Suggestions for a new fish finder?

[TheDL]

Well, the dinosaur portable unit that came with my boat bit the dust.   It's time for my first good fish finder, and I'm baffeled by the selection and features available.  I'm ideally looking for something I might be able to dual-purpose for ice fishing and softwater, under $700 or so (if I'm selling my vex fl18) - OR - something just for the boat around the $400-500 mark.  I'm hoping to get something with GPS cabailities, ideally something I can put a map chip into.  I don't care for down/side scan as the guys I know that have this don't use it.  I just want something I can see my jig on for vertical jigging, can see bottom hugging fish, reads well while driving the boat (max 30 km/hr), hopefully dual-beam, and is easy to read in the sunlight.

Let's hear what you like/dislike about your fish finders....

[TheDL]

BUMP - I'm really surprised nobody's chiming in on this.  I know we all use 'em, nobody has an opinion on their sonars?

[NYSporty]

If your going to sell your ice sonar why don't you get a finder that will work on the boat and the ice.
Elite-5 ?

[TheDL]

yeah, I was looking at those as well as the hummingbird ice 385ci. 

do you have the Elite 5?  Does it have a flasher mode?  I see that there's an ice kit accesory for it, but I don't see an ice transducer?

[NYSporty]

Lowrance PPP-18I Ice Fishing Bag with Transducer for Elite/Mark
I don't know about flasher mode I prefer the graph on the ice have you ever used a unit with a graph mode?
So I believe if you got the Elite-5 for the boat, ppp-18I and 12V 7amp battery you would be able to pull head unit off the boat stuff it in the bag and hit the ice. With the bag it works as a portable finder in small row boats, cannoes, kayaks, a friends boat the ice ducer shoots right through the hull of my boat.

[TheDL]

BUMP - I'm still shopping around, can't decide on what features I want.  I'm currently looking at the 5-series humminbird and lowrance units.

How usefull is down imaging?  Do those of you who have it, use it much?  Does it mark fish well?

I've noticed that lowrance makes several models that ONLY have down imaging and not traditional sonar - it would seem that might be a hinderance if it doesn't mark fish very well (which is what I've heard).

Anyone own the 5-series humminbird or lowrance units?  Any feedback good or bad?  I'm leaning towards a humminbird 597 ci HD DI right now.

[stripernut]

Here is a bit that I wrote for Ice Shanty that you might find helpful. If you want a larger screen and more features just move up the Garmin line until you find what you want.

I don’t spend much money on ice fishing, 1, I am fugal (wife says cheap) and 2, I like to tuna fish and that take most of the little money that I spend on fishing. When I was looking for a portable sounder that I was going to use primarily for open water, I know that I would most likely set it up for ice fishing. So that eliminated most of the “Ice Machines” out there, there is nothing “wrong” with any of them, but for the money they ask for, their use is too limited (for me).  I wanted color if I could find it for the right price. When a good color unit is tweaked out right it can often tell you what species of fish is down there. If you don’t believe me just ask a Captain of a good charter boat for cod or haddock, most of the time cod show up as red and haddock as blue… Spending most of my time on the Ocean (Guiding), instructing boat owner how to use their electronics, I have had the pleasure and frustration of using (then teaching the boat owner, how to use) almost every brand out there. I do have a favorite brand; Raymarine, its abilities blows the socks off of most everything out there, but they no longer make any smaller units. They did for a short time, but they found it was cutting into there sales of their more expensive units so they stopped making them…
I found the Garmin 300C Fish Finder to have all the features that I was looking for; Color with a high pixel count, a gain that lets me see tiny jigs in 40+ feet of water, a split screen with zoom, a flasher screen if I needed it, but best of all, all for about $200.00.  It does not come or have available from Garmin an “Ice Transducer”, but Ice Shanty is full of ways to get around that. Now that I have used it a number of times, I can say that it performed very well. NO lag what so ever.  I did not get to try it around other user, so I can not speak about interference, but for me that is not a problem. I did on a couple occasions in very shallow water have trouble with the bounce back from the ice, all I needed to do was restart and it went away. Not a real problem for me, I really use a sounder in 4 ft of water, but I was testing the unit out… I use 2 rechargeable 6 volt batteries ($20 total) in series for a total of 9 amps (cheaper than 1, 7 amp 12 volt battery). I tested the batteries for about 18 hour in two day and still had not gotten the batteries below 11.5 volts (unit work down to 10 volts).
It would not be the right unit for every one, but it has almost all the features of units selling for twice the money and will work even better for open water use. Another point that I like about Garmin units is that at some point I can check to see if they have updated the software (firmware) for the unit and if they have I can update it for free on line! One of the “Brand” that many anglers use on this board, charges for software updates. Outragest!!!! What they are saying is; oh we found some mistakes in our software and now you can pay for the privilege of fixing it! I will skip that brand…
One of the reasons for the long posting is to point out that there are many choices, not just the same ones most other anglers are using.
Tight Line!

