Fishfinder Question

[Tom S.]

Looking for info on a 'starter' fishfinder for a pontoon.  Any thoughts / tips greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[whitefish]

I had a small budget so I ended up getting the Hummingbird 110 Portable Fish finder. Very good for fishing off docks and my jon boat. You could look it up and see if it is what you're looking for. It's very portable.

[noway]

Garmin 160C.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=292#ff160c

Google for a better price.

[done]

I have been running an Eagle Cuda 168 off my Jon for about a year. Great price, good little unit for the cash you spend.

When you say "starter" though, what budget you looking to stay within? The Eagle Cuda is around $70. Good idea, shoot out the $$ you are looking to spend and the guys here will give you a list of models that should hit your ballpark.

[Paul Roberts]

Go for as high a vertical resolution as you can afford.

640 beats 480

480 beats 320

320 beats 240

Etc...

Color is considered better than B/W (This'll be my first year with color so we'll see).

Using sonar is so much about interpretation of the returns you get. As you get better, you'll appreciate the resolution.

[done]

Paul...you bring up a good questions for me. What is so good about color? I mean what does it show? I really am curious. I have B/W and I have been able to do real good with hear's the bottom,here's the fish, go get 'em.

[Paul Roberts]

M Starr, I really don't know yet. I've just bought one and will see.

What I've read is that the color is easier to read/discern density differences. I really can't see why exactly but again, I'll see as I go. It's important to me to be able to discern relative bottom hardness. I've got spots that are a transition from muck to rubble that hold fish. I can find 'em dragging a Carolina rig. I want to see those types of transitions on my sonar. I also want to see if I can discern fish close to bottom and close to vegetation/light wood. I've used B/W units and at least on the old paper units, resolution was quite good.

My big limitation is that I will be using this unit on small craft, and a float tube a lot, so I need a compact unit -that's a small screen.

When I finally bought my unit (a couple of weeks ago) I wanted one that I wouldn't be disappointed in (not planning to trade up anytime soon) and the pixel count was higher/screen size in the color units. That, with a couple recommendations from friends, is why I went with color.

Will keep you posted on what I find on the water.