I took off today to try out my new (used) boat and depth finder/gps combo. Thought I'd share my opinion of the depth finder with the forum.
It's an Eagle 250 sMap that I purchased locally and installed Saturday. Installation was typical and only took an hour or so. I mounted the unit on the console so I could rotate it and use it while I was fishing from the bow. It's the manual that seemed overwhelming ! Luckily I had downloaded a simulator from Eagles website and had spent some time learning how to navigate through the screens on my pc. It's really quick and easy to change your settings or options after you have spent a few minutes getting familiar with it.
I know this is a relatively inexpensive sonar/gps/map unit but I was pleased with its performance. The built in lake map doesn't have fine detail but seemed accurate when showing my position relative to land. After setting the units datum and positioning format to match my printed map, I went on Nickajack and located and marked several humps and depressions. The structure didn't take long to locate at all.
You can assign icons for your favorite spots, such as a tree symbol for that cedar you just slid overboard ! You can split the sonar/gps screen any way you like. You can overlay many digital readings on the screen and choose the overlay size. Resolution was fair and the contrast is adjustable. I was able to see detail ok even in the bright afternoon sun. There is a backlight for low light conditions. Bottom detail was good. I could clearly see fish even when they were close to cover. I tried the navigation screen and was able to go right to a set waypoint. The speedometer and odometer were accurate. The readings remained constant up to 50 mph, which is as fast as I can go.
I won't take the time or space needed to list all the features of this unit. A lot of them I'll never use anyway. But for the money ($199.95) versus features this looks like a great value, so far. I paid almost as much for my Garmin Legend GPS and it won't show the depth no matter how long I hold it under water !
emoBigsmile
It's an Eagle 250 sMap that I purchased locally and installed Saturday. Installation was typical and only took an hour or so. I mounted the unit on the console so I could rotate it and use it while I was fishing from the bow. It's the manual that seemed overwhelming ! Luckily I had downloaded a simulator from Eagles website and had spent some time learning how to navigate through the screens on my pc. It's really quick and easy to change your settings or options after you have spent a few minutes getting familiar with it.
I know this is a relatively inexpensive sonar/gps/map unit but I was pleased with its performance. The built in lake map doesn't have fine detail but seemed accurate when showing my position relative to land. After setting the units datum and positioning format to match my printed map, I went on Nickajack and located and marked several humps and depressions. The structure didn't take long to locate at all.
You can assign icons for your favorite spots, such as a tree symbol for that cedar you just slid overboard ! You can split the sonar/gps screen any way you like. You can overlay many digital readings on the screen and choose the overlay size. Resolution was fair and the contrast is adjustable. I was able to see detail ok even in the bright afternoon sun. There is a backlight for low light conditions. Bottom detail was good. I could clearly see fish even when they were close to cover. I tried the navigation screen and was able to go right to a set waypoint. The speedometer and odometer were accurate. The readings remained constant up to 50 mph, which is as fast as I can go.
I won't take the time or space needed to list all the features of this unit. A lot of them I'll never use anyway. But for the money ($199.95) versus features this looks like a great value, so far. I paid almost as much for my Garmin Legend GPS and it won't show the depth no matter how long I hold it under water !
emoBigsmile
