Which fish finder?????

[BassChump]

I need a new fishfinger. I'm new to bass fishing so I don't have a clue. I just purchased an old 1984 Bayliner bass boat and I've had lots of fun with it.

The fishfinder that came with it is an older model and the display is cloudy and it's time for a new one I think.

I live on the central Oregon coast and this will mainly be used in the local lakes close to home. The lakes are mostly large coastal lakes. Very shallow, weedy with plenty of cover in the water. (logs, weeds, lilly pads, etc.)

I'm far from rich so something price sensitive would be nice although I'm not against spending a bit more if it helps me and my daughter catch more fish.

Where would the best place be to mount the transducer??? Should I mount the monitor near the steering wheel or since I fish from the front, would it be better to mount it up there someplace??? Can a guy get 2 monitors and have them mounted in each place running from one transducer???? Is that possible???

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

           Thanks.

[Jig Man]

What you should do is totally an individual useage thing.  Around here most people have one up front with the transducer on the trolling motor and one on the console with a transducer on the transom or in the bilge.

[BassChump]

Gee, thats a great suggestion. I wouldn't have thought of having one up front and another at the wheel but it makes perfect sense to me since that is where my butt would be when I'm fishing. I don't know how wide the cone of the signal would be but I'm assuming it gets wider the deaper it goes. Is that the case????? Does anybody know how wide the signal would be at any given depth????? Hmm. This is getting more interesting by the day. lol

That now brings up other questions in my head.

Do many fish finders also tell you water temps???? Perhaps different temperature layers at different depths?? Not sure how it would do that but at this point, I know nothing about that kind of thing.

How would I mount the the transducer on the trolling motor?????

[acar555]

Most sonars have a single 20 dgree cone angle.  20 dgrees equal coverage equal to 1/3 of your current depth.  For example in 15 feet of water you would be seeing a 5 ft circle under the boat.  The are some models, especially Humminbird models, have a dualbeam transducer that has 20 and 60 degree cone angles.  At 60 degrees the coverage is equal to your depth.  Almost all have temperature in them as well.

[Jig Man]

mav you might be well served to spend a little time reading about sonar units.  Lowrance has a very good tutorial on their website.  It would be time well spent.  

As stated the typical cone angle is 20° but there are different ones available.  I just sold my LMS480DF which had a dual of 12° and 50°.

[Long Mike]

Jig Man, you took the words right out of my mouth, er, fingers.  www.lowrance.com has an excellent turorial for both sonars and GPS units.