My fish electronics do not work!

[Gus]

Here is my situation and I have a couple of options: My very old humminbird depthfinder is not sensitive enough to show fish. I was fishing this weekend and even with the sensitivty cranked all the way up I could not spot fish on or near the bottom like I could with my Dad's protable Eagle. (Model unknown) We fished the two next to each other and he was marking fish, we were catching fish, but my poor old humminbird would not mark fish. I am poor $$ at the moment and do not have money to drop on a nice new device. What can you recommend for me to get for around $100? I do have a Fl-8 that I could get the high speed transducer which would show fish, but I think reading the bottom contours and structure would be hard. What would you do?

[catchin'whopper]

what model hummingbird do you have? i have a portable that is about 10 years old, LCD. Email me at kroc0005 AT yahoo.com

[This message has been edited by catchin'whopper (edited 06-09-2004).]

[FullTilt]

If you're looking for a $100 graph that does the trick I'd go with another hummingbird. I have the cheapest Hummingbird I could find at the time (four years ago, $100 at WalMart)) in the bow of my boat for my wife. It's in it's third boat and I can't bring myself to get rid of it because it does a good job. I have a Lowrance 67 color in the rear that is a great unit for the price and has better detail than the Hummingbird but also cost three times as much. The Hummingbird has a very small cone but one thing I like about it is that when you see fish on it they're there. I have another older Lowrance on the dash that shows fish everywhere, all the time. I have much more faith in the old Hummingbird than the old Lowrance and have verified the accuracy of the Hummingbird with the new Lowrance.

[danny berg]

Eagle has a series for about 75 to 80 bucks at Gander. I believe it is the Cuda 128 or 120 . I just picked one up about a month ago, It also has Temp. but not speed.
Works pretty good, so far. Have it mounted to the Bow Mount troller, just need to keep the sensitivity down, otherwise your screen is solid fish. and none of them are biting....LOL

[Buck12]

The FL-8 would be my choice. Too many people want to see a picture. The flasher will show real-time bottom and fish readings. The graphs are slow and sometimes you can be 100 feet over the fish before they show up on the graph. Get the transducer for the FL-8 you won't regret it, especially for the limited cash flow. Cheap graphs are just that.

[92python]

I would hold out until you have $70 more and pick up an Eaglle Fishmark 320 for $170.

[united jigsticker]

Put the Vex in the boat!

Once you get down how to read that baby in the open water, you won't ever want to go back to a graph style.

You can see weeds, hard bottom, soft bottom, transitions, fish hugging the bottom, fish hugging breaklines, etc with the vex far better then any LCD is ever going to.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[Surface Tension]

I love my MarCum LX3 on the ice but not as my primary sounder on the water.
Spend a little more then 100 bucks and get the Eagle 320 or Garmin 240.

[Gus]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll have to look at all the models suggested and weigh them against the vex. I appreciate the advise.

edited for spelling*

[This message has been edited by Gus (edited 06-03-2004).]

[Guest]

Finally, someone other than me suggesting a flasher over a graph!

Graphs have a chip in them that draws cute little fish icons, regardless of whether it's a fish, weed, boot, beer can, etc.

Flashers tell the truth--active fish=Lines on the flasher! And the bonus is that it's real-time vs. delayed (graphes need time to draw those nice icons and flashers don't)by the time you get the icon on the screen you're already way past what WAS below you and you have to turn around and try to find it again.

Buy the Vex and you won't be sorry!

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Chells

[196thDLR]

Gus: By all means, put the Vex in the boat.
My Hummingbird Super-Sixty died after 24 years of faithful sevice. I was lost. The SS is not the only piece of electronics in the boat, I have a Lowrance LMS350A and a Lowrance X-51 also, but the SS was what I used the most when actually fishing. I paid only $54.95 for a high-speed transducer for my Vex. I cannot wait to try the Vex in soft water. Good Luck!! DLR