Fish/Depth Finders

[Waco]

Who makes the best fish/depth finders for the money? Eagle? Humminbird? I have never owned one.

 

[JB]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

Howdy, Waco. For the bux? Lowrance, which includes the Eagle brand.<br /><br />Red sky at night. . .<br />JB

 

[SeaDawg]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

I personally like the new Raytheon units, the 265 and 365 series. They are inexpensive, and they are really accurate and easy to use.<br /><br />They will also take a ton of abuse. I've set up 4 of these on different friends boats, and they all like them, years later.<br /><br />West Marine sells them, as do others.

 

[Pursuit2150]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

Seadawg-I'm with you again, have had the365 for 3 years,never a problem. I especially like the fish alarm, depth/shallow alarm distance and speed(not on the 265) it's about 2-3 mph off compared to GPS.

 

[12Footer]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

I have never owned a Hummnbird that worked as advertised. I now own two, and they are useless. Compared to an Eagle, there is no comparison. The hummers won't track over idle speed. The fish id feature shows fish where there are none, and nothing where there ARE fish. When they DO track, they report inacurate depths under 20 feet (which is where I boat 90% of the time).

 

[Xenos]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

I have 2 sonar’s on my boat the main one is a Lowrance X65, the one up front is a Humming bird SX100, The quality of the Lowrance is much higher and so was the price tag. However it lacks on the power side compared with the Hummingbird , I constantly loose bottom with the X65 in water over 300 feet or if I am doing over 30Mph in water over 50 feet. The humming bird is 1000 watts and never looses bottom as well the quick connect base has sold me on the product since this is how their lowest end product preforms I am actually considering replacing my X65 with a high end humming bird.<br /><br />Xenos

 

[SCO]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

I bought a ZercomRT indash but havn't tested it yet. Its a flasher style but not a true flasher. Also comes in a pedestal mount.<br />Humminbird has bought this company but it was not developed by Humminbird. Just another option fyi http://www.theshadconnection.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?page=18

 

[Pursuit2150]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

One thing that helps when tracking at high or low speed, as well as deep or shallow areas, is to switch frequencies, mine goes 50 / 200 Hz,both have different angles.If you have that capability, give it a try.

 

[12Footer]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

SCO, Flashers are fantastic for real-time depth readings. These new digital readers aren't nearly as good in my opinion.

 

[SeaDawg]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

From talking to the factory technicians, they say that the transducers on all depthfinders wear out over time. Most recommend replacing them every 5 years.<br /><br />The transcucers vibrate at their rated frequency, and you can feel it if you place your hand on the bottom of one that is turned on out of the water.<br /><br />Incidentally, they (the technicians) say it is really rough on the transducers if you leave them on for any extended period out of the water. The reason is, the unit will go to maximum gain, and hammer the heck out of the transducer.<br /><br />The way you know your transducer is going bad is when it will show the bottom so so, but will not show any fish at maximum gain.

 

[SCO]

Re: Fish/Depth Finders

12, hate to hear that. I wanted and almost bought a true flasher, but it was too pricy or I was too cheap. I'll report back when I test it next spring.