fishfinders

Post by **loophole** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:48 am

Looking for a recommendation for a fishfinder. Most of the time I'm fishing a lake with bass, pickerel and pike. Depth in one section avgs 11-15 ft and 20 -35 ft in another part of the lake. Spend some time on a river that feeds into the lake too. Gray tones or colour? I'll spend up to $400 or thereabouts, so don't be suggesting one of the $1000-$4000 items I've seen online. One more thing. I have a small 14 ft aluminum boat with a 9.9 hp that I can plug into, but I think I'll run the fishfinder off the battery I use for the trolling motor. Will that work?

Post by **john c** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:25 am

all i can say is definity color.

Post by **Raminator** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:36 pm

for $400 range,I would look at a hummingbird with good quality grayscale,I think the 585 or 595(not sure the model) will give you temp sensor capabilities,and also has gps.

Post by **bass ackwards** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:17 pm

sometimes you can get some image interference when running the trolling motor and fishfinder off of the same battery. When fishing in shallow waters it may be best to get the widest transducer angle as possible.

Post by **toobinator** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:12 am

If you're going to the Carp show, I'll have a selection of Humminbird Demo units at great pricing. I won't know for sure which units I'm getting, but there will be a good selection.

Ed

Post by **eye-tracker** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 10:03 am

bass ackwards wrote:When fishing in shallow waters it may be best to get the widest transducer angle as possible.

Just a word of caution when looking at units with wide angle transducers. In principal you will have a greater viewing area in a perfectly flat bottom section of water but it will also increase your 'dead zone' eliminating fish marks on bottom or when working structure. The wider the cone the harder it will be to determined which depth range fish are in as you be marking fish much deeper on the sonar screen than they actually are in the water column.

In this image you can see how a wide angle transducer will eliminate the red fish that is on the out side edge of the cone.

In this image you can see how a wide angle cone will give you greater dead zone when working structure.

My personal preference is to use a cone angle no greater than 20 degrees when fishing in all depths as I have a pretty good understanding of what my cone viewing area is at different depths. As an example when I am fishing in 30 feet of water my cone diameter is approximately 10 feet, therefore in 60 and 120 feet of water my cone diameters are 20 and 40 feet. Also I always approach structure from deep to shallow to prevent large 'Dead Zones'.

Also if you are looking for a new unit I would try to get a colour unit as it will allow you to see the difference in bottom structure and also the human eye can read colour information faster with a quick glance at the screen. As an example yellow could mean a hard bottom and red could be mud.

Happy shopping and enjoy your new sonar.

-sheldon