Fish Finder Help Needed

[Guest]

I am old school... fished a lot and then got "too busy" to fish from the mid 70's to recently. I have missed complete CHUNKS of fishing evolution.</p>

Can someone suggest the least expensive electronics that will have GPS with contour map of the Chick & Nick and let me mark spots. Also with decent resolution ? I have been trying to educate myself but 3 decades is a lot to catch up on emoBang Trying to stay well under $600 but that may not be possible. Anyone know if fishfinders are close to new/improved technology that could make the current ones drop some in price ?</p>

I wonder sometimes if a person that only fishes one lake could do about as well by thoroughly studying a fishing map and using a nice fish finder without the GPS/mapping. But I am probably wrong about that in a number of ways. </p>

Does anyone own or have an opinion about the <span class="title">Humminbird Matrix 47 3-D ? I will insert a link if you need to see it. But this one is $500 and NO GPS! </span></p>

<span class="title">http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0031105017380a&navCount=1&podId=0031105&parentId=cat602011&masterpathid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat602025-cat602011&catalogCode=UH&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat602011&hasJS=true</span></p>

I know you get what you pay for and these are probably not easy questions to answer. Any input would be appreciated though. </p>

THANKS !</p>

Gene
</p>

 

[jbh3]

The Lowrance 520C will do what your looking for - in color. Should be able to keep within your $600 target. Good luck!

 

[SpurHunter]

For sure you can look at good topo maps of the lake, and then use any decent finder to find your spots. The GPS feature is relly nice when its night, or foggy out, but certainly is not needed around here. Lakes that have tons of "backwater" areas is a different story.

 

[beetlespin]

The 520 mentioned above will do fine but a humminbird 787c2 will do better and you may get one under $600. Most places they are 649. A lot of people will tell you to go lowrance but I have had multiple units of the units mentioned in this post and the 787 is way better and way more dependable.stay away from the cheap matrix's though. Also you will need to buy a good map card to make them any good or pay an extra $200 to have them pre-loaded. Cabelas had the navionics 2007 edition maps on sale for $89 last month. Of course if you fish AL you will need two.

 

[hl&s]

While you could study maps and use a good sonar to locate a particular spot, GPS makes it much faster and easier. Just the benefit of setting a waypoint and being able to go back to it quickly would make it worth the extra bucks. With a map card you can navigate safer in fog and darkness and when you fish new lakes you can avoid the stumps and shallows much easier watching your real time position on the GPS instead of stopping to check a paper map. Before I'd put $500 in a sonar only, I'd wait until I could add a few more dollars and get a gps/sonar combo and definitely a color unit.

When I got back into fishing I made the mistake of buying some lower priced sonar only units and realized later I had all but wasted my money. I recently installed 2 520's on my boat, networked them, and the difference is like night and day. The Fishing Hot Spots Pro East map card from lowrance sells for under a $100 bucks and has Al, Ga, and Tn, and many more states. Navionics cards are higher but a lot of fishermen prefer them. Lowrance or Hummingbird are great choices. Check them out and get the one that will fit your mounting area the best and offers the best deal on map cards and accessories.

Go with an external antenna. If you want to add another unit later on, you can save some bucks by buying the head only and use the one antenna for both units.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to all of you !</p>

Numerous things were mentioned in your replies that I would not have had a clue about otherwise.</p>

I appreciate the responses.</p>

I will just be patient and save enough money to get either the Hummingbird or Lowrance model.</p>

 

[cutthroat]

Look at th eagle fishelite 480.That is what I just purchased.It is $350 bucks at Sportsmans and then go to boaters world and get the fishing hot spots map for $99

 

[Guest]

Thanks Cutthroat ! That may be the one for me.

 

[boatersworld J]

the garmin 430s has a dual beam transducer, gps map, and sonar. garmin actually has a chip called the g2 vision where they've mapped the bottom of the lakes and offshore. the card is normally 200-300 bucks per region but chickamuaga is included with the 3000 lake maps already on it. of course some of the lakes aren't as detailed as others but if you fish chick then i would definitely suggest the 430s. check out garmin's website and look at the fish eye 3D. that's the view from behind and below the boat so you can see bottom contour. it's pretty neat. i think we sell em for 599.99 i think

 

[boatersworld J]

just tought about it, but i like the fishing hot spots too. card's only 99 buck and you get a lot of detail relevant to fishing. a lot of the lowrance hd units have a 30 gig hard drive with all their chips already loaded on it

 

[Guest]

Thanks again !</p>

Great responses I will check them out.</p>

</p>

 

[gobigorange]

Lowrance was running a special if you bought a 520 you get a free map card when you mail in your rebate info. No wthey are running a 50 dollar back deal. I got the free card when I bought mine.


http://www.lowrance.com/en/Summer-Rebate-for-LCX-and-LMS/