need fish finder advice.

S

starcrafttom

Active member
Ok time to buy some new toys. I want to replace the raymarine fish finder at the aft station with a better fishfinder / chart plotter. Now you all know that I like to fish a little so the unit has to do that very well. I have been looking at the lowrance hds units with both the downlooking broad band and the side scan technolgy. well they look great on line but I want to know how they work on the water. so any one here using these units? or have another unit they like? . I have the raymarine units and dont really like then as much as I used too.
 
My only advice is don't go with Garmin. I have an (admittedly) older one hooked to my 2006c and it is poor at best.
 
can't help you much, I use the raymarine at work and like it...I want a fish finder that will interface with the auto pilot so I can just input the desired species and sit back & enjoy the ride :)
 
I've done a lot of fishing on a lot of boats and I don't think anything compares with FURUNO FF equipment nor the company that supports it.

When my Raymarine goes out, thats where I'll concentrate my search.
 
Tom,

I just purchased the Lowrance broadband sounder to attach to the Lowrance 8200c that came with my TomCat. I hope to get it installed in the next few days. Once I do, you're welcome to go out with me to see how well it works.
 
When I was buying the electronics for my boat I looked at the commercial fishing boats. The vast majority of the people who fish for a living use Furuno. I just wish it was a little more user friendly. The stand alone sounders may be easier to use than the integrated systems though. Just remember not to buy a touch screen unless you plan on never getting fish slime or smelly jelly on your fingers.
 
Good laugh from Forrest's post about fish slime--and it is true. Also I feel that touch screens are more difficult to operate in rough weather and at high speeds when the boat is bouncing around.

The Furuno has been the standard for fish finders. They have some excellent commercial units, and good recreational units. Hard to beat the 10.4" FCV 295 (@$2,500). The Lowrance is the best buy in the recreational line currently. I have several of the standard (not broad band)-- the broad band, and structure scan Lowrance are much better. But the structure scan is limited to about 150 feet of depth. In rough water it may not be as clear as you see in the ads....

I have not found the need for the broad band so far..
 
Roger I would love to go out with you. the hds broad band is one unit I'm looking at. I just want to see it on the water so this will be good.

I have heard from others about the furuno's. they are just a little to much for what I want. I also hear that even though the furuno's are very adjustable they are hard to figure out. to many menus and adjustments and the menus are not very easy to navigate.

I currently have a raymarine c80 at the helm and a smaller stand alone ff raymarine at the rear station. I just want to replace the rear station and I want it to have gps. The broad band looks good but is only good to about 200 ft, well for best results anyhow. I would love to also add the side scan at some point. I have never troller deeper then 200 ft so it should work fine. I think that there is a lot to be seen to the side that I'm currently missing. schools or bait and fish, structure and holding areas. The side scan should be very usefull for sturgeon. most sturgeon around here are caught in shallow water, 25ft or less.

Once I have this question solved I have to think about auto pilot. thinking about the garmen auto pilot. i was told that I can use the gps info off the raymarine to run it.
 
The side scan should be very usefull for sturgeon. most sturgeon around here are caught in shallow water, 25ft or less.
Click to expand...

I have trying to find an answer to that for a while, starting with the Hummingbird units. Haven't gotten much response. Anyone here have any on the water experience spotting decent size sturgeon with side scanning???
 
Jeez, as a kid I found that tossing a few worms on the water and chanting, "here fishey, fishey, fishey." worked for me... Dunno why you would want to spend money...
 
Cause its burning a hole in my pocket.. besides I'm not fishing for crappy here. when fishing was good and easy we did not need all this stuff but today when fish are fewer and my time on the water is even less I want to be able to get out there , find the fish, and get back in the limited time allowed to me by life. I used to think that old guys caught fish because they had been doing it longer then me. come to find out the old guys only got good at fishing after they retired because they had the time to figure it out while I was at work slaving away to pay their social security.

their was a time when you only fished one body of water because of the time it took to learn a area or a lake or just a part of a lake. I keep notes about bottom structure that I found because I got hung up on it. Now with the gps maps/charts, depth finders, and now side scan I should be able to drive over a area a few time and see if A) there is any structure the will hold fish and B) If its holding fish or not and at what depth. before it would take a day for me to scout a lake or area and try a bunch of lures or methods and depths. Even then I might be getting one part of the puzzle wrong and missing fish that are there.

