PORTABLE FISH FINDERS

[bigbuck]

Well, I'm going to try to do more fishing this year and plan on hitting Rice Lake since I'm familiar with the area and have relatives who have a couple of cottages on the lake near Bewdley.

To be a bit more serious, I figure since I'll be renting boats, I need to get myself a portable fish finder. Every well equipped fisherman needs one. So, the question is, which one?? What are the advantages/disadvantages. I have a pretty good idea of how they work but need some more expert/experienced advice.

Thanks in advance.

 

B

[fishdawg]

how much do you want to spend?

 

do you ice fish at all & would you plan to use the newly purchased sonar for the ice as well?

 

after you mention this, suggestions can be narrowed down to suit your needs & budget

[bigbuck]

No ice fishing for this kid, too cold for my liking, besides, standing on a frozen lake is kind of an unnatural act to me.

I figure up to about $300.

[Smokey]

Honestly I think most of them work well. It's just a matter of find one with the features and toys you want. You should be able to get a decent one for the the dollar range your looking in. I've owned Hummingbird, Eagle and now lowrance and they have all worked well for me. So watch for the deals and know what you want when it comes up.

 

Good Luck

[setomonkey]

I've got the Eagle Fish Easy 2 and like it, around $200 I think.

 

I got a rechargeable battery & charger for it, heavier than a bunch of D batteries but I can run the sonar for days w/o needing a charge and it's cheaper in the long run.

 

Mike

[Grimace]

that fish easy is a good unit i had the colour one, i was very happy with it. the only reason i dont use it anymore is because i upgraded.

 

from what i can tell it is the same as the lowrance x67 but it is a bit cheaper because it has the Eagle name

[dsn]

Whatever you do, make sure you get something that shows you things happening in "Realtime"

If you get a flahser that's great.

 

If you get a LCD make sure it has a "Real Time " feature.

Cause the LCD has few second delay before it shows the fish on the screen that's why you need a fish finder that has a "Real Time Feature".

 

This is the model I have. Its portable and has the Real Time feature also. So you get see the fish on the screen and also a flasher on the far right side where you see the depth makrkings. The depth marking is where the flasher is. Fish will appear here then it will show on the screen.

 

Its on for $209 at Lebarons. Saw it yesterday.

 

Thats if you go this route. You got time til softwater so browse.

 

dsn

 

[Raf]

I too have the Eagle Fishmark 320 and am happy with it. I have had it on canoes and boats works great. The 480 will propably fall under 300 as well these days and it has better resolution but the 320 is fine.

[Tomcat]

If you're buying a sonar unit to help fish walleye, then target separation is an important capability of any potential sonar unit because walleye can sometimes be "belly to the bottom". Target separation is more easily accomplished with more vertical pixels. Consider a fishing depth setting of 0-60 feet. 60 feet equates to 720 inches. If you were to buy a sonar unit with 480 vertical pixels, then dividing 720 by 480, each vertical pixel represents 1.5 inches. Alternatively, if you were to purchase a sonar unit with 160 vertical pixels, then each vertical pixel represents 4.5 inches. To separately display two targets, you need at least one blank pixel between them. Lets consider one target to be the bottom and the second target to be a walleye close to bottom. For a unit with 160 vertical pixels, that means there is 4.5 inches between the bottom and the first available displayable target above bottom. There could easily be walleye "belly to the bottom" within that 4.5 inches and a sonar unit with 160 vertical pixels wouldn’t show them – unless the unit had a zoom capability (e.g. 2X or 4X). Many guys run a split screen with a top-to-bottom view on one side and a 4X zoom on the other.

 

Another important consideration is the Peak to Peak power of sonar units. Cheaper sonar units have, for example, 800 watts. If you’re a walleye fisherman and you fish soft bottom flats for your walleye, 800 watts isn’t adequate power to provide you adequate target separation. 800 watts isn't adequate power to provide good signal return from soft bottoms.

 

Consequently, establish your requirements for a sonar unit before you set a budget. Then go shopping. I realize everyone has constraints on how much they can spend but IMHO, there's no point in spending dollars at all if the acquired sonar unit can't provide the performance you require or want. I believe the minimum requirements for a capable sonar unit are 320 vertical pixels and 2400 watts of power. If you can afford to spend more money than the minimum requirements cost, go for it - you won't be sorry. For instance, most guys who have opted to spend extra dollars for colour sonar units rave about them. Good luck.

[Blake]

what Tom said. give Fishing World a call that's where I bought both of mine.