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Posts: 118
| Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone has a suggestion for what a good inexpensive depth finder might be. I just purchased my first boat (14ft smoker craft w/ 3 bench seats) and need something. I'm broke as a joke so something simple to start off with is fine. I'm planning on using my vexilar flasher with the boat kit on the front but need something simple for reading depth/temp/speed. I'm using this mostly in the Minneapolis metro area and wont be hitting many big lakes.
Anyone have experience using flashers for musky fishing? I've been told by a few old timers that once you understand it, the flasher is the only way to go... those crazy old guys have some interesting thoughts though.....
Thanks a ton. Boat ownership really kicks ass. Next step is building a casting deck... |
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Posts: 37
Location: Freedom, WI | If your looking for something that mainly tells you the depth, I have either a Lowrance x-4 or an x-4 Pro (not sure), and they work fine for telling you the depth. The x-4 is $80 and the x-4 Pro is $90.
I would look for one with a gps personally. The Lowrance Mark-4 is only $200, and if you want one with a fancy color screen, the Elite-4 is $300.
Not sure what a flasher is. |
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Location: Not far enough north! | travesty - 8/31/2013 1:47 PM
Not sure what a flasher is.
Crap I'm Getting old |
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Posts: 134
| I buddy of mine that does some freelance writing for some mags was given the opportunity to do a review on graphs for under a hundred bucks. I was out with him most of the time and between Humminbird, Garmin, and Lowrance. To be honest to my surprise and pre conceived notions the Garmin was by far the best unit. Id give them a look. Ill try n find the article... |
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Posts: 555
Location: Tennessee | No experience with Garmin but my boat came with a Hbird 160. If you just need to find contour changes, depth, and temp, it's a good cheap unit. Shows baitfish quite well also |
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Posts: 504
Location: Ludington, MI | I saw a similar review that said Garmin had the best stuff for cheap. I think an ice-fishing flasher would be OK if you're just casting, but for trolling you obviously want depth on-the-fly and possibly GPS maps. We tried a flasher for perch over open water last year and it was fine, we were just paranoid we were going to knock the #*^@ thing overboard. |
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Posts: 46
Location: Plymouth, MN | Stick to a very basic model with temp, depth, etc for now. Along with the other brands mentioned, the Humminbird Piranhamax series has been good to me. IMO if you end up buying a $250+ model that typically has a 4" screen with toys like GPS, DSI, etc you'll be kicking yourself later for not saving up for one with a 7" or larger screen. The difference is HUGE, especially when using a split screen. |
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Location: sneaking out to get on the water ;-) | I have one of the small hbirds and it works great for depth and temp. This is the 6th season with it so far not bad for around 70-80 dollars. |
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