Fish Finders at Wholesale Sports

[greasysidedown]

Does anyone have any info about a decent fish finder that Wholesale might sell?

Looking for something around in the $500-700 range for a 15.5 Hourston. Mainly for use in the Vancouver area but also over on the island.

Seems I've saved up a few gift coupons.... and my 1980's eagle fish finder could use some upgrading.

Thanks

PS: I know nothing about these {or much else}

 

[ericl]

The transducer is the most important component of a fish finder. Airmar makes most transducers used by all the various fish finder mfg.'s. They web site has some great info on F/F technology. A CHIRP fish finder broadcasts signals at a variety of signal frequency's versus a single frequency of the older stuff. CHIRP is much better at getting Salmon. I'd research CHIRP as well.
I bougfht a Garmin from a guy who is an ex-military SONAR engineer - Gil Travis. He sells over the internet. Gil says Lawrence is a great fresh water unit, but says Garmin is the best in the salt water. Their customer service is outstanding.

A good fish finder will fairly quickly tell you if you are wasting your time fishing where the screen is "empty". Fishing is OK, but I like catching better.

A chartplotter/fish finder combo is a great choice & fits your budget. Price goes up with screen size for the most part. For the GPS portion, the unit will come with pre-installed maps with optional chip maps with much greater bottom contour details. Be sure to carefully evaluate this area & choose wisely (be sure to choose based on total package price, unit+chip versus unit price only).

 

[Pippen]

Just looked on their website...I'd stay away from Humminbird for out on the chuck. The newer models may be okay but a friend had one that came with his 'new to him' boat and it was a piece of crap.

They don't have a ton of options but at the top of your price range this is a good unit. A buddy got this one earlier this season(notably cheaper ) and it's a pretty darn good unit. He's happy with it on his 18' Hewes...I've played with it once and like it.

http://www.wholesalesports.com/store/wsoo/en/Categories/Fishing/Fish-Finders/Sonar/Hook-7-Nav+/p/85929

Could also look at the Hook 5 but if you have gift cards to burn...get the bigger screen.

 

[fishin_magician]

A Chirp unit will definitely help with target separation. The issue with many lower end ($1200 and under) recreational Chirp units is that they don't perform well in deeper water unless you spend more money and significantly upgrade transducers.

What you really want is to match a transducer to the unit that you have. If you have a 500W Unit, don't spend money on a 600kw transducer. You can easily spend the same amount of money on a transducer as your sounder unit.

A lowrance elite 7 with a p66 should do you just fine. It won't be CHIRP with that transducer though. Use the gps Chartplotter to troll strategically and adjust your sounder settings to show what you want...

What you really want to see is BAIT... Find bait and work the bait. What depths of water do you normally fish?

If your gear is working correctly and you are fishing the area correctly all you really want to know is the depth and bottom structure anyways... Bait is nice too if it's that time of year and that location. I'm usually eyeballing my rod tips and observing all the fishing conditions and monitoring all the variables and making adjustments as opposed to looking at my sounder screen.

 

[ericl]

Hi fishin_magician. I used to agree with you. Then I got my Garmin CHIRP.

 

[fishin_magician]

Hi fishin_magician. I used to agree with you. Then I got my Garmin CHIRP.

What unit and transducer are you running?

 

[ericl]

I run a GPSmap 840xs & a TM150 transducer. The transducer cost $240 US a couple years back.

I can see where you are going with this but I am pretty sure that if the OP were to spend his budget on a Garmin CHIRP his F/F results will be better than non CHIRP or Lowrance CHIRP. I compared my $1800 unit against a Guide's $5K Lowrance on the same area (within 50 feet) but different day & the differences were quite obvious beyond target separation.
So I have seen the Garmin & Lowrance ; what do you have & compared it to?

 

[greasysidedown]

Great info for me. Thanks.

Unfortunately for me Wholesale doesn't sell Garmin and I'm a cheap squarehead.

Lowrance or Hummingbird.

 

[Kildonan]

I recently bought a humminbird helix 5 unit with GPS and Sonar. It came with a navionics SD card with all the charts. 429.00 on sale at Trotac Marine

It's not a fancy unit. It shows me the bottom, shows bait and where I am on the map. My needs are simple and this unit fit my budget.

Works good... I like it.

 

[Pippen]

I recently bought a humminbird helix 5 unit with GPS and Sonar. It came with a navionics SD card with all the charts. 429.00 on sale at Trotac Marine

It's not a fancy unit. It shows me the bottom, shows bait and where I am on the map. My needs are simple and this unit fit my budget.

Works good... I like it.

Good to hear this about the newer models.

 

[fishin_magician]

I run a GPSmap 840xs & a TM150 transducer. The transducer cost $240 US a couple years back.

I can see where you are going with this but I am pretty sure that if the OP were to spend his budget on a Garmin CHIRP his F/F results will be better than non CHIRP or Lowrance CHIRP. I compared my $1800 unit against a Guide's $5K Lowrance on the same area (within 50 feet) but different day & the differences were quite obvious beyond target separation.
So I have seen the Garmin & Lowrance ; what do you have & compared it to?

Just upgraded to a Chirp Garmin like yours ... it has only been out twice on my boat since the upgrade...so just about to make use it this week as there were no fish around when I was out those times.

I have been on several boats running several different higher end sounders with and without Chirp and it is great...however...I also been in situations where I ran a high end Furuno in the Charlottes and Chinooks showed up as clear as day. However, Furuno was what I used to run locally with no CHIRP and I had no complaints.

For the OP, a lowrance with an upgraded transducer will do him fine..... he may have some issues with depth when fishing in the freshet and algae blooms with an inexpensive transducer.

For the original poster, get the most capable transducer your unit can utilize....whatever unit is within your budget.

 

[ericl]

A few years back i bought a Furuno DFF1 with an Airmar B265 transducer for my 33 footer. Never installed it. Bought the Garmin for a 14ft RIB. RIB got stolen but they only got the xducer. I bought the Garmin from a guy named Gil Travis. We are the same age (65), both in the Navy, & Gil shared that he was a "spook" (slang for sector agent) who developed SONAR technology for the Pentagon. Gil says Garmin has the best CHIRP for saltwater; Lowrance is the best freshwater CHIRP. Gil also said I should sell my Furuno stuff because my Garmin is better. FYI you can see some text documents on the airmar site about the technology. The Furuno seems to be great stuff & they use great transducers (mine is over a ft long & weighs about 5kg). Gil made an interesting comment about Furuno as to why they haven'y gotten into CHIRP: they think the economy is gonna tank & there will be limited US market for fancy gosh finders in the future.