fishfinder question

[singingdog]

I have been running a Cuda 168 in yak for the past 2 years. It's starting to give up the ghost (display is going on me), so I am looking to replace it. I fish mostly small water and use the finder to find structure, not so much fish. I do a fair bit of open water trolling early in the season. I don't see why I would need to see the bottom accurately in anything over 60' of water. I would like keep it under $200 and don't want a portable unit.

 

A couple of questions:

 

Is there any reason to look at a dual-frequency unit? Why or why not?

 

Is a color display that much easier to use than a grey-scale?

 

What's your best-buy below $200?

[Woodsman]

BPS has the Humminbird PiranhaMax 170 for $120.

Dual Beam, 240V x 160H B&W display.

8 level grayscale.

1600 Watts (PTP).

[singingdog]

BPS has the Humminbird PiranhaMax 170 for $120.

Dual Beam, 240V x 160H B&W display.

8 level grayscale.

1600 Watts (PTP).

 

So...you are saying to go with a dual beam? Why?

[Woodsman]

So...you are saying to go with a dual beam? Why?

Actually for my purposes I'm not a big fan of the dual beam. But on the 170 it only comes on when Fish Alarm & Fish ID are both turned on and than both are active together. On the 170 it is 20 deg & 60 deg. 20 deg active all the time.

I looked at the Eagle 245 DS but the 60 deg - 120 deg transducer angles seemed far too wide for me.

I bought the Humminbird PiranhaMax 170 due to the other features such as higher pixel #'s, 8 levels of grayscale and higher power output.

[gogu392]

If you fish only shalow water you don't need a dual beam.

Dual beam is good if you fish in shalow water and deep water.

The wide beam is good for shalow (angle of beam 45, 60 degres), depth in 10m, 20m

The narrow beam (20, 10 degres) is for deep water, depth over (30m).

You can't go wrong with a Hummingbird.

Lately their dual beam trasducer can handle well both beam frecvencies.