Fish/depth finder ?

[quadrafire]

I have a cheap Lowrance with transom mount transducer, I think the depth finder is reasonably accurate, but don't trust the "fish" finder. I think it marks debris as fish, Gives a picture of a fish below the boat in 3 feet of clear water and I know there is not a fish present.

How much $$$ does one have to spend to get something reasonable/accurate.
And what features would be "must haves"

This is for freshwater only.

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I miss my old Hummingbird "Wide 100" portable, that thing worked great ! (until some b'tard stole it !)

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I never really watched the "fish finder" part though... fish move too much, but it always marked the bait very well , caught lots of fish because of it.

[wildmanoutdoors]

If your fish finder shows actual fish symbols, you need to turn the training wheels off and learn to use it with true soundings. Lowrance offers some great courses that are free.

Readings are all about how much wattage (Power) it has. Does not need as much in fresh as its less dense than Salt. But power costs money.

Buy the best you can afford.

With the fish symbols on, even air bubbles will be fish....

[quadrafire]

With the fish symbols on, even air bubbles will be fish....

Good hint on the tutorials from Lowrance, I will check that out.

The airbubble are likely what mine is picking up as the transducer is near the prop.  It looks like the mileage ticker at the bottom of your screen

[lokidog]

Go with a good Humminbird.  I've had much better customer service than with Lowrance when it was needed.

I know my finder will mark fish as I have had a couple rockfish that i released and watched them swim to the bottom on the graph.  I think all of them are programmed to randomly show fish just to make you think they are still working.   

I have my sensitivity set at 8 out of 20 and watched my four oz jig with tail drop to the bottom in 80 feet of water.

Electronic noise will sometimes cause marks to show up as well.

[quadrafire]

Lokidog
What model do you have?

[PolarBear]

If your fish finder shows actual fish symbols, you need to turn the training wheels off and learn to use it with true soundings. Lowrance offers some great courses that are free.

Readings are all about how much wattage (Power) it has. Does not need as much in fresh as its less dense than Salt. But power costs money.

Buy the best you can afford.

With the fish symbols on, even air bubbles will be fish....

Just use the grayline and learn to read the difference in signals.  Fish ID is pretty much useless as far as accuracy, unless you turn the sensitivity waaaaay down and only mark larger, solid objects.  Even then it is not 100%.  Hell, the old flasher style sonars are more accurate than the Fish ID on today's lower end models.  Stay with the Lowrance they are the best IMO. Out of around a dozen and a half or more sonars over 35 years of hard use in salt and fresh and just about every brand my Lowrance's have never failed me when the others have, even Humminbird.  I cannot speak about their customer service because I have never needed them.    With that said, Humminbird makes a great depth finder as well it is all personal preference like the old Ford vs Chebby debate.

[wildmanoutdoors]

Funny allot of people have talked Lowrance down but its all I have ever used and I have never needed cust service. But I'm not going to tell you what brand, Just like optics you get what you pay for.

The Lowrance tutorials and such are always at the sportsman's shows and boat shows for free. Does not matter the brand of finder you have. They tell you how to read what you are seeing.  No matter the brand!

Id get color though at least. Way easier to read the density of objects by color.

[lokidog]

Lokidog
What model do you have?

I have the 788ci with gps, but they are a lot cheaper if you do not need the gps feature.  As mentioned, color is definitely the way to go.  I can see this from the back of the boat through the plastic cabin windows.