Northwest Fishing Reports

Hi, I am shopping for a fishfinder and have a budget of $200 or so- what is out there that someone could highly recommend- Thank you:bounce: :bounce:

I have a Humminbird 565 that is a nice unit, it seems like it was in that price range when I bought it

Coastfishin wrote:I have a Humminbird 565 that is a nice unit, it seems like it was in that price range when I bought it

I was just looking at one of those..Thank you.
I don't have any experience with fish finders, but I have always wanted one.

Jens,

What type of fishing do you plan on doing and will you be using it out in the salt? I have a dual frequency Lowrance that I absolutely love but I purchased it with fishing deep water in mind. Frequency, beam width and power are all factors at which you'll want to take a look. Basically the higher the frequency the more detail you get with the trade off being depth penetration. A wide beam has its obvious advantages as does a side beam. For the mid priced units I would look for the highest number of pixels in the frequency that best fits my fishing style. Don't worry about the fish ID features, color and the other BS that they try and push. Once you learn how to adjust and read your fish finder, you'll turn off all that junk anyway. I haven't had much luck with average priced units from Garmin and my father has had moisture/fogging issues with his Hummingbirds. Eagle (400 series) has some pretty high resolution units in the $200 price range and I looked at them before deciding to go with my Lowrance.

PS Color is great but manufacturers sacrifice pixel count to keep the price down.

One or many words save your money$ and buy a larger screen size, Color and high Pixil rating and larger transducer with Power!
Great electronics is very important process one of the most important items in any tub and most screw up and mount it at the Helm WRONG that is for GPS/Chartplotters Radar Raymarine large screen systems .


The most important place for a depth and fish finder is back on the rear transom in the Bang zone by the downriggers so your marking fish and adjusting the riggers pin pointing fish:chef: and we just put a new Garmin Color units only!, Fish and depth finder only large screen size high pixil, and power transducer on my tub, Cory O and Lindens tub this gives you a mayor advantage on others running back and forth from the rear deck to the helm marking depth and where the fish are or not is a big waste of time and effort!

(Rear Transom fish and depth finders) by the downriggers in the WORK BENCH a must to be a fish hog and a top 5 on a gear on any tub that chases fish

Coastfishin wrote:I have a Humminbird 565 that is a nice unit, it seems like it was in that price range when I bought it

I have one of these also. I love it. Got mine, 565 w/ temp, from Cabelas for $169. I want one with GPS though when I upgrade.

G-Man wrote:Jens,

What type of fishing do you plan on doing and will you be using it out in the salt? I have a dual frequency Lowrance that I absolutely love but I purchased it with fishing deep water in mind. Frequency, beam width and power are all factors at which you'll want to take a look. Basically the higher the frequency the more detail you get with the trade off being depth penetration. A wide beam has its obvious advantages as does a side beam. For the mid priced units I would look for the highest number of pixels in the frequency that best fits my fishing style. Don't worry about the fish ID features, color and the other BS that they try and push. Once you learn how to adjust and read your fish finder, you'll turn off all that junk anyway. I haven't had much luck with average priced units from Garmin and my father has had moisture/fogging issues with his Hummingbirds. Eagle (400 series) has some pretty high resolution units in the $200 price range and I looked at them before deciding to go with my Lowrance.

PS Color is great but manufacturers sacrifice pixel count to keep the price down.

