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Posts: 32954
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I am looking at several brands this year, favoring Raymarine heavily. What is your call for the best sonar for fishing/trolling? |
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Posts: 1438
| I don't own one but have fished with several Garmins. I have heard nothing but good about the units. I will start looking with Garmin when I get my next boat.
Scott |
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Posts: 1936
Location: Eau Claire, WI | Steve,
I have never owned Raymarine but from what I've read they seem pretty competitive.
I have had good success with Garmin 240's. I have run 3 different models in the past 3 seasons and they all gave me good service.
However I have had a chance to play with the new Eagle 320's. WOW.... They are less money than the Garmin, more power and better clarity. I would be hard pressed not to purchase one of these.
The only other consideration for you (as I know you like a flasher on the bow) would be to consider the Lowrance equivalent of the Eagle. I think it's the X95. It offers a real-time a flasher mode and you can split the screen between flasher/screen display. Very cool...but a little more money. |
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Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | Steve, I really like the Lowrance X - 85 I have on the bow of my boat. Shows a lot of detail etc. I prefer the "real time" flasher on the dash for its high speed capabilities. But when on the bow of the boat I prefer to see greater detail for a longer period of time. That's why I like the LCD. I know that an LCD reacts more slowly, but when on the bow moving with the troller you will be moving slowly enough for the LCD to be in effect "real time". I have no experience with the Raymarines or the Garmins. I do know that the guys that I know that have the Garmins tell me that they will be using them from now on. For whaever that is worth. By the way, the X - 85 seems to be a little hard on transducers. I have had to replace two of them so far. Hope this helps a little. |
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Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | Steve, one thing I forgot to mention. If you can have them "glass: in the transducer toward the front of the boat about where you wil be fishing from. 1st, of all you want to see whats down there where you are not at the back of the boat. 2nd, if the transducer is on the foot of the trolling motor, you will tend to"lose" bottom whenever the treoller is pulled up and you run down the lake. Some units have a very hard time finding bottom once this happens. You then have to shut the unit off and turn it back on to help it find itself. Generaly the flashers do NOT do this. They seem to be able to find themselves a little better. |
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Posts: 105
| I prefere a flasher on the bow with the transducer on the trolling motor. Most of what you see on a graph is history and you tend to look at that more than whats really there. With a flasher, the marks are only there for a few seconds and what you see is what's down there. Spend more time concentrating on catching fish rather than looking at what WAS there. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | I just picked up the Eagle 320 last night. Hands down the best unit in that pricerange right now. It does have a section of the graph that runs in realtime, simular to the Garmin. Great resolution! |
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| Steve, I too like Raymarine. For the money today, I'd get the Eagle 320 hands down...... |
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Posts: 1536
Location: God's Country......USA..... Western Wisconsin | Terry, Looking at what "was there" is exactly why I want that kind of unit on the bow. I fish a lot of structure and need to see what I have been over the top of. The LCD gives me a short record of what I may otherwise have missed. This let's me fish and not look at the finder all of the time. Works great for me. But just in case I have a flasher on the bow as well. Kinda like a belt and suspenders. |
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Posts: 440
| I was just checking something and the found that the Garmin units have 4000 watts of power and the Eagle 320 has 1200 watts. Now I don't know if that is the type of power that helps with clarity and separation. The Eagle does have more Pixels, higher definition. I personally would like to have a Vexilar flasher on the trolling motor. We used to run an Ealge flasher on the trolling motor and I miss it. |
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Posts: 69
| Hiya,
For the bow, I'm a diehard flasher guy. Like the instant response and am just plain used to seeing it out of the corner of my eye and being able to tell exactly where I'm at. If you want to go flasher, check out the Marcum LX-3. Man what a unit...
On the console, I have a Zercom LPG 2000, which I think is now sold under the Humminbird brand as the Legend 3000. Love the thing. Real time sonar, and about the easiest to operate LCR I've ever used. No embedded menus or buttons the size of a wood tick - all big knobs you can use with mittens on. Love the thing.
Cheers,
RK |
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Posts: 58
| Bottom Line Tournament. Love that sidefinder. |
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Posts: 20273
Location: oswego, il | I loved my pinpoint system. My dad has an X-91 which works terrific and I am sure the new X-97 works great as well.
Edited by ToddM 3/27/2003 8:24 PM
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I'll stick with my Vexilar up front. Guess I don't need all the new fangled stuff, and my flasher still seems to be the best thing going. It is definately more sensitive and easier to tell weed differences, bottom content changes, and the like better than any liquid crystal I've used.
My cousin who catches alot of big fish out of the Holcombe flowage trolling swears by the old Humminbird side finder(I think thats what its called) for the front. He mounts it on a piece of conduit of the bow, then is able to see the bottom and side of the channel with enough time to react and get his baits over the areas he chooses. Probably answered no ones questions, but oh well!!!
Good luck in 03!
Edited by Reef Hawg 3/27/2003 11:17 PM
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