Can anyone recommend a decent fish finder? I boat mostly in the Long Island Sound in anywhere from 20 - 60 feet of water. I'm interested in seeing bottom structure and any fishes between me and said bottom, as well as how deep they are. I would prefer a color unit and to have the transducer inside the boat (ie shoot thru the hull type). I already have a chartplotting gps, so those functions are not necessary. If possible, I don't want to spend more than $300 for a decent unit and transducer combined. Any recommendations for units or a source that compares them?

Lowrance X-135 is in your price range and its a good unit.

but it's not color.

I use the lowrance lms 520c the only thing I have learned is to get a dual frequency model. Most of the pro's use the lowrance use the lowrance lcx models but I don't thing you need that. Also lowrance has come out with digital sounder that greatly increases the effectiveness. I am a lowrance fan due to the ease of expansion as your budget changes.

I love my Navman 4380, it's color, does sonar, volt meter, speedo, water temp, mileage log, and if you buy the fuel-flow attachment it keeps track of your gas used/remaining, as well as mpg and range to empty.

i've got the navman 5600 gps chartplotter, which i love. sure wish i bought one of their combo fish finding units, but my first boat already had a fish finder, so i didn't need one. after doing some reading, it seems i should get a dual frequency transducer since i boat in salt water. many of the units come with the df transducers standard, but only for mounting on the transom. i may have a problem with a transom mount since i have an integrated swim platform that's hollow inside and i'm not sure how i would run the cable up through the swim platform and into the transom. unfortunately, the df transducers are not made for shoot thru the hull installations. they do make them for thru hull installations, but aside the issue of cutting a hole in the bottom of the boat, the darn things are expensive. hmmmmm.

Bruce, it takes a REAL man to cut a hole in the bottom of the boat. There's just something wrong with that concept.

I have a dual frequency in my boat and it works well. Make sure if you do drill the hole that you have some kind of wedge to mount the transducer through. The wedge needs to be on the outside of the hull and the angle of the wedge needs to match the angle of the deadrise. That's the only way I know of to have the transducer point down instead of being perpendicular to the hull.

If your boat already has a depth gauge then all you have to do is replace that and disconnect your existing depth gauge. That how I am going to replace mine.

I have found that after the first hole, the rest are easy.

Bruce, I would highly recommend the AirMar P79 transducer, which is an in-hull one (i.e. no hole in the boat). AirMar is the OEM transducer maker for most of the fish finders (but not all), and you'll find the P79 available for several different manufacturers of finders.

Forget about NMEA2000 in this instance, as most fish finders require more bandwidth, and I know of none that work via NMEA2000. Depth finders are a different story as they don't transmit as much data, and you can find the same P79 transducer in both NMEA2000 and NMEA0183 for depth data.

So in this example, AirMar basically uses the same transducer for multiple functions.

The P79 transducer basically consists of a cup with a open bottom, that gets glued to the bilge bottom inside the boat. Then you fill the cup with pink-antifreeze, which is the coupling medium between the boat bottom and the transducer. Finally the transducer fits on top of the cup. The beauty with the transducer is that it can compensate for the deadrise of the hull and shoot straight down.

One recommendation for using an in-hull transducer is to move it around until you find a place where it works. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of open areas in my bilge, and I found a spot maybe 6" in front of the starboard engine cooling water inlet. I figured it was the only spot I could use, so in that sense, it was a good spot! It turned out that it works very well from that location.



You should be able to see the location of the engine's thru hull in relationship to the transducer. The top of the photo is towards the bow of the boat.

When I installed the transducer, I sanded the bottom to remove all of the dirt, grime, and paint, then applied a thin coat of polyester resin (I used polyester as bilge paint doesn't stick to epoxy). That to me, is an essential step as I was able to find a couple of tiny air bubbles within the laminate that I could avoid shooting through by properly positioning the transducer. Then I simply used sealant to attach the ring to the boat bottom, and assembled the rest. I also painted around the transducer with bilge paint after taking this photo.

I talked to the "Great Carnac", and I think there is a RayMarine C-80 in your future....

But serously, I have a RayMarine DSM300 fish finder which is a very high-performance unit that is essentially a module that hangs off my C-80. They make a cheaper DSM30, which I think is a couple hundred cheaper, and I think the major difference is that it is 12V only whereas mine is 12/24V - at least I think that was the case.

So my recommendation is to go to the Airmar web site (www.airmar.com), search on P79, then it will bring up a list of the different manufacturers that use that transducer, with specific model numbers of their units in some cases, then pick the display that works the best for you. Sort of like reverse engineering.

The P79 isn't really expensive, maybe $100. I am not sure what the price ranges are for the various display units, but you can come up with a short list rather soon, I would think.

i spoke to airmar and i like the p79, but it's not a dual frequency unit, so it won't find fishies in salt water.

[quote=Al]

Forget about NMEA2000 in this instance, as most fish finders require more bandwidth, and I know of none that work via NMEA2000. Depth finders are a different story as they don't transmit as much data, and you can find the same P79 transducer in both NMEA2000 and NMEA0183 for depth data.

You are correct about the bandwidth issues. My unit has a direct port for the sounder and radar. Only the gps and fuel flow sensor are on the network.

Let me repeat this:



I drilled a 4" diameter hole in my helm/dash to install my DS400X by Raymarine. I really like this unit; too bad the whole line has been discontinued in favor of dual FF/GPS units. I like separate components.