Fish Finder suggestions under $300

[Robert Giesen]

Quote

Fish Finders under $300 for a 10 foot pelican bass raider

 

[Hez]

Hi, welcome to Bass Resource.

 

I purchased the Humminbird 698 for my jon boat.  It is retail $349 with $150 in rebates.  It took about 3 months to get the rebates - 1 came as a check the other as a visa check card.  

 

The unit itself works great.  I wish the screen were bigger...but it is fairly inexpensive.  Bigger screen....more $$.

 

http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Humminbird-698ci-HD-SI-Chartplotter/Fishfinder-Combo&i=770809&cvsfa=2586&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=373730383039&s_kwcid=adwords__&gclid=CIPyh56D1tICFVM8gQodREQNgw

 

[12poundbass]

I'd go with a Helix 5di. The big box stores have them at or below $300. If you do some searching you could find a marine electronics store for cheaper than that. You could save a little more if you wanted to and get a "side seeing" unit.

[Robert Giesen]

Thanks for the info !

 

[StevesBass]

I've been looking at the Garmin Echomaps.  Seems like you get a lot more bang for your buck.

[12poundbass]

2 hours ago, StevesBass said:

I've been looking at the Garmin Echomaps.  Seems like you get a lot more bang for your buck.

Can you get a Garmin with echomaps for under $300? I know the Striker series are pretty cheap, but they don't have mapping, and from what I've read if you adjust your settings they aren't saved and need to be reset every time you power up. Big bummer in my mind. If you don't mind not having mapping and don't mind resetting your sensitivity and other things every time then yes they are a great deal. You can get a Striker 7dv for just over $300 which I think is a great deal! But there's the trade-off.

[Scott F]

I got the Garmin echoMap 54dv with the 5 inch screen, non chirp version with the transducer for $297 at Bass Pro a few months ago. You might find a similar deal with an internet search.

[12poundbass]

Good to know.

[StevesBass]

20 hours ago, Scott F said:

I got the Garmin echoMap 54dv with the 5 inch screen, non chirp version with the transducer for $297 at Bass Pro a few months ago. You might find a similar deal with an internet search.

Can you tell us if it saves settings between power ups?   I've seen a couple of people saying it does and I've seen a couple that say it doesn't.   I have a hard time believing it doesn't.   That is just such a common sense, must have feature that I can't see a manufacturer leaving it out.

[StevesBass]

22 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

Can you get a Garmin with echomaps for under $300? I know the Striker series are pretty cheap, but they don't have mapping, and from what I've read if you adjust your settings they aren't saved and need to be reset every time you power up. Big bummer in my mind. If you don't mind not having mapping and don't mind resetting your sensitivity and other things every time then yes they are a great deal. You can get a Striker 7dv for just over $300 which I think is a great deal! But there's the trade-off.

Academy Sports has the echoMAP 53cv (non CHIRP) for $279.99 right now.  Includes LakeVu HD maps and Quickdraw Contours to create HD maps on the fly.  Includes transom and trolling motor mounts.  Not sure on the issue with saving settings but somebody should be able to verify that pretty easily.  

[Scott F]

I have a 73sv and now the 54dv. I haven't used the 54 yet so I can't say about saving the settings on that. There are a lot of settings to choose from. On the 73sv, as far as I can tell, nearly all of the settings are saved. I think, the only setting that might not get saved when you turn the unit off, is  the choice of screen views. You can choose your favorite views, which sonar and GPS views you prefer and save that but you have to select that choice when you turn the unit back on. I haven't used my boat since last fall so my memory is not clear, but my old Lowrance units used to default back to all the factory settings every time you turned it off and I know the Garmin does not do that.

[StevesBass]

26 minutes ago, Scott F said:

I have a 73sv and now the 54dv. I haven't used the 54 yet so I can't say about saving the settings on that. There are a lot of settings to choose from. On the 73sv, as far as I can tell, nearly all of the settings are saved. I think, the only setting that might not get saved when you turn the unit off, is  the choice of screen views. You can choose your favorite views, which sonar and GPS views you prefer and save that but you have to select that choice when you turn the unit back on. I haven't used my boat since last fall so my memory is not clear, but my old Lowrance units used to default back to all the factory settings every time you turned it off and I know the Garmin does not do that.

Thanks for clearing that up.   I've got a Helix 5 SI at the console and I'm looking to upgrade my unit up front to either a 73sv or a 93sv.  The whole reason I started looking closer at the Garmin units was the fact I wasn't going to pay another $150 for a second copy of Navionics.

