used to be', and you have some real fun there. Very challenging at times, but love to fish too much to worry about it.
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Will be there as well with the Misses
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Smell fish or smell like fish?
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