I don’t know anything about fish finders. I want to buy one for a boat I bought last year. My father in law says I should get one with live view. Can you get one of these for $1500? If so, which one do you recommend?

Yes, you will want a combo unit. FF and gps.you can get a very good unit for that kind of $ and less.
Salt or freshwater? If mostly bass fishing I would look at Hummingbird and Lowrance.

saltwater is a whole different ballgame

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Yes, you will want a combo unit. FF and gps.you can get a very good unit for that kind of $ and less.
Salt or freshwater? If mostly bass fishing I would look at Hummingbird and Lowrance.

saltwater is a whole different ballgame

Freshwater and crappie fishing.

After you find them, how do you get them to stick around?

Garmin has kind of taken over sonar, at least from a forward facing sonar (Livescope is their version) perspective. Hummingbird and Lowrance also offer a version but most are going with Garmin. The Humminbird and Lowrance offerings aren’t as expensive as the Garmin, but if you’re not fishing tournaments for money, I’m not sure it matters. If you have a Bass Pro nearby, go in and take a look at the display models. You can get a good idea of what they’ll do also if you talk to the staff manning that counter (usually). You can also go to BassBoatCentral.com and ask questions in the sonar forums. There are some extremely knowledgeable people on that site that can really help you.

Good luck and let us know what you decide on. I’d love to put a FFS unit on my boat, but if I did, I’d have more in my electronics than my boat (1988 Ranger 375 that was my dads)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Erick85,

Yes.

I run two Hummingbirds on my boat. I learned much from watching videos . I suggest you go on YouTube and look at a few videos. I wish I had purchased a 9 inch instead of 7 inch. Better resolution. Like anything lately, their is much to learn.

Lowrance is my personal pick. Nothing against hummingbird, but the one river I fish the most doesn't even show on their map as being there (I don't expect depth markings, but at least show the water and islands).

So for the GPS part, go with whoever has mapped what you typically fish or plan to. For the sonar part, the two I mentioned and Garmin are all fairly equal in my eyes.

For 1500 you can get two very nice units nowadays. I would recommend getting at least a 7 inch screen.

Yes, I’m a tad old school. I had a fish finder years ago, hardly found it useful, sold it.

First off, you look for structure more than fish themselves. That would include depths, drop offs, underwater terrain, etc..

I’m trying to go fishing more, I think a biggie is how you operate. Time on the water will ‘trump’ a fishfinder. Of course many boats have something, I have never missed mine once I got rid of it.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:
Yes, I’m a tad old school. I had a fish finder years ago, hardly found it useful,

Back then, they were hardly useful. Whole different ballgame with today's tech.

quote:

First off, you look for structure more than fish themselves. That would include depths, drop offs, underwater terrain, etc..

Nowadays, you can not only spot individual fish, you can watch your bait, and see those fish take it. It really is remarkable how far it has come. It's almost cheating. The good stuff comes with a price tag though.

I’ll admit, back in the day, 20+ years, I had a basic unit.

I have seen underwater cameras, a little different but kinda fun.

I agree about a large display. I have a 12" on my boat, and would not want anything smaller. However it is a saltwater boat.

You Tube, and go to a well stocked tackle store and ask questions.

I do think Garmin is the pick of many. I have used their forward looking units, and they are very cool.

Garmin is at the top of the FFS game right now - you'll pay at least $1k for a graph and another $1400 or so for the FFS transducer and black box. Add $300+ for a pole to mount the FFS on and you're pushing close to $3k (after tax) for a basic (10" graph) setup. You could go one generation older (or used) and save a couple hundred, but it's definitely not as clear.

There is a pretty steep learning curve with FFS, although coming into this with no experience will be a steep learning curve regardless.

Each brand has their strengths (I run humminbird - superior side imaging - including mega360) so it's all in what is most important to you and it sounds like FFS is.

Raymarine has a great FF system. If I was going to buy a side scanning system, I would use Raymarine or Furuno.

Garmin is the only way I would go I have 3 of them I also highly recommend Garmin lvs 34 live scope.

I wouldn't use a Humminbird if they gave it to me, those are nothing but trouble, everytime you get one thing fixed another issue will pop up Garmin tech support is awesome. never tried lowrance so can't comment on that one. here is a link to my video I posted on another forum. https://www.facebook.com/group...on_generic&ref=notif