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Posts: 117
| I have a regular mark5x. It's my first sonar, but I spent a lot of time learning to use it and use it effectively, and it actually does a really good job. The ONLY difference between mine and that one is that the mark5xpro has a dual-frequency transducer--if you fish shallow water (5-18') as you said you definitely want that, becasue the single frequency mine works on has a narrower beam...in shallow water you want the widest beam becasue the sonar cone is very narrow so close to the boat, so your field of view is significantly wider. I think the narrow cone is about 1/3 the depth, while the wider cone is = the depth...that means my sonar has a 6' field of view at 18' of water, while yours would have an 18' field of view in 18' of water...means you are 3x more likely to mark a bait ball as you pass (almost) right over it. Once you get down 20. 30 or 50 feet it makes less of a difference to me. Mine works plenty deep...although if you use the manual settings to get the most out of the unit, fast transitions between very deep water and very shallow water usually require some changes to the settings with regard to surface clutter, sensitivity, etc--but I believe that's the case with almost any sonar and is really only an issue on some of the drops where I fish for smallmouths that go from 12 to 200+ ft in a couple boat lengths. Color allows you to tell the difference between bottom and a fish or to pick feeding fish out of a bait ball better, but high resolution does the same thing...obviouly high resolution AND color is best, but pretty sure if I had to choose I'd take a higher-resolution greyscale unit over a lower-resolution color unit. Mine is sensitive enough that if you set the sensitivity right you can EASILY see a 1/8oz jighead bouncing up and down 30 feet deep, you can see a thermocline, you can see phytoplankton rising off the bottom in the evening, etc, so actual baitfish and real fish are a piece of cake.
After learning about my sonar and what is was good at and not so good at, I ponied up and bought a color sonar/gps with side imaging...specifically for the shallow water, in order to have the widest possible "field of view", to be able to differenctiate between different objects int he screen, to be able to mark waypoints in order to stay on them when fishing where I cant see bottom, etc. I'm still using my mark5x on the bow...but only until I can afford another SI unit.
The image below is off my Mark5x--Im not sure it's a "hall of fame" image, but I think it's typical of the performace you can expect. I see the drop off the side of the island I was fishing with a hard bottom return, and several fish suspended just above a thermocline about 10 feet above the bottom. For $150 I'll take it.
Edited by Macintosh 2/22/2013 11:20 AM
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 sonarimage1.jpg (37KB - 224 downloads)
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