Budget Fish Finder

[Brian6428]

Hey guys, I have a Pelican Bass Raider 10e. I am looking at getting a fish finder for it. All I really need it to do is show me water temperature and bottom composition (structure and cover). I have it narrowed down to three fish finders. Here they are:

http://www.basspro.com/Eagle-FishEasy-245-DS-Portable-Dual-Search-Sonar/product/1204070500432/

http://www.basspro.com/Humminbird-110-Fishin-Buddy-Ultimate-Portable-Fishfinder/product/97460/

http://www.basspro.com/Eagle-FishEasy-350C-Portable-Fishfinder/product/1206110840/

 

Do you guys think these would be able to correctly identify the bottom structure and cover or should I save my money and get a better one later? Thanks in advance!

[Comfortably Numb]

For $50 that first one looks real nice. Should do all you want and more. Free shipping too if you spend a few more cents.

[Wayne P.]

For $50 that first one looks real nice. Should do all you want and more. Free shipping too if you spend a few more cents.

 I agree. That unit is dual frequency. While the color display of the other Eagle is nice, I would choose performance over cosmetics.

 

The Humminbird stick has the lowest resolution and would be excluded if I were making the choices.

[Mr_Scrogg]

I would at the PiranahMAX 170 to your list. (Or whatever HB has changed the model to). I had obe on my kayak and found it was a great asset. You could get a transducer Deployment Arm from Harmony or RAM mount

[Fishes in trees]

Back when I was fishing out of other people's boats and a pond boat similar to yours, I had a Bottom Line Fishing Buddy, very similar to the Hummingbird.  (Bottom Line was bought out by Hummingbird)  For portability and ease of operation purposes, that is the unit I'd go with.  My unit was powered by 3 C cell batteries and it would eat them.   I never got more than two trips out of a set of batteries, and generally less than that.  My guess though, is that any portable depth finder system is adept at eating batteries.

[Brian6428]

Thanks for the replies guys, sadly the first one is out of stock at Bass Pro and just about everywhere else. I found one on Ebay new for $100. I think I will get that one. Thanks!

[james 14]

X2 on the HB PirhannaMax 170. My partner and I each had one on our jon boats. WM carries them now for about $100 (or maybe less by now) and returns there are super easy if anything ever screws up.

[Brian6428]

X2 on the HB PirhannaMax 170. My partner and I each had one on our jon boats. WM carries them now for about $100 (or maybe less by now) and returns there are super easy if anything ever screws up.

That one looks really good...I will take a look at that. Thanks! I could get it from wally world for $91. Not bad. Would it be portable?

[Fishes in trees]

You live in KC.  Did you check out Rogers in Liberty to see what they had in the way of inexpensive/portable depth finders.  They will normally meet or beat any catalog price.  Plus they are local for you.

[james 14]

That one looks really good...I will take a look at that. Thanks! I could get it from wally world for $91. Not bad. Would it be portable?

 

It depends on your definition of portable. You can pull the head unit and move it to another boat with the same wiring pretty easily. However, it's just like any other DF with a power cable and a transducer cable that go with it to make it work. If it HAS to be portable you could figure something out but exactly what would depend on your specific situation and what you're trying to do with it.

[Brian6428]

It depends on your definition of portable. You can pull the head unit and move it to another boat with the same wiring pretty easily. However, it's just like any other DF with a power cable and a transducer cable that go with it to make it work. If it HAS to be portable you could figure something out but exactly what would depend on your specific situation and what you're trying to do with it.

I have a pelican bass raider 10E. So preferably store it off of the boat and put it on the boat on the water. Would that work? Also, what did you use to power it? I have a 12v deep cycle for my TM, would that work?

[james 14]

That would work. The head unit on most DF's can unplug and be pulled from the mount in about 10 seconds. You can even leave the wiring loose if you want and pull the whole deal off when you get home. The only thing to consider is that the head unit and the transducer need to be mounted somewhere in a fixed position while in use on the boat. Both have their own mounts that screw into the boat and this is a standard setup. I know some guys have created special mounts for their transducers so they could be pulled from the boat. On mine I screwed it to the back of the transom in the traditional manner so I don't have any experience there. That would be something to look at if you really wanted to be able to pull the transducer off at the end of the day since removing it from the mount isn't as easy as removing the head unit.

[Wayne P.]

You can make any unit portable.

This is one of my setups for a Humminbird 1198c SI for use on other craft.

The transducer mount is a former transom mount trolling motor shaft and bracket.

[Brian6428]

Thanks for the info Wayne and James, it helps a lot. I think I will get the HB PiranhaMAX 170. It sounds like I could mount it on my boat without too much trouble. Thanks again!

[Comfortably Numb]

I had a bedliner boat and screwed the transducer to a 2 x 4  and used c clamps to hold it in place.

[Brian6428]

I had a bedliner boat and screwed the transducer to a 2 x 4  and used c clamps to hold it in place.

Thanks for the idea, I think I will end up doing something like that.