Entry Level Sonar Suggestions???

[redneckdan]

I am looking at getting a sonar setup for my boat this season. 14' ply on frame, mainly fly fish shallow water for pannies and pike. Would like to learn how to troll for walleye this year. Mainly want the sonar for depth finding, spotting fish and structure. Don't need something capable of steering the boat. Budget of about $350 for the sonar unit itself, ie not figuring a deep cycle or wiring in that cost. Never used a fish finder before. Growing up my fish finder was named 'Grandpa'.

Any suggestions?

[delcecchi]

If you don't want a GPS combo you can get a pretty spiffy unit for 350, or a decent unit for less money.

For example, in Lowrance, you can get a mark5x pro sonar for 159, or a elite 5xHDI for 359, or a elite 4x hdi for 169 and so on and so on.

If it were me and I was going to buy a Lowrance, I think I would be tempted to go with the 4x hdi for 169 and spend another few bucks for the navionics app for my smart phone, assuming I had a smart phone.

Humminbird and Garmin have excellent units also.

[leech~~]

Check out these. Lowrance Elite-4 they are coming down in price a bit and have a basic map for the GPS under $300 in some places.

[delcecchi]

The depth finder only version is the 4x. Pretty good looking unit for 169.

Depending on where a guy is fishing the gps combo would be handy, although a smart phone and navionics for 10 bucks is hard to beat.

[BobT]

I have an offer for you.

Last year I upgraded my console unit. My old Lowrance X-51 (I think that's the model) still works for the most part. I say that because at high speed it sometimes struggles to hold contact with the bottom, which isn't a big deal but when it loses the contact, I usually had to restart it to get it working again. The transducer doesn't have a temperature sensor but otherwise it worked great when I took it off the boat.

If you're willing to pay the shipping you can have it. It's just sitting around collecting dust anyway.

PM me if you're interested.

[Deershooter]

The one option I would get since you are planning on trolling for walleyes is something with a speed sensor.

[delcecchi]

Speed sensor suck. I used to have one of those paddle wheel things on an old lowrance. Use a gps for speed.

[BobT]

Speed sensor suck. I used to have one of those paddle wheel things on an old lowrance. Use a gps for speed.

Agreed. Those things are notoriously inaccurate. I messed with mine until it finally matched the GPS at about 25mph but as I went faster or slower it got farther and farther off.

[redneckdan]

I sent Bob a PM about his generous offer. I think I will run with that until I get some sonar experience under my belt.

Thank you all for your advice!

[BartmanMN]

Worth a shot. I run that model on my bow and sold my other one for $50 on clist after I picked up a humminbird.

[hitthebricks]

I'm suprised about this, There are three thing on my boat that measure speed, Humminbird 997, Merc Optimax Smart Craft paddle wheel, and the water pressure sensor on the lower unit. All of these read within one mph at any given time except the paddle will read a little high when trolling into a light chop or a little low when trolling with current.

HTB

[delcecchi]

I had a paddlewheel on my x-65? something like that lowrance. And it was way off from the gps. I could adjust it to be correct at WOT or trolling. Not both.

I don't know why.

The speedometer that runs off pressure from the motor is pretty close.