[TheDL]

thanks StriperNut - I will have to have another look at the Garmin units.  Honestly, I hadn't really considered them a contender, but I'll have to have another look

[OTIS]

Here's my outdated two cents.  We bought out boat in 2007, a 22 foot pontoon with a top speed of 20 mph.   The next season I picked up a Lowrance 334c with the ice package.  It was all together, everything I needed to use the unit on the pontoon and on the ice.  I had initially bought the Navionics chip, but it didn't work.  I was told that at the time there were some compatibility issues between Navionics and Lowrance.  I then bought the Lowrance map chip and it didn't work.  Sent the unit back to Lowrance, and within two weeks I had a brand new unit.  Stuck the Lowrance map chip in and I was good to go.  Although I wish I had the Navionics map chip, much nicer detail!  The unit has been great!  I bought a Cabalas storage bag for it that has saved it from some bumps and scrapes.  About once a year it will go crazy on me and my menu options will change.  All I have to do is a quick soft reboot (instructions found on line for soft and hard reboot), and I'm back in action.  It's a great unit with all the features you are looking for: graph with all the sensitivity and speed adjustments, gps with internal antenna, flasher mode (played with it but just can't understand why I would ever use it?), plus a ton of options I haven't even touched (mostly because I don't know they exist yet!).  The one thing that I would love that can be found on some of the new units is the ability to connect the unit to your motor and get all the statistics (rpm, gph, miles, hours, etc..).  Really valuable information if you ever have an issue with your motor.  All in all, I spent like $500 plus another $100 for the map chip and I've been extremely happy.  I have a unit that I can use year around, and get the most bang for my buck.  I know the unit is no longer available, so this information is only semi useful for you.

[BudMan]

Just got the Lowrance elite 5 ice machine. I have a canoe and and two other boats. I use the ice transducer with the canoe and you can pick up skimmer or trolling motor transducers for about $75 or so off the internet. There's a variety of mounts available too. So far I love it. Super easy to set up and plenty of features on it to customize it to your liking.

[TheDL]

WEll, I'm still shopping around, I found a guy sellling a Humminbird 798ci SI HD COMBO for a decent price.  Anyone have one of these units?  Good/bad/ugly?

[ericmic1]

I cannot comment about the ice fishing part of the 798 but as for open water it is awesome.  I bought one with the navionics pre-installed.  Took me a bit to get it tuned, being able to see bait/thermoclines/etc, correctly for the lakes I fish but I can see everything now.  If you do go for it...Make sure you update the software (FOLLOW THEIR INSTRUCTIONS OR YOU MAKE IT A DOOR STOP).

[TheDL]

thanks for the input Eric - does the unit have a real time flasher mode?  Since I'm buying it used, your comment about making it a door stop are a little concerning...is there really a way to update it and permanently break it?  I would think there's got to be a 'factory reset' function somewhere on the unit?

[ericmic1]

thanks for the input Eric - does the unit have a real time flasher mode?  Since I'm buying it used, your comment about making it a door stop are a little concerning...is there really a way to update it and permanently break it?  I would think there's got to be a 'factory reset' function somewhere on the unit?

I have never gone ice fishing so no experience with FLASHER MODE but you can take a look at this...

http://forums.sideimagingsoft.com/index.php?topic=3230.0

When i bought mine I played around with it a bunch then decided to do a software update to get new features.  I ran the update but forgot to do a "FACTORY RESET" prior and the system update failed.  This causes the unit to fail to update correctly and it will no longer boot up aka: doorstop.  I ended up sending it in for "repair" and they reloaded it all up took about 2 weeks. 

NOTE:  They come out with new features every year and the updates so far have been awesome!  Just be prepared to follow their update instructions fully.

The only issue I have with the solution is the transducer.  It is HUGE compared to what I was used to.  Until I recieved a plug and made other adjustments it looked like I was running a jetboat with a huge roostertail.  I ended up putting in a plug (provided free from humminbird) and manufacturing a spray guard out of a cupholder (no pic cause boat is in the water till december)

This is similar to what I did...

[TheDL]

I understand the spray guard, but what was the plug for?