Which type of fish finder

[SomethinFishy]

should I opt for? I go kayaking from time to time; and I would like to buy a decent fish finder. I didn't really need one; so far I was happy just to paddle or sit in the middle of the water but, my niece has recently joined me on my trips. She's studying Biology and wants to observe and follow some fish schools Anyway, I need a decent fish finder.

I have one more question - if I am to use it in these purposes, according to this site I stumbled across, it's better to go with the side imaging finder, right? Do you know any good ones?

Thanks guys, it means a lot to me

[Binder]

Side imaging is difficult to use on a yak, you will need to mount the transducer externally, it will not work through the hull - which is the normal way of mounting a sounder in a yak.

On my yak my sounder really is only to tell me the depth of the water, as I like to toss lures at structure, I'm not really interested in finding fish under the yak, but I use a lowrance 5x, one of the higher end grey scale units available at the time I bought it.

Much better units available now for a similar price. Recently got a lowrance HDI unit for about $400 on special for my boat (where I do want to see fish under it), that just made me realise that those old units really were only good for showing the depth of water!