fish finder reviews

[SandySteel]

Here are my questions. There is a great array of fishing electronics on the market. What are the most important features to look for in a fish finder? What brands seem to offer the best value in your opinion? Is there one to avoid?
One thing I have noticed on this board is that quite a few folks ask for advice and the question inevitably pops up again. What is the best drift boat? What is the best egg cure? etc.
It would be great if we could create a portion of the site to be product and technique reviews so that we can all share our experiences and it would be a resource for the clueless (me) among us.

[Scarecrow]

SandySteel, I have had a Raytheon L470 Fishfinder for about a year and have not had a bit of trouble with it. Picks up the fish on bottom which some of the less expensive models have trouble with. Got mine at Fishermans Marine in O.C. the guys there were helpful showing the various models and explaining the differences.

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Bob G.

[backlash]

I am ccurrently on my second unit. I learned alot about what I didn't need from my first, don't buy a hummin'bird. I now have a Bottom Line tournament master and am very happy with it's perfomance and ease of operation. One knob runs the whole unit with on screen menues to guide you through. What's important to me is that it's simple to run and it has a big enough screen that I can read it without having strain. Yeah it does alot of different stuff, but I'm convinced that all you need is depth and water temperature. Just one man's opinion.

[Deleted User]

I'm not really up on the latest info on FF's. For my 2 cents worth, 2 of the best products are the Bottomline Tournaments and the Lowrance X-70's to X-85's. The boat I most recently bought came with one of the better 3D Hummingbird FF's on it. I would not have bought one separately, they still lag behind in pixel resolution. If I fished out in the ocean a lot or up the Col. for sturgeon or deep lakes for trout I would have replaced it with one of the above. However, since most of my fishing is for salmon and steelhead in less than 25' of water I find my hooks to be better fish finders than the electronics. In shallow water the 20 degree transducers don't cover much area for a fish to swim thru and often the fish will move slightly as the OB motor and boat come near; so you don't really know how many fish are around by watching the FF screen. An exception could be the newer type of transducers that can scan sideways. I have not tried these yet. Anyone that has this feature care to tell us how well they work scanning around a salmon hole? Does that spook fish to have strong sonic waves buzzing their lateral lines? I use mine more often to map out new bottom structure. Two definite recommendations are to get a good brand with a high number of pixels for better resolution, and don't use the phony fish ID feature which indicates that everything, including air bubbles, are fish. Keep that off and watch for the characteristic pixel arch in the center of a suspended detection. I think there are screen demo displays at some places like Fishermen's Marine which show you what various fish appear like as pixel images.

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Know fish or no fish. - RT



[This message has been edited by RT (edited 10-16-2000).]

[Jim]

I have the Bottomline 3300 with sidefinder capabilities out both side of my boat and down all at the same time with the same transducer. I don't think the "sonic wave" affects the fish at all...I cannot tell you how many fish the sidefinder has put in the boat it is unbelievable and the closest thing to cheating out there...there is my two cents worth.

Jim

[Bait O' Eggs]

I have had the Lowrance X-70A, for 5 years now it has all the gee whiz options. I only use the depth and the backlight options. The rest especially the musical tunes never get used. The seal around the face of the unit has a seal. The seal has failed and water gets into the unit from time to time. It isnt long after and the inside of the screen fogs up. I need to send it back to be resealed and gas charged. Other than that is has been a great unit. The LCD display will start blanking out a line at a time when it sits in the hot sun for to long. I think this is a LCD problem and not a Lowrance problem.

[Jeffhead]

Hey Eggs,
Had the same moisture and line disappearing problem with my X-70. Sent it back to the factory and they sent me a brand new unit for if I remember right about $60 or so. The new unit does not lose lines like the old one did. I spoke with one of the reps at the Sportsmans shows, the units cannot be rebuilt so they just replace it or if they no longer make or have that unit in stock they will upgrade the unit for the same nominal charge. I thought it was a pretty good deal, mine was 5 years old when I sent it in. I used the UPS shipping that they provided when I bought the unit and saved on those charges also!!!
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Deleted User]

Hey Jim, I think you just gave us a little more than 2 cents worth. I think you may have just given some of us about a $500 +/- deficite in our wallets. Gee, I had thought the sidefinder transducer might have potential but didn't want to put out the bucks to find out. Thanks for the insight! -- Jeff, I forgot to mention how beneficial a quality fish finder is on the Puget Sound waters and on Lake Washington, etc. Your X-70A helped us get our gear down the right depth for the socks this summer. http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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Know fish or no fish. - RT

[Hookset]

My current fish locator is the X85 Lowrance, only a year old and seems to work ok, no problems. However, I too thought seriously about buying a second unit for the sideways transducer. Like RT mentioned, a 20 degree cone (almost all FF have 20) doesn't capture a wide enough area. So I started looking around and a salesman recommended the Raytheon L470. I actually wanted to buy just a sideways unit to compliment the X85. The L470 specs out similar to the 85 but you can add a sidelooker transducer to the L470 for $100 which looks to both sides. The entire package would run $400 including speed and temp. That's a pretty decent price and they make a couple units for less. For a brief time I thought about adding this unit and use 2 locators, but money doesn't grow on trees and I couldn't convince myself I needed another unit. Have you seen the adds for Zercom fish finders? Could be another unit worth checking out. You'll just have to check them ALL out I guess but do yourself a favor, talk to experienced salesman who deal in only marine electronics.

good luck,

hook

[Wog]

I've owned a Bottomline Fishing Buddy Two for a couple of years now. This device is also equipped with a sidefinder transducer. I have found this fish finder to be fairly accurate. I have used it on larger rivers and lakes and it works great for locating schools fish and bottom structure. Both the side and bottom views are displayed on the screen at the same time along with the water temperature. It comes with a clamp bracket, so it is easy to attach and remove from your boat and it runs off of 3 "C" cell batteries. Several of my friends own the same finder and are happy with it.
Wog

[Simon Peter]

One thing I have learned is that you need to get the tool that fits YOUR needs. I have a drift boat and so I need a fish-finder more just to figure out bottom structure than to find fish.

Just about any bottom finder will do this job, I previously had a Fishing Buddy which was great because you can quickly pull it out of the bracket before you hit any shallow or white water.

I had some problems with that unit twice and ended up now with a portable Humminbird. I have only used it this season. It comes with a big rubber suction cup to stick to the side of the boat, but my boat is so scratched up that I had to make a little bracket to mount it to the side of the boat. So far I am happy with this arrangement.

Each year I like to take the bottom finder down my favorite drifts. You would be surprised how much they change during high water.

Good luck! http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Adam]

which fish finder do you think is better for all types of fishing around oregon. the bottom line tournament leader 3300 or the Raytheon L470? any other suggestion or any other info would help!!!

[billfish]

Sent for the info pack from the Zercom FF and the info that I recieved was just hipe on how good they were with no data on the product at all. I am looking to update my fish finder to one that has map imputs that will work with my Mac comp. Not much luck yet.


Larray

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