Looking for a new fish finder

[RichardFisherman]

Hi my name is Richard I am new to this forum. Thank you all for inviting me. I have lurked this forum for years but I have finally decided to join. I'm newly retired and have been fishing my entire life. Favourite fishing areas include French River, and the Georgian Bay area.

I have decided to reach out in the help of finding a new fish finder. I'm not too techsavy so I'm not really sure what is good out there these days. I'm a little hesitant with the advice I've been getting from some of the major outdoors stores so I'm hoping someone would be able to provide more insight on the what they feel is the best bang for my buck. My budget is sitting around $500-600. 

Any suggestions or feedback based on what fish finders you guys have would be greatly appreciated!

Richard

[Terry]

https://www.cabelas.ca/product/96545/garmin-striker-5cv-sonargps-combo

 

this looks like 

a great deal to me

[misfish]

Is it user friendly ? You know me and my finder skills. Im a plug and play guy. Nice price for a finder with built in GPS.

 

Welcome to the board Richard.

[Terry]

i dont have that model but the ones i have are

this is for a boat

you would need a iceducer and pack to use it for ice fishing

 

[BillM]

Richard, are you going to use this as a dual purpose fish finder?  (Summer in the boat, winter on the ice?)   

[b2kptbo]

 

Richard, lots to choose from, all depends on what you want to use it for, some are more user friendly than others. But with a $500-600 you could get gps/navigation. Cabela's and Bass Pro have displays you can check out. I bought the Lawrance hook 4 with Navionics and find it easy to use...

[b2kptbo]

 

Richard, lots to choose from, all depends on what you want to use it for, some are more user friendly than others. But with a $500-600 you could get gps/navigation. Cabela's and Bass Pro have displays you can check out. I bought the Lawrance hook 4 with Navionics and find it easy to use...

[Rattletrap2]

Richard,

I bought the Hook 7 from Lowrance last year as my main unit and a Hook 3 for the bow. It uses the built in transducer in my Motorguide Xi5 trolling motor. Unfortunately, I only got about 4 hours on the whole deal all season and never really got the hang of how they worked to their full capabilities.! They were a huge step up from my old Lowrance X60 but there is a lot to learn! I have always been loyal to Lowrance but I'm sure there are lots of good units from Garmin and Humminbird as well.

Good luck with whichever unit you end up with.

Welcome to the board!

[mike rousseau]

Humminbird are the easiest simplest units I have used

I have had a boat over 10 years and bought/sold used 4-5 hummingbirds and they were all great

I currently use a Humminbird 999 and 788

 

you might be able to find an old model on clearance 

[DRIFTER_016]

Garmin Echomap units on my boat as of last spring.

Excellent units and easy to use.

[Joeytier]

There are a multitude of 5 and 7-inch units in that price range on the market, and I think you would be perfectly happy with just about any of them.  I would suggest either the Lowrance Hook 7, or Humminbird Helix 7.  Everyone has their brand preferences, but I'd be shocked if you were disappointed with either of those.

[irishfield]

Midland CTC is blowing out the Lowrance Hook 5 on Saturday... Regular $629.99 for $229.98 !!! They currently have 44 in stock !

product # 77-7536 if you want to search canadiantire.ca

[b2kptbo]

6 hours ago, irishfield said:

Midland CTC is blowing out the Lowrance Hook 5 on Saturday... Regular $629.99 for $229.98 !!! They currently have 44 in stock !

product # 77-7536 if you want to search canadiantire.ca

WOW, great deal...

[Fang]

Check out SAIL as well. They have some decent pricing on Humminbird units

Helix 7 straight fish finder is $314 right now and decent price on lowrance hook 7 and 9

I’ve used both  lowrance and hb units and one important thing is to get the right power level. If you want to fish deep make sure you get something with 4000 Watts peak to peak. 

GPS is a must for me know, let’s you save waypoints for future use and you can get navigation cards to plug in