If I could buy glasses that made the water disappear and only showed the fish swimming around in thin air under the boat I would sell off your and my first born to get them.

now back to the side scan. it would really save a lot of time to cruise the river here in marysville and be able to pick out the sturgeon on the bottom. that way Iam not wasting time fishing areas that the fish have moved out of. It will not make the fish bite your hook, but it will let me know the difference between "is a fish here or not" or " is he biting or not" maybe its my bait?

I also think the side scan would be a lot of fun to just watch in the islands and the many anchorages around this area. get to see what is down there on the bottom. I bet that some bays are just littered with crab pots.
 
Tom, please post a report here after you go out with Roger. I have heard conflicting reports about how good those new units are.

Roger, what is the part/model number of your new sounder (I assume you mean transducer?)

Warren
 
Doryman":yvli1kam said:
Tom, please post a report here after you go out with Roger. I have heard conflicting reports about how good those new units are.

Roger, what is the part/model number of your new sounder (I assume you mean transducer?)

Warren
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Warren, I believe Roger is talking about the Broadband Sounder which is an add-on to existing Lowrance units. It's a "black box" type of add on, not the transducer. I just bought a slightly used one myself at a killer price and have yet to install it to my Lowrance LCX-27c but I've heard good things about it. It's supposed to greatly enhance the detail on the fish finder.
 
Tom,

I agree with Dr. Bob. For recreational fishing, the Lowrance broadband units are very popular. I would consider the HDS-7 ( 7")or HDS-8 (8") units. I've also heard good things about the Furuno FCV-585, which is 8.4" and the FCV 620, which is the smaller of the two at 5.6". Those are the fish finders I hear about most.

Peter
 
Jazzmanic":147x9flf said:
Warren, I believe Roger is talking about the Broadband Sounder which is an add-on to existing Lowrance units. It's a "black box" type of add on, not the transducer. I just bought a slightly used one myself at a killer price and have yet to install it to my Lowrance LCX-27c but I've heard good things about it. It's supposed to greatly enhance the detail on the fish finder.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. I thought the unit in question was the sidescan/forward scanning sonar. I'm waiting with "baited" breath for reports from both of you as I also have a Lowrance fishfinder on my 22.

Warren
 
Tom, The Garmin GHP 10 is NMEA 2000, and I don't think it will work with the older RayMarine NMEA 0183 standard. The TR 1 which is for kickers should work fine--and probably with the old NMEA 0183. So it depends if you want an auto pilot on the main, or the kicker. RayMarine also makes some good pilots, and have been in the business for a long time (the old Autohelm is the basis of their pilots).
 
well let me clarify a few things. It took me lot of reading to figure this out so here it goes

1) the broad band ff can be bought as a built in unit on the newer units OR as a add on to the older units. Nice idea if you ask me.

2) if you have a built in broad bans sonar or (i think but not sure yet) a older unit with the add on black box you can then add side scan to that. which is just a long shape puck that goes on the aft of the boat.
got that???

also hummingbird makes a side scan also.

My goal would be to buy a HDS-5 or HDS-8 with broad band or downscan ( the other name for it) then add the side scan to that. I will be in the lowrance both at the boat show for a while.

Hey what do you all think about the garman auto pilots for fishing?? anyone using one??
 
Bob I called a BOE marine and was told that the garmen would work with the c-80, If you think not who would I call to findout for sure?

I was thinking about the tr-1, which is a wonderful unit for fishing nothing better really, but I want to run the main on auto for cruising. We mostly cruised on auto with the 22 and like to run that way.

I also asked about the other features of the tr-1 vs the garman for the main and was told that the garman on the main would still track in verse, which is really help full for halibut, bottom fishing and shrimping.
 
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