Fishfinder/GPS Reccomendations

[EllisCM]

Hey guys,
My dad is looking to replace the cheap little humminbird FF that came with our boat because it won't stay on and the depth jumps from the correct depth to 3 feet every few minutes. I was hoping I could get some insight about the best options from some guys who fish the Potomac and Chesapeake regularly. He's considering a GPS combo as well.

The boat: 18.6 foot Key West Dual Console, 115 Yamaha

Where we fish: Lower Potomac and Upper Bay

Fishing for: Rockfish, bluefish, croaker, flatties, maybe macks

Budget: $500.00 or less.

Any ideas? I've heard good things about furuno and mixed feelings on lowrance?
Thanks.

-Colin Ellis

[B-Faithful]

look what garmin has to offer. I have a garmin 3010c on my boatn and my father has a Ray c80. I think we both like the Garmin better. While the fishfinder is slightly better on the Ray the Garmin Plotter blows away the ray

try

Marine Closeout - Overstock items for boaters! for deals on reman and left over models

[EllisCM]

Thanks B-Faithful, anybody else have an opinion on the best FF or FF/GPS for under 500?

[edgewater1]

the eagle is the low end lowarnce, and i would go with a fruno, or a newer humminbird i just love'em

Peace
Tony S

[FlatDaddy]

I bought a Humminbird when I first got my boat. The warranty was 90 days. It lasted about 100 days. I then bought a Lowrance and I have had it for 7 years with no problems.

[rj]

Furuno,Garmin, Raymarine

I have a Furuno, but Garmin & Ray also make good units

lowrance had some problems with their early combo units, I know several unsatisfied lowrance customers.

I have several hummingbirds, they are not real high end units
& have experienced the same problem as you- it always turned out to be poor connections where the power & transducer cables plug into the units,
try carefully inspecting & cleaning ALL the connections. (power & transducer)

[craigwhite]

within your budget parameters, you may be only able to get a Furuno unit used .... if you are looking for a nice unit within your price budget, I would suggest going with what you will favor more. If you want a better fishfinder, then I would suggest Lowrance. If you would want a better chartplotter, then I would suggest garmin. Again, in a combo chartplotter & fishfinder you will be over the $1000 mark with Raymarine or Furuno. Best of luck! If you need a qualified installer for this project, give shoot me a pm.

Craig

[fjoyce@dtvinc.com]

I have a 45' Viking with a New Raymanine E120 system with 6 foot open array 4kwRadar, Chart Plotter and Fishfinder and auto pilot. I also have on it a Garmin 188 color chart Plotter and fish finder. Also a Furuno fishinder/Plotter. I love my garmin and use this for most of my navigation and information. The raymarine has too much useless information on it and is not very user friendly. The radar does not find birds. I bought this entire system to replace a 18 year old Furuno 8050 that I loved. I needed to get some repairs done and I thought that it might be money better spent on a new system then repairing an old system. What a mistate. The old system found birds and what ever I needed. I still use the Furuno fishfinder and it works well. If I can be of assistance, let me know. If you know of a good tech for Raymarine let me know. Frank

[ceteejr]

I bought the Garmin 498 GPS/Fishfinder combo unit as a leftover for $500. Then my 10" Raytheon unit on my 36' Trojan malfunctioned and I replaced it with a Garmin 498. They are great units.
Go to www.AFCMarine.com, they have them all listed. You can probably get 2 seperate units for under $500. I went to Garmin on the AFC site & the most reasonable fishfinder was $111. and get a GPS for a couple of hundred. The most reasonable combo unit was the 420 for around $500.
AFC Marine had the best prices around and the service is great.

[EllisCM]

Thanks everybody for your posts!
I think he is going with a Garmin fishfinder without the GPS. We don't take the boat on real long voyages and we have a nice handheld gps so it seemed like a better idea to spend the money on the fishfinder alone.
-Colin