Great info! I plan on fishing both waters. I have been eyeballing this one on craigs which comes w/gps - the hummingbird 383 w/color screen and gps..but is selling for 250.00-

Now just talking fish and depth finder only zero Combo plates:compress:
Garmin 400 C 4,000 watts peak to peak 500 watts rms and marks fish in details down to shrimp 2nd to none and has the same Transducer as a $5,000 RayMarine Top of the line unit the E/series the (P66 transducer)
Helped with the 3rd one today in 2 weeks on the rear transom in the Bang Zone for fish about fish and Hummingbirds are fine in fresh water applications/Salt#-o


The 400C Garmin will also mark structure and fish to 1,500 feet!
Great product and unreal detail:-$

Jens $50 bucks each = new Hummingbird everything in about 2 weeks transducer, mounting kit, deck mount , unit and all wires will have 2 of them and was going to turn them both into custom Bird feeders /model 585 units or custom downrigger balls:cheers:

swedefish4life1 wrote:Now just talking fish and depth finder only zero Combo plates:compress:
Garmin 400 C 4,000 watts peak to peak 500 watts rms and marks fish in details down to shrimp 2nd to none and has the same Transducer as a $5,000 RayMarine Top of the line unit the E/series the (P66 transducer)
Helped with the 3rd one today in 2 weeks on the rear transom in the Bang Zone for fish about fish and Hummingbirds are fine in fresh water applications/Salt#-o


The 400C Garmin will also mark structure and fish to 1,500 feet!
Great product and unreal detail:-$

Jens $50 bucks each = new Hummingbird everything in about 2 weeks transducer, mounting kit, deck mount , unit and all wires will have 2 of them and was going to turn them both into custom Bird feeders /model 585 units or custom downrigger balls:cheers:

pm sent~:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

I'm pulling up a thread that is over a year old. I am also in a budget for fish finder. Will be fishing Freshwater only in Eastern WA and Northern ID, trout, bass, walleye, pike.

Any tips as to go with color or black and white. Looking to get a used one of Craigslist or Ebay. Any and all info will be appreciated.

IMO, color is worth the extra $. Check out the models you find for sale for the following: Power, number of pixels, transducer frequency and cone angle. The manufacturer should have specs for legacy equipment on their web site.

Power: more is better, in most instances. Make sure the numbers you compare are on equal terms, RMS and Peak to Peak are not the same measurement.
Number of Pixels: More is better is all instances. Allows for higher definition viewing of what is underneath the boat.
Transducer Frequency. Higher frequency allows for a more detailed view due to the shorter wavelength. Lower frequency allows for greater depth penetration so works better in really deep water.
Cone Angle. A wider cone angle lets you cover more of the water under your boat in a single pass. What it doesn't do is let you know where the objects are in relation to your boat.

The fish finder that I use is a dual frequency unit that has a narrow and a wide cone angle depending upon the frequency selected. If you are going to be fishing mostly in water 60' or less deep go with a high frequency and wide cone angle to get the best picture of what is going on under the water. Keep in mind also, that you may be able to buy a transducer that better suits your needs for the FF you purchase. Again, check the mfg web site for info. As for color, it helps you distinguish between fish, structure, type of structure/bottom and in some cases type of fish.

The newer models such as the Lowrance HDS series and the Hummingbird side scan products are slightly different animals but most of what I said will still hold true with them. However, I don't think that you are going to find them on the used market just yet.

I agree with G-Man about the number of pixles on the screen. IThe higher rez screens look much nicer and can give you quite a bit more detail, especially of you have a higher resolution DAQ running the show. (look for data bit information ie... 8 bit, 12 bit, 16 bit higher is better)

I have never used a color finder so Im not sure what the exact benifits are as compared to shades of grey except it might be easier to tweel the difference between types of objects or density with the added colors.

If you dont do deep lakes or the sound, then more power may not do much for you. 100 ft is 100 ft. If your fishing average freshwater only, you dont need a 5k watt unit.

Mine has dual frequencys also, only diff I see is that I get solid and outline fish fish on my screen depending on the freq that picked it up. They got quad freq out too now.

Double check the "Bargain Cave" at cabelas and places like that too. Customer returns go there even thought the units works 100%.

If you've got more than one boat, get one like mine, it's sweet. Yeah, it's black and white, but it has great resolution and a big screen.
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/forum/ya ... EVIEW.aspx
The review's old so most other people's comments are gone, but you'll get to see the unit and how it works..