[RoLo]

 

Lowrance Hook 5 w/ microSD chart cards

 

 

[Scott F]

The included mapping was the only reason I chose Garmin over the others. The high def maps of the lakes that I fish were nearly perfect. That's why I replaced a 2 year old Lowrance that worked just fine except for the poor quality of the map chips I had purchased. I could have bought higher quality chips, but they would have cost as much as I paid for the 54cv, which included the ability to make my own maps. 

[12poundbass]

4 hours ago, StevesBass said:

Can you tell us if it saves settings between power ups?   I've seen a couple of people saying it does and I've seen a couple that say it doesn't.   I have a hard time believing it doesn't.   That is just such a common sense, must have feature that I can't see a manufacturer leaving it out.

The complaints I saw for the settings not being saved was for the Striker models. I have a hard time believing too that option was overlooked or not considered. 

[RoLo]

23 hours ago, Scott F said:

The included mapping was the only reason I chose Garmin over the others. The high def maps of the lakes that I fish were nearly perfect. That's why I replaced a 2 year old Lowrance that worked just fine except for the poor quality of the map chips I had purchased. I could have bought higher quality chips, but they would have cost as much as I paid for the 54cv, which included the ability to make my own maps. 

 

My search for the most accurate contour charts has taken me around Robin's barn a few times.

This can only be done by comparing the highest quality charts from each cartographer.

For several decades I ran Garmin sonar in both freshwater and saltwater, which I found to be

the most user-friendly hardware (military contracts played the leading role). Although I was using

Garmin hardware, I always ran Navionics software because their charts were clearly

more accurate than Garmin's  I was able to do this only because I held on to

Garmin MapSource applet rather than upgrade to Garmin Basecamp.

Though I still have the Garmin MapSource app, I no longer use Garmin hardware.

 

After that I ran a Humminbird Onix for a couple years, but again loaded with a Navionics chip.

I ultimately ditched the Humminbird Onix, which was an atrocious unit!  I now run Navionics charts

in a Navionics Elite Ti (touchscreen interface), it's the most satisfying sonar system I've ever owned.

Are the charts precise?  No, but no cartographer offers precise bathmetry, it's not even possible.

Though I'm still waiting and hoping that some cartographer, any cartographer

to offer chart accuracy that's superior to Navionics Plus with daily updates, it has yet to happen.

 

Roger

 

[Scott F]

The mapping technology has improved drastically in the last few years. The map chips I bought not long ago were still using data copied from inaccurate maps drawn many years ago. I have no doubt that if they aren't doing it already, Lowrance and Humminbird will both be including high def maps with their units before long making the map chips you have to buy, obsolete.

[Wayne P.]

13 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

My search for the most accurate contour charts has taken me around Robin's barn a few times.

This can only be done by comparing the highest quality charts from each cartographer.

For several decades I ran Garmin sonar in both freshwater and saltwater, which I found to be

the most user-friendly hardware (military contracts played the leading role). Although I was using

Garmin hardware, I always ran Navionics software because their charts were clearly

more accurate than Garmin's  I was able to do this only because I held on to

Garmin MapSource rather than upgrade to Garmin Basecamp.

Though I still have the Garmin MapSource applet, I no longer use Garmin hardware.

 

After that I ran a Humminbird Onix for a couple years, but again loaded with a Navionics chip.

I ultimately ditched the Humminbird Onix, which was an atrocious unit!  I now run Navionics charts

in a Navionics Elite Ti (touchscreen interface), it's the most satisfying sonar system I've ever owned.

Are the charts precise?  No, but no cartographer offers precise bathmetry, it's not even possible.

Though I'm still waiting and hoping that some cartographer, any cartographer

will offer chart accuracy that's superior to Navionics Plus with daily updates, it has yet to happen.

 

Roger

 

 

 

Good points.

Adding to that is, no mapping company collects data for every square foot of terrain regardless of who does it. Data is collected in intervals and then fake lines (interpolated) are filled in between those intervals to create the contours. 

If you do your own with some contour mapping software, you won't do that either as you will see more data created than is actually measured. You may think you are creating an accurate map, but you are not. You will have just as much false data as the mapping companies produce.

 

I think I have posted this on this site before, but this track is what I did to correct an interpolation error from previous sonar logs. ONLY the exact depth and location below the green line is actual accurate data. Every dark area within the green line that gets contour lines is fake (interpolated).

 

 

This is a big area that I surveyed just to get some data to start. The ONLY accurate data is below those lines. The map created has contours everywhere in between. Basically I got (something) but not any accuracy for 95%> of the area covered.

You can view the results of that and may think it looks great, BUT you and I know from the collected data track where the accuracy really is.

Mapping companies do the same thing the same way as I did, maybe even less. BUT I can fill in those areas whenever I take the time to do so. I doubt if any mapping company will resurvey a particular body of water to improve the accuracy of their maps within 10 years of the last one.

Just too many locations and not enough time.