Fish Finders ...Help on a new one! anyone please feel free to give advice...

[munsterlanderman]

 greetings,

 I've had this old black and white flasher for too long.. It blows..

 I need a new one.. I'm in College with my fishing partner as my roomate.  We have both fished ever since we could walk.  I'm just done with this old crappy flasher..\

 I've looked at Hummingbird, Eagle.. and since they are made by Lowrance then whatever BUT my question is:

 I need something easy on the wallet, Doesn't have to be color, but has average watts, Ducer, depth and fish I.D. would be a great Help..

 Anyone with any advice on what they have or they use, would be greatly appreciated!

 300 Bucks TOPS!  I'm in college and need to eat, but with a good fish finder I could eat a little easier.

 Anyone with any Experience with any finder that has these qualities and wants to tell me what they like about it would be great.

 ANYTHING newer is going to be better than what I have so .. it doesn't have to be a great fancy new fish finder.

 THANKS!

[JohnWester]

i just use a eagle one... not very expensive at all... you can get one that fits your range... the more you spend, the more gadgets... but they all mark the bottom.  I bought one for about $100 that works great.

[DarterGuy]

I think you're just shy of the upper end echelon. I would either spend an extra $200 on a nice Lowrance or a Vexilar Edge, or I'd wait a bit, save up, and spend the dough on what you really want. If you settle for a $200 flasher you're going to want a new one in a few years...

[munsterlanderman]

Yeah,

 I hear ya on spending the extra money on a nicer one.. I looked a a humminbird one for like 400-500 and I would have gotten that but I really wanted to know my options first.

 Color or Black and White doesn't matter, I just wanted decent strength and watts, also a fish Id or some kind of advanced fish mark would work..

 Do you guys have any names or models that you have had or used or buddies have used that you could throw my way to go look at?

 thanks

 Mikey & Odin

[Bobby Bass]

Well there are questions to be asked. What kind of fish do you chase? is this going on a boat that is going to be around for awhile? 200.00 will buy you a lot of bells and whistles that you will probly not even use half of or learn about. Why pay for a lot of extras you will never use.? Basic graph with a temp readout will more then likely be enough for a lot of your fishing.

[munsterlanderman]

I live up North, Im a Big Bass guy but being up here you'd be stupid not to fish for Walters...

 So I like dinner every night... who likes to not have dinner?  So we go smallie fishing on my permanent boat.. and usually we take a break after a few hours of slamming the smallies so we go for some walters to keep the freezer stocked.

 Im just trying to get some info from some of you guys... so far only one person has even answered my inquiry....  I thank you guys for leaving me with questions to help narrow down my search BUT....

 Just tell me what you fish for... and what brands of finders you have used....  I do need something a little powerful because of the deep water and TONS of rocks..... so I need to be able to see the difference between rocks and fish.

 Thanks..

[Bobby Bass]

Take a trip down to Marine General here in Duluth. Tell him your story and he will match ya up with a graph? that will fit your pocket book. If that is what you are looking for. A flasher and a graph are two different things. Eevn a modest 200.00 Eagle will have more then enough power if you are chasing eyes. Your orginal post didn't ask us what we use or what we fish for I run a flasher and a graph in the Puddle Humper. Chase Bass and Northerns..

[munsterlanderman]

Thank ya sir...


 I'll have to check out the marine center down there in Duluth....

 I realize there are differences in graphers and flashers.. I have vexilars for Winter and god knows what I have on my bass boat in the spring thru fall.

 I've never really used electronics to find bass and pike in the shallow areas down to 2-8ft. but smallies and walters yes.. we still can read and mark fish on the finder..   I just never really wanted to....

 I guarantee with anything newer than What I have.. we will be able to stop blind fishing....

 Maybe we'll hit up the marine centers website?  do they have one?  Is that the same guy that rebuilds props?   I live in Babbitt and at Blombergs over here their are props that have been repaired from some place in Duluth.

 Thanks for the help bro..

 Mikey

[Bobby Bass]

http://www.marinegeneralcatalog.com/  web site...

[The General]

Get a Lowrance and forget about the rest. 

[tom fellegy]

i see that this post is about a month old, but i will add my 2 cents worth anyway. don't worry about or use the fish i.d  all it does is put a fish on the screen for what ever the transducer picks up. run it in the normal mode. fish show up as archs, bait/schools of minnows show up as clouds on the screen, sometimes you will see archs, in, under, and around the cloud. this will not happen if the unit has the "fish i.d." turned on. as far as which unit to buy, for the money, i think that eagle in your best option. i had a 320 that was on a boat that i sold a few weeks back. it did everything that you needed it to do. it showed the bottom real well, when set up right it will show hard and soft bottom differences. it shows fish archs and bait well also. i have a eagle 480 on the bow and a lowrance x15 on the dash of my boat. my next move will be a color unit for the dash and move the x15 to the bow. the doc sampson dvd's are a good investment if you buy one of the lowrance/eagle units that they cover. he shows how to set them up and what you are seeing on the screen via underwater cameras. check craigs list or ebay, you might find a deal, or if some place is closing out a cheeper unit. i have been in other boats that had hummingbirds, they are a good unit also, i just don' know to much about them................tom fellegy