Fish finder advise

[duckmen1]

Looking at getting a fish finder. Details on what im looking at are a 7 inch screen or bigger. Side imaging, down imaging, possibly chirp, sonar, gps, etc. good quality and fairly easy to use. Willing to spend the money but i have my limits. What are your thoughts on experience you guys have had. Never have had one but dont want to spend money on a cheep unit and not be happy. I fish the puget sound, bass, trout and kokanee, catfish, panfish, possible salmon in the rivers in the future, and just about everything you can think of. Im not set on one brand or another yet. Thanks for any advise.

[fowl smacker]

I've had about every brand in many different price ranges.  By far the best I have ever owned is Raymarine.  The worst in my opinion has been Lowrance.

[Jellymon]

Salesman at cabelas said that he's caught tons of 20 foot plus sturgeon using his raymarine, so I would recommend one of those.

[fishngamereaper]

I love my simrad nss evo. Paired with a airmar TM 150 transducer. Super crisp images, holds bottom at speed, 3d navigation and much more.

[BigGoonTuna]

i've heard that garmin makes a good unit these days.  maybe i need to pick one up and stop buying lowrance because they're on sale

[C-Money]

I am really happy with my Lawrance Hook 4. Has GPS, maps, & chirp. Locks on to satellites quickly, display is very sharp. I am very happy with it. I hear lots of bad stories about Lawrance, but all I can say is good things about mine.  I really like how easy it is to use. Search the Hook 5 for the bigger screen. I went back and forth on either getting the 4 or 5, they are identical other than screen size. Went with the 4 just because the thing had a big enough screen for me, and fit well on my dash.

[high country]

I'm running a 7610xsv with a gt51tm ducer.....it's a great combo that offers WiFi to link the ipad and phones to it so everyone has a screen at their disposal, and it allows me to control the kicker via tr1 from my phone.

[Stein]

Lowrance Elite 7 ti, there was a $100 rebate and you can buy direct with free shipping and no tax. Make sure you get the one that comes with the TotalScan transducer.

The unit has tons of cool things, wifi to your phone, build your own 1' contour maps, sidescan, bottom scan, show engine info and a few things I haven't tried yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PolarBear]

I am picking up a Lowrance Elite 9.  Lowrance has pretty good rebates on a bunch of their models right now.  I have had just about every brand of depth finder, Lowrance, Humminbird, Sitex, Furuno, Garmin, etc.  Lowrance has alway been the most reliable and dependable.  Garmin was #2.  Furuno was a great high end unit but you almost had to be a Naval ship's engineer to figure out the plotter.  Lowrance Hook series is a good bet at a decent price.  I had a Hook 7 on my work boat that I sold and it was flawless even in rough seas and being drenched in saltwater over and over again.

[KFhunter]

I'm getting to know a Lowrance HDS-7 with upgraded transducers + side scan. 



I lack the expertise to endorse it over any other fishfinder of that caliber because I haven't had many fishfinders, but it's sure a lot nicer than my old one! It seems to work well and got a ton of options.  We'll be putting radar on it soon

[PolarBear]

i've heard that garmin makes a good unit these days.  maybe i need to pick one up and stop buying lowrance because they're on sale

In 40 years and a dozen units used from commercial to pleasure, in salt and fresh, I have never had a single issue with Lowrance.    I did throw a SiTex overboard because it was a total p.o.s.!    I had to send one Humminbird unit back 4 times before I finally told them to keep it.