[bulletbob]

No I am not looking for a Furuno color scope.... a good mid range unit with 240 or 360 vert/horiz. pixels.. speed and temp etc will do nicely.. I am leaning more toward Garmin... any body have a unit they love and would recommend??? .. newer Humminbirds any good??? Eagle? Lowarance? other?.... this is for a small boat so a massive unit with a bronze thru-hull is not in the cards... price I am willing to pay.. is is reasonable or am I a cheap date?? ... thanks in advance for the help.... bob

 

[GoodnightMoon]

I have the Garmin 240 Blue FF, and am very happy with it. It is in your price range - I paid about 250, maybe a little less, I forget. I have a transom mount transducer and it also shows water temp and speed. It's a great unit - very accurate, and very user friendly.

 

[bulletbob]

GoodnightMoon.... Thanks!... I may want to go a step up from yours .. maybe... I think Garmin makes a unit with 360 V/H pixels... I think your is 240... Is the temp/speed on yours accurate and do you get clean bottom/fish readings at cruising speed with your transom mount transducer????? ... bob

 

[620435]

I have 2 raytheons L265 & L365 and they will both be crab food real soon.I've had great luck with lowrance units,but I saw a real nice si-tex in boat U.S. the other day and almost bought it.I think it was around $369-you may want to check that out.

 

[GoodnightMoon]

Bullet Bob,
The depth is very accurate, as is the temp. The speed between the FF and the GPS is off a bit, but it's close - the GPS being the more accurate. I get accurate depth readings with the unit at cruising speed with no problems. The only thing that is off a little bit is the speed. The GPS always shows a slower speed.

 

[bulletbob]

fishman/Goodnight Moon... thanks guys... the info is well appreciated!... bob

 

[Capt. Marc]

Hi,

Lowrance/Eagle. Never having used the Garmin Fishfinder, I cant say much other than stick with what each company does best. I have a lowrance x65 and can spot a cod on the bottom in 300'+ water. I also have a Garmin GPS which works well.

Capt. Marc

 

[Scratcher]

I've seen this question posted on www.thehulltruth.com, marine electronics forum several times recently. The consensus on that board is that the new Furuno 6100 is the unit to buy in that price range. Its something like $269 at Bethel Marine, but thats w/o a transducer. Thru-hull and transom mount transducers are both available.

 

[leakyrivot]

another here for the garmin 240

I'm not one to rely much on fishfinders, but I have been using a garmin 240 for a couple years now and for the money I don't think you can do better. It shows depth, fish, temp, thermoclines, speed and even has a digital voltage guage (this is something every boater should have). It's menu driven and if you can get by on a PC, you may as well throw the manual out; very easy to use. I think you can do without the speedometer though, it requires calibration do the variances in hulls and even after that is only going to tell you speed in relation to the water (this is pretty useless unless you want to brag). GPS is the only way to go for accurate speed, and I'd recomend a garmin 176 for that.
my .02