Fish Finders

Fish Finders

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Fish Finders - 4/4/2008 7:02:22 PM

knightrider1983

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Joined: 4/4/2008
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Looking to buy a fish finder this week and looking for some suggestions on good finders at a good price.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/4/2008 7:34:40 PM

Treble Hook

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Joined: 12/26/2006
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Don't know what price range your looking at but I got a Hummingbird 787c2i and I love it. The color is the way to go and this has a GPS in it so you can mark any spot and it will put you right back on it. Just like anything the more bells and whistle's you add the more $$$ Just my opinion.
Treble Hook

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/4/2008 10:44:35 PM

bingsbaits

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Does the Hummingbird 797 c2 si have the side scanning sonar? Looked like a real nice unit. Kinda pricey though at $1000.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/5/2008 5:19:21 AM

Treble Hook

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No it doesn't have side scan. That price you got is a little high in Bass Pro there going for $649 and you can get a better price in you look around. I got mine out of some shop in Mich. on E-Bay. If your looking at all the maps be careful alot of lakes aren't on the chips.
Treble Hook

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/5/2008 6:31:13 PM

chauncy

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The 797csi does have side imageing doesn't it? What's the si mean? the 787c2i is only sonar and gps with an internal antenna. its a color unit also. The side image unit costs quite a bit more. Treble hook, your unit doesn't have si, but the 797 unit does.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/6/2008 9:16:14 AM

Treble Hook

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Mine is just the 787c2i the c is for color and i is for internal gps antenna.
Treble Hook

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Post #: 6

RE: Fish Finders - 4/6/2008 6:29:22 PM

jlh42581

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Joined: 10/13/2004
From: Milesburg, Pa
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I just picked up a hummingbird for about a $150, not sure which it is off the top of my head and after working on the boat all day im too lazy to go look. Its not color and the only thing it lacks is a speed sensor, which i could care less about.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/15/2008 11:14:05 AM

releasem

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1197si is best way to go.But 3k is way to much.I say a eagle 320 is very hard to beat.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/15/2008 11:56:10 AM

Carpet Bagger

Posts: 1613
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From: Greenville, PA
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that is quite the gimick hummingbird came up with....

For 3k you could outfit almost any boat with some awesome electronics by furuno, garmin, ray marine si-tex, simrad, ect that are commercial grade and perfect for a sport fishing boat..

Remember when you buy a lowrance or hummingbird your paying for those commercials, endorsements, magazine ads, ect ect.

Furuno makes possibly the best bottom machine in the business. You can find the very same unit on small boats to huge commercial boats....

Garmin has made more innovative improvments to GPS systems than ANY other company and makes a very solid fishfinder as well..

To say the Hummingbird is the best way to go is pretty much BS.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/15/2008 12:41:25 PM

releasem

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Carpet Bagger

that is quite the gimick hummingbird came up with....

For 3k you could outfit almost any boat with some awesome electronics by furuno, garmin, ray marine si-tex, simrad, ect that are commercial grade and perfect for a sport fishing boat..

Remember when you buy a lowrance or hummingbird your paying for those commercials, endorsements, magazine ads, ect ect.

Furuno makes possibly the best bottom machine in the business. You can find the very same unit on small boats to huge commercial boats....

Garmin has made more innovative improvments to GPS systems than ANY other company and makes a very solid fishfinder as well..

To say the Hummingbird is the best way to go is pretty much BS.

I agree with most except the BS remark.Keep on with names?You have yet to name one that has SI besides the bird.I just said best way to go cause of the SI its priceless if your on new water or large bodies of water.

But other companys do make good products with different options (except SI) depending on what you wanna spend.

I have used good cheapos & bad cheapos.....I have used high $$$ high end......& bad also.I wasnt trying to start no nick picking here.Opinions are like ***holes.....everybody has one

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/15/2008 1:27:10 PM

MuskyMastr

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From: The 1st Trench
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garmin is second to none in affordable gps technology, and the 240 I bought 5 years ago is a nice unit, for 5 years ago. they really havn't improved thier finders much since then. That being said, once I learned to adjust my garmin, it is an amazing unit on erie.
I haven't gotten a chance to play with the SI yet, but humminbird makes some nice stuff, so does lowrance and if you don't want the frills, I used an eagle for years and it never gave me any trouble, and did everything I needed it to. Obviously we would all like to have $20,000 for marine electronics, but it doesn't work out that way sometimes. I think that all of the above are good units and it depends on what is in your budget.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/15/2008 3:57:43 PM

Carpet Bagger

Posts: 1613
Joined: 4/18/2001
From: Greenville, PA
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Well I infact sell Garmin, Eagle, Lowrance, Hummingbird, Furuno, Standard Horizon, and Sitex....SO NOT TO TOOT MY OWN HORN, BUT TOOT TOOT! I think my opinion comes with some expertise in the field.

