Fishfinders

[RC]

I am going to need a fishfinder. Looking at Garmin 240 blue or maybe Sitex profish or a Furuno. Any recomendations

[dstockwell]

Are you doing more offshore or inshore or a split. The ones you listed have a broad price range also. Do you want color or not. For the price and performance look at an Eagle, Lowrance equivalent but less money.

[Tom Keels]

If you will be doing more inshore than off I do not recommend the 240 blue. I have it and it is a great machine offshore, but inshore it is too powerful and blanks out under 5 feet.

I would lean towards a lowrance or eagle machine. The new Eagle 480 DF looks sweet.

[Sea Fox]

I just got the new garmin 120 and will let you know how it does. Its reasonably priced at $119 with temp. And it has a swivel base. Its going on a 15 ft. alum. tracker grizzly that so far, I really like.

[RC]

I will probably use it mostly for grouper fishing and finding hard bottom for trolling for kings. I have never had a bottom machine on my flats boats but I have often wondered what a side finder like bottom line makes would do. If you could see where those fish were ahead of you drift maybe you could target your cast better but I don't think those side finders are smart enough to tell a big mullet from a trout. What do you think.

[sharkboy]

I would definitely recommend the Lowrance or Eagle. I 've had both as well as a Sitex, and fished regularly with a couple of Furuno owners, and from my experience I would prefer the Lowrance at any price. (I've never used a Garmin.)

I'm not saying that those other units are not high quality machines, and most have really nice features. I just haven't seen anything worthwhile that those other machines do that the Lowrance doesn't. I've just used a Lowrance/Eagle enough to know how to make adjustments and tweak the transducer to give me what I want.

I have a Sitex CVS-106 now and I'm thinking about going back to a Lowrance.

[tin can]

I've used Eagle, Lowrance Humminbird and Garmin. I'll stay with Garmin. It gives more distinguishable detail than anything else I've ever had. I'm using a Garmin 240. Not the blue. The machine is great for anything less than 150 ft. of water.

[RC]

I am thinking about getting the GPSMap 178C combo chart plotter and sounder ( only a couple of hundred dollars more than just the GPS). I know the danger of putting all my eggs in one basket but I carry a backup handheld GPS and I wanted the 172 chart plotter anyway. If the bottom machine isn't what I want I'll get another one and have the combo for backup. It looks like this unit is a combination of the 320C bottom machine and the GPSMap 172 does anyone have any experience with either of these units. Thanks for the help.

[DWilliams]

Thinking about getting on myself.

http://www.gpsexplorer.com/178cintwsf.html

[Doublehooks]

After much research I have selected a Garmin GPSmap 188C for my new Key West 216 Bay Reef. There are many good units available, I would rather err on the side of having more than I need than less. At first I was concerned about a single unit for both functions, loose one loose both. However, the new technology seems much improved and dependable.


Doublehooks

[GeneO.]

Not sure if you've already made your purchase or not but:

If your going to invest in a Sounder for bottom fish spend a few extra bucks and get color. I used a B/W for years and invested in a new Furuno FCV600 last year. What a difference. The problem I had in the past was being able to tell the difference between the Bottom and fish. Color will sort that out for you and can make the difference between eating fresh fish and heading to the store on the way home, . That partricular model is not to bad in shallow water either.

Just my opinion,

GeneO.

[Doublehooks]

Thanks for the feedback. The 188C is a color unit.