Garmin 160 fishfinder

[Sandybar]

I like to purchase an Garmin 160 fishfinder. Anybody out there have one? Do you like or not. I need to use it with my GPS (NMEA)for mapping of the river bottom in conjunction with my laptop. Garmin is one of the few fish finders with this feature.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Sandybar

[whitewaterbill]

Interesting....How does this work?

Bill

[Trout,myster]

Sandybar-

I'd recommend checking out Lowrance. I use an LM350A which has GPS and (although I'd have to check my manual) I believe will link up to your laptop.

In a nutshell, go with lots of pixels or the thing is basically worthless, especially if you're using it for sturgeon on the bottom. I've had the H-birds and can't recommend the Lowrance highly enough. Not sure about the Garmin, although they do make really good GPS.

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Troutmyster

[Sandybar]

Bill, NMEA Is a code that the fish finder uses to link gps coordinates position in relation to the river bottom. When you are moving the gps and the fish finder map the river bottom. Once the "mapping" is done then you can download it into your main computor at home. with the right software you use the data collected and presto you have a 3D picture of the river bottom.

Now with the information you can use it to go and find new holes and use your gps to get within 12' of your new discovery.

Garmin is the only fish finder that I know of that has NMEA without maxing your credit cards out.

So are Garmins any good as an fish finder? I dont know but I will purchase one because I'm interested in mapping the river bottom.

Sandybar
Ken

[fishbait]

I have a Garmin GPS 12 hand held. Bought it because I liked my buddies so well. It has always worked properly for me. Nice features. Everyone I talked to said ggod things about Garmin products.Saved a few coins by buying at e-bay.

[whitewaterbill]

More of what I said. Just got back from the garmin web page....the 160 is 160 pixels by 160 pixels. The next step up for them is the 240.....guess what...that one is 240 by 240 pixels. My bottom line is 240 by 400....It sees fish in great detail.
The 160 has a sonar power output of 400 watts (rms);3200 watts (peak to peak) and 900 ft max depth.
The bottom line has 650 watts (rms) and 5200 watts (peak to peak) with max depth of 1200 ft.
Don't ask me all about what this means....It must mean something because Mine sees things that I did not see before!

Hope this helps some.

Bill

[This message has been edited by SLUTGODDESS (edited 12-20-2000).]

[whitewaterbill]

Thanks Sandy,
I have a Bottomline Sonar/GPS with NMEA port that talks to my Nautamatic auto pilot on the trolling motor. Can navigate to a point or follow a route. Would like to learn more about the software and what the 3d chart looks like. Can this system do more for you than looking at a Columbia river Cruising atlas and driving over the low spots with a good bottom looking sonar? My Bottomline sees Sturgeon 60 ft plus down very well. When I come to a place that is holding fish I just save it in the GPS. To me it is more important to have the best possable Sonar and not trade that off for something to take contour pictures of the bottom....I want to see fish! I think what you are going to do is really a great Idea....Just be sure to get the very best in Sonar....There are Depth finders and fish finders. I prefere fish finders.

Bill

[zipper]

Just purchased the Garmin 240 with speed and temp for $348 mail order from Cabelas. Haven't had a chance to install and use but it's got to be light years ahead of my old Eagle that died last time on the big river!

[Sandybar]

Bill, I here what your saying about pixels and watts and peak watts. I understand it a little bit to. However you stated that your Bottomline sonar/GPS has NMEA I think it is only the gps that has NMEA not the fish finder. What I need is for the fish finder to record the depth on the particular spot in relation to the latitude and longitude coordinates. This is not river criusing technolgy, this is river cruising with a view of the bottom. I have not found any Fish finders with NMEA all GPS have NMEA.

If interested I'll email you more details on software for mapping the river bottom.

Thanks bill for your information
Sandybar

[whitewaterbill]

You might be correct about GPS only...Not sure. Suggest you contact the folks at Bottom line. Its supposed to make the Auto pilot follow the shore line at a distance you set or follow a depth you set....so maybe it does what you need also.

I don't know all of that stuff!

Bill

[Trout,myster]

Sandy-

Now I think I understand what you're trying to do. You want to be able to transfer the sonar image off your sonar onto the PC along with the GPS coordinates. I'd recommend you hop in your buggy and take a trip over to Rodger's Marine. If it's electronic and they don't have it, you don't need it! They should be able to help you and probably let you see some demos.

As for the watts & pixels, the more watts the unit has, the better the penetration to the bottom with a solid return and the better the "picture" you see. The pixels are all important little beasts that refer to the resolution on your screen. Usually, the first number is vertical and the second is horizontal counts. Get as high as you can afford. Zercom has a new sounder out that offers paper graph quality and I believe it's rated at 320 vertical pixels. A pixel is actually a small lighted square on your screen that produces the image. Just like you're looking at right now on your PC monitor.

If you apply zoom and adjust to the bottom, setting it at 15 feet spread or so, that gives you the resolution to see a sturgeon on the bottom even with its belly in the mud. Grayline will help also separate the fish from the rocks/logs. At 15 feet zoom, you would have 320 pixels covering 180 inches, or each pixel representing about 1/2 inch of resolution (if I did my math right!).

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Troutmyster

[OneLastCast]

SandyBar
Keep us posted of what you end up doing.
Tell me if I am understanding this correctly.
You ultimately want to continuously store gps coordinates with depth reading. That would be a huge amount of data for a single cross section or are you only going to record data intermittently? How are you going to plot this out or are you just going to view it on screen.

OneLastCast