depth finder question garmin,eagle,lowrance

[z20comanche05]

i bought a ranger last year and i got it with 2 garmins, a 178c gps at my console and a 250 up front.i fished with a guide last week in florida that had a eagle at the console and it seemed to be alot better in finding humps and fish than my garmin gps at the console.i really like the gps portion with the hotspots card.but i am thinking of adding another one at my console just wanting to know what you all think of eagle,lowrance,and garmin.thanks in advance

[LRB]

I put a new Eagle on my boat about a month ago. I was a little skeptical when I purchased it, but the price was too good (around $150). Not a sales pitch for Bass Pro Shops here, but the guy at the store up in Indiana walked me through the setup I wanted, was very knowledgeable (you could tell he actually fished) and made me feel better about it. He could have pushed a $700-$1000 oufit on me, but assured me the Eagle was what I needed. (He, in fact, talked me out of a $450 unit.)

All I want out of a depth finder is temperature, arcs (not <>< symbols, lit screen for night fishing, and the ability to see "clouds" of shad. My new Eagle does just that and I am VERY pleased with it. I went into the store ready to spend as much as $500 on a new unit, but could not ask anything more out of my $150 unit.

I said all of that to say, Eagles are good units. I recommend them.

[Danny]

Z20,

My boat came with a Lowrance X65 in the console. I later (about 3 months.. duh) added a Garmin 168 GPS combo. I really liked teh Garmin's depth finder better than my X65, but I do think the two are in different classes as far as quality. Back then, the color units were way higher than the regular ones. I wish I had a color unit. I have seen them in use, and they are nice.

One thing I really wanted to add was that if you add the extra unit, it will likely cause interference with the original one.

For instance, if my Garmin is on, then the X65 indash is not accurate at all. Not a big deal, but it is kind of irritating since the temp. probe is on the X65.

Also, the original unit seems to have the transducer mounted further back on the pad, as it works better when I am up running. It seems the Garmin I had added loses contact with the water more quickly, which would indicate that the transducer is placed further forward where the boat is out of the water up on plane at a higher speed.

Finally, I do think that sometimes we (fishermen) think we need much more fishfinder than we really do. If you think about it, a fishfinder with traditional transducer only sees an area of a circle about one third the depth of the water. What that means is if you are in 9 feet of water, you see about a three foot circle. I think I've come to the conclusion that I need a decent one at the console to find humps and brush piles, but at the front of the boat is where we really make our decisions. But still, the front transducer, unless you have a side view, is still showing you a small area under your boat.

What all that means is that I sometimes think that I (at least) and possibly others, sometimes use our electronics as a crutch as to why we fail. We need good electronics that will show structure changes, and will pick up the cover such as brushpiles. Also though we need to pick up bait fish schools.

Also, I just thought of this, if you do fish in a lake that does stratify and you get a thermocline, then maybe you do need one powerful enough to help you descern where the thermocline is located.

Bottom line, I had a hummingbird wide eye on my pontoon, way back in the very early 90's and aside from my GPS, I think it did just as good a job as my Lowrance and my Garmin. Again though, I believe all the companies have different levels of units.

Good luck, I hope you find the one that works best for YOUR needs.

Danny

[dpage70]

i bought a boat last year that had 2 old fish finders on it. i bought a lowrance x87 and put on the front and left the wide one hundred on the console. no comparison between them. the wide one hundred won't pick the thermocline and lowrance will. i've looked at garmins too trying to decide what to replace the wide one with. to me anyway i dont think there is much difference between them. i do like lowrance/eagle's since that is what i'm use to so thats what i'll wind up buying but to me there isn't a difference.

[VMAXX]

I love Garmins gps system but will never buy another Garmin depth finder as mine are always in transit to be repaired :(



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Vmaxx >)))^((">

[rudeZ20]

Hey Dude,

I have had any issues out of my Garmins at finding anything. The only issue I have is catching them. How did the fishign in Florida go? How did the boat run? Call me.
Later,
Marty

[JBehr]

I have always used Eagle/Lowrance and like them. I'm sure the other brands are just as good, though. I currently have two Eagle Fishmark 320's and they work real well. I use them for crappie, striper and catfish both in lakes and the Ohio river. Check out Cabelas...they had a lot of sonars on sale. My Fishmark 320 cost around $140 if I remember correctly.