Ive been dealing with marine electronics for the past 10+ years. Everyone company has a new kid on the block or a new piece of electronics they try to market. The fact of the matter is...without Bill Dance or Al Linder telling you how great something is it may never sell. Bottom Line fishfinders were some of best selling fishfinders on the market while In-Fishermen and the Linders pushed them...but where are they now? I can probaly count on 1 hand how many people I know who own one...

Furuno is PROVEN as a marine electronics company everything from Radar to GPS.
Ray Marine makes solid electronics
Simrad produces one of the absolute best in auto pilots.
Garmin is the BEST GPS on the market. Their technology always happens 1st then the rest follow after

Hummingbird now recently purchased by Vexilar is still a company built on junk. They should have dropped the name and went with Vexilar...Hummingbirds where once the $150 dollar special. ALL BUDGET Electronics...Now they are producing $3k units...Im not doubting that side imaging is a neat feature, just the credibility of a company that has yet to prove itself as quality in the marine electronics industry.

Pro Fishermen use whatever they are given, or endorsed by. In most cases they have clauses in their contracts that prevent them from using anything but on their boats no matter what they prefer. Or recieve bonuses from companies for winning with their electronics. Fishing shows are nothing more than an infomercial advertising 1 product after another.

So many things factor into what type of fishfinder fits you and your budget. Depth of water you fish, transducer frequency, transducer type (inhull vs transom mount), color vs mono, and your budget...

To say one fishfinder is the way to go vs another is completly false...and misleading

< Message edited by Carpet Bagger -- 4/15/2008 4:13:01 PM >

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/21/2008 8:32:56 AM

snuffynra

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Joined: 4/4/2008
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just my 2 cents,i bought a new alumacraft last year it came with a lowrance fish finder,not there top of the line model .but it never worked right,i called them they said i have to reset it and i did ,still only worked when boat was sitting still.i tried every different posistion .no luck i then went out and got a humming bird and installed it and it works great at any speed.i put the lowrance on the front trolling motor just to see depth and it still has problems.just my 2 cents.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/22/2008 10:58:18 PM

MuskyMastr

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From: The 1st Trench
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CB, I hope you didn't think I was bashing your opinion. We bought the original LCR 1000 when they came out in the early 80's and guess what? At that time they were AWESOME. Now they would be considered about like using the knotted rope method to find depth when compared with todays stuff....My dad bought a lowrance gps this winter, and I can say that thier customer service has gone down hill. I have used eagle, garmin, lowrance and newer humminbirds ALOT. I have heard about the furuno, but never seen one work on the water, never heard bad things, they have just been out of my price range.

On a related note, do you need a garmin finder/gps to run the autopilot you reccomended, I haven't had much time to look into it.

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RE: Fish Finders - 4/23/2008 9:09:24 AM

Carpet Bagger

Posts: 1613
Joined: 4/18/2001
From: Greenville, PA
Status: offline

Lowrance's standard was always their customer service. We sold one of those fancy 12in color Lowrance GPS/Fishfinder with double tray memory cards. Needless to say the customer had problems at the beginning of its 2nd season. He sent it back to Lowrance. They wanted to charge him for the service done, once they cleared that up with his proof of purchase, Lowrance took 4 weeks to get his head unit back to him. In the past they always sent out a loaner, or just gave you a brand new head unit.

I just think they have got very smug about their business over there.

and for Musky, no you dont need a garmin fish finder or gps for your autopilot. Most new or higher end electronics come with NMEA wires that are color coded to "tie" electronics in together. My Garmin and Furuno are both tied together so i can see the GPS #'s on my Furuno's screan. Another problem with lowrance is that they change the colors of theuir NMEA wires alot. You need a Freeking chart to show you how to hook your electronics properly, cause its not always blue to blue, and green to green...I just simply do not recomend Lowrance to anyone, but I cannot blame someone for wanting one...and if it is truly what you want, we sell em. In most cases a Furuno fishfinder and a Garmin GPS are actually cheaper than a combo lowrance with a large screan. I dont like combo units, cause if something goes wrong with one, you still have the other...

I dont have my AP system hooked into the wires though I am fine just going straight...lol

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