Fish finder

[Sheamus Walsh]

What is the best easy to read and set up fish finder

[GaryH]

I would say the Lowrance Hook models. Inexpensive and simple to use. I'm not saying the best but I think it's one of the easiest to use and set up.

 

[Dminor9]

My vote goes for the Garmin Striker Plus. Just bought one two months ago and it was easy to set up and very easy to use and understand. I also do not think there is a best fish finder. It is a matter of personal preference.

[wis bang]

On 8/24/2020 at 3:04 PM, GaryH said:

I would say the Lowrance Hook models. Inexpensive and simple to use. I'm not saying the best but I think it's one of the easiest to use and set up.

 

I just added the hook 4 w/ GPS to the rear of my boat. Works great for depth, temp and GPS.

 

I have an older monochrome Hummingbird on my trolling motor and it shows better fish/bait cloud returns for actual fishing but is useless when I lift the TM and start the gas engine.

 

The hook series is really plug and play, comes with everything, all the wiring, screws to mount the base and transducer, even the in-line fuse holder and a 3 amp fuse including two wire nuts to add the fuse holder to the positive lead.

 

One warning, avoid simulation mode, the directions really don't tell one how to exit the sim mode. I had to call my bud with the same unit, from the lake, the first time I went on the lake and he had to look on-line and text me back....

[Fin S]

I found the Garmin EchoMap units easy to use.

[Mbirdsley]

I’m a big fan of garmin.  Clear picture and easy to use.  

[Tatsu Dave]

On 8/24/2020 at 5:35 PM, Dminor9 said:

My vote goes for the Garmin Striker Plus. Just bought one two months ago and it was easy to set up and very easy to use and understand. I also do not think there is a best fish finder. It is a matter of personal preference.

Another vote for the striker plus, with screen size the bigger the better. I use mine for bottom structure and depth as well as water temp and being able to waypoint structure spots and drop offs and return to them. Boat speed is another good point.   Dave

[Boomstick]

I think most people will say that Garmins are the easiest to use. I found the same thing toying with the demo models at BPS/Cabelas, and after owning a Garmin EchoMap UHD 93sv for a few months I will attest the UI is extremely user friendly and once you get it setup, you don't have to tweak a lot lake to lake. The imaging quality has also came a long way in the past few years. Lowrance units aren't too far behind. Hummingbird's have amazing imaging but at the cost of requiring more tweaking for obvious reasons.

 

When I started shopping fish finders, I was considering a Lowrance HDS as it's the best of both worlds with a very good screen, but I quickly ruled that out simply because it eats batteries twice as fast as a comprable sized Lowrance Elite/Garmin EchoMap/Hummingbird Helix, largely to power the extra pixels. I strongly considered a Hummingird Helix Chirp Mega SI+ G3N as well for the imaging quality and a Lowrance Elite in a distant third place, but I'm very happy with the Garmin. I feel I can see almost everything - clear northeast water helps that for sure.