fish finder help

[dale3joe]

Trying to decide which one to get. A garmin 400 or a lowrance m68c s/map. The garmin costs alittle more but is it worth it. I want a unit with a map,chartplotter.Trying to stay about $400 in price. Which one do u think is better? Need help, dont want to regret buying the wrong one.

[NightFisher]

Where are you gonna use it? River, Bay, Offshore?

[dale3joe]

mainly the bay.

[Capt. Skid]

My .02 worth, get 2 seperate units, one GPS, and a bottom machine...
My reasoning is if your unit goes down, you loose both readings... Just
my take on that..

Capt.Skid

[NightFisher]

I agree with Capt Skid on separate units. For GPS you can't do better than Garmin. I had one of their early sounders and it didn't live up to my expectations, would have been fine for the bay but I needed an offshore capable machine.

Lowrance..... A good machine for a premium price. I haven’t kept up with sounders since I bought my Furuno but I think you can do better for the same money with another brand.

[A Disciple]

Its realy hard to buy bad electronics these days. Most complaints I hear are because of poor installation or somebody didnt do their homework. I have no fewer than three GPS units on my boat 4 if you include the handheld. I didnt put them all on at once but have added them over time. One is a Raytheon that was on the boat when I bought it. I bought the Garmin all inclusive unit with the enhanced maps at the time. Nav aids with depth contours was what I was after. Ive had 3 or 4 different Garmins over the years and being familiar with them made it an easy choice. It had the sounder and It did me OK until I fell In love with the side imaging sonar that humminbird put on the market. I found a 797 and # 3 got installed. The Humminbird is now my dedicated sounder and the Garmin is my GPS and the Raytheon is just a backup. I complained at first because Humminbird didnt offer the sonar unit as a stand alone. I no longer complain about that because I can locate the structure, Freeze the image, move a cursor to the part of the structure I want to fish, and then I get a position in long and lat that puts me on it. Yes I know it has limits but for the fishing I do in the bay I would not be without it. I like Garmin because I know how to use it. I can navigate the menus and features. Its not because its more acurate or more dependable, Its just easy for me.

[J Lavender]

My last Lowrance unit gave me nothing but problems, switched to Garmin (498) 3 years ago, no problems. I also carry a Garmin handheld for backup.