Fish Finder Question

[poorbiker]

Just recently purchased a fishing boat. I would like to buy a fish finder for it. Have no idea what I need. I don't want to spend over $300. Any good ones out there at that price? Do I get one that mounts up on the bow with the trolling motor or one to mount in the back. I also have a vexilar FL-18.....is it worth mounting this in the boat also? Thanks for any input.

[Fisher Dave]

Flashers make a good bow mounted unit.. I would rig that to your trolling motor.

Your going to want something decent for your when your running the main motor to really see what is going on below you. With $300 to play with, theres a whole lot of options out there for a decent graph.. I would head down to the sports show and check out some different units in your price range, and buy the one you like best. I think something new comes out about ever 5 minutes.. I wouldnt even know which direction to point. I have had decent results with Lowrance products, and I have a extreme disliking for hummingbird products...A few friends of mine have Raytheon(sp?) products and they seem pretty decent, I dont own one, so I cant say too much.

If it were me looking personaly, I would look at the Lowrance line of products in the price range I was targeting, and then I would look at what the competitors were offering in the same... In the end I would buy what I liked the most, even if I had to spend a few dollars more, or sometimes a few dollars less than I first anticipated. Having confidence in your electronics is very important.

Happy Shopping.. I'm sure you will find something your very satistfied with.

[poorbiker]

Thanks Dave......so if I was to mount the vexilar at the bow, what would I need for a transducer and where do you mount that?

[Fish Head]

A Lowrance X67 is a nice little color unit that sells for $250. The next step up is the 102c that sells for about $450. You could go monocrome, but I'm a fan of the color units. Good Luck!

[Fisher Dave]

You would have a choice .. the most common is to mount the transducer to the lower unit on the bow mount trolling motor.. there are adapters for this application, it may require something for your existing transducer, or the purchase of a new transducer.. there are others on here more familliar than I for Vex products.

The other alternative is to mount the transducer on the transom for the front flasher(in this case)...

There are sometimes problems with interference with 2 transducers mounted too closely together, I have not had this problem on boat applications, but others have... again, others may be able to help with advice.

[Surface Tension]

Like Dave said you can get the Vex transducer and mounting hardware for your trolling motor.

As far as a good sounder for under 300 bucks the Lowrance X125 or Eagle 480 would be the best bang for the buck.

If you want color your going to have to spend big bucks to get the performance and resolution that either of those two offer. Any information printed on either a monochrome or color screen is going to have to be interpreted by the user and I would rather rely on my ability to do so over signal processing of the color sounders.