Second fish finder

[billmac]

So I am (hopefully) on the brink of owning my first bass boat.  It's old, but I don't mind that.  It comes with a Lowrance Hook 7 fish finder.  Now, I am a complete beginner with fish/depth finders and don't even know what I don't know.  But I'm thinking I might like a unit on the bow and at the console.  I don't want to spend a ton of money.  For the console I was just thinking of something that would get me in the general area of where I want to be, and then fine tune it at the bow.  Any advice would be welcome.

[Jleebesaw]

I am kind of doing the opposite. I bought an elite 9ti for the console and a little hook for the bow. I figure I'll want maps and structure scan while at the console while I idle around checking spots out. I'll mostly just want 2d sonar while I'm on the deck. 

[billmac]

Interesting.  Of course, I don't really know what I'm doing.  I'm just guessing at a lot of this.

[junyer357]

I would reccomend a largest (in your budget) unit at console. When i am on plane, last thing i want to do is struggle to see what i need to see at speed. A larger unit allows me to glance down check my heading, depth, channel, etc quickly and easily so i can keep my eyes on water ahead of me.

 

It also applies to idling around and graphing, the details come out better and are easier to see. 

On my front unit, im usually just glancing down to check depth so i dont run aground in skinny water, or zoomed in on map to make sure im close to waypoint on offshore fishing. 

[Troy85]

I have a Lowrance 9ti at the console, and a Lowrance 5ti at the bow.  I wanted the larger screen in the back because sidescan is easier to read on a larger screen.  I pretty much use the bow the unit for checking depth and finding dropoffs, I don't have deep enough water to video game fish.  I also have my console unit on a Ram Mount, so I can turn the unit around when I'm on the front desk and still see my sidescan or map.