Do I go Fishfinder or Fishfinder/GPS?

[batman]

I know there has been quite a few threads on Fishfinders but I can't make up my mind to go a fishfinder or go the combo with GPS.

Budget is definatley dictating what I get so the cheaper fishfinders like the base Garmin ($199) or the Hummingbird M12 ($299 priced at Whitworths Marine yesterday)

I am not sure if GPS is that important to me and to be truthfull I am not a real tech head playing with all the gadgets, I have a tendancy to buy all the bells and whistles and never use all the features.

Do I save my pennies and go for something higher spec latter or will the base models do the job.

Your advice would be great

Batty

[shortie]

I find a mapping GPS invaluable.

Some benefits.

1. Can find previous places where fish have been plentiful easily and reliably.

2. A great way to find your way back home in the Dark.

3. Put in a somebody elses mark and locate fish easily.

[Stinger]

Batman

I prefer combos but you said you have a budget in mind so think about what you want to do.

If you just want to locate fish go the fishfinder.

If you want to be able to pinpoint a fishing spot and map the area to save the GPS location for future reference then of course go for the combo.

I would suggest if you are only fishing rivers and creeks or local sites that are easy to spot then you probably won't realy need the GPS function. In this case you would be better to spend that extra bit of cash and upgrade the type of fishfinder that you get.

[Funfisher]

I think both are very importent but the fishfinder is deffinetly a must have if fishing in water deeper than the eye can see, i prefer to run both seperate units so if one eventualy breaks you dont lose both.

[Feral]

I use both, not a combo unit. For me GPS is really about getting home at night, dont use it at all to go back to a spot. But I fish impoundments only.

[ellicat]

Like the others have said - two separate units are better than one.

Sounder 1st, GPS 2nd on the priority list.

Also - lookup www.jandhproducts.com

You might find you can afford both;)

[Leighton]

Whats it for a boat or Yak

If its for a Yak, then a cheap hand held GPS is all you need. It will keep waypoints and point you in the correct direction. You wont need mapping on a GPS from a Yak, I am sure you can drag a Yak acrioss the odd sand bar.

If from a boat then a hand held and a Brownies Book will do however a GPS and map are worthwhile luxury.

A good quality sound is a must

[Terry H]

bryan, I prefer to use seperate devices for each.

do a bit of research first, but your best bet is to import from the US at the moment, you will save $$$. I got my sounder from www.fishonmarine.com great service I thought. Especially with the value of our currency being so close to 1:1 with US.

[faulked]

personally i recon the better the fish finder the better off you are id save for a bit longer and get a good one id did and im very happy with the results i put a low end in my boat as a comparison and dam it looks like crap you cant see a damn thing on it if all you want is depth of water then its fine if you want to see fish spend 700 plus and this will generally come with gps too but a separate mapping gps is great if you are trying to find marks with out points of visible reference

heres 2 to look at the first is 3d excent in rivers or bay the second would suit open water better
/>http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Humminbird-Matrix-47-3D_W0QQitemZ270243739072QQihZ017QQcategoryZ29723QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and offshore one
/>http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Humminbird-757c-Dual-Beam-Combo-External-Antenna_W0QQitemZ270243743711QQihZ017QQcategoryZ29723QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

well thats my rave hope it helped ooh yeh if 200 is all you have buy second hand but get one with lots of pixels

jason:)

[slider65]

You have to be carefull when buying from the direct from the US as if you have a problem you will have to pay to send it back to US for repair and then pay to get it sent back to you.As no dealers over here will cover item that you bring in yourself.

[obone]

Contrary to what everybody else has been saying, we had a look at this problem a little while back and found (if it'a for installing in a boat) and found there was no point getting 2 screens, when we could hook up 1 larger screen to do the job. We didn't end up getting it but thats a different story, but from memory, you could spilt the screen for half gps, half fishfinder or of course just have the whole screen on one input. So it was more economical in our situation to go for the combo. Realistically, you're rarely going to be using the two screens simultaneously, maybe just for anchoring, that's the only scenario we could think of.

Joel

[Terry H]

slider65 wrote:

You have to be carefull when buying from the direct from the US as if you have a problem you will have to pay to send it back to US for repair and then pay to get it sent back to you.As no dealers over here will cover item that you bring in yourself.

It depends on the manufacturer. Some manufacturers will accept the item in Australia regardless of the location you purchased it.

[Biggles]

Great question Batty, if you are on a budget and only looking to find the odd hole or bit of structure, then the Humminbird max210 (or similar) will be just fine, I had one on the Tempo and it was terrific for that purpose.

I'm still out to lunch on what to get next, I have been struggling with the concepts now for 3 months, and quite fankly I'm a tad confused, ( Terry), I have a least 5 GPS units around the house, all used for different things throughout the fire season, so I know these things really well. As for the sounders well I just don't know, at the moment I am toying with the idea of the colour / GPS combo so I only have one unit on the yak and not 2.

Buggered if I know either let me know if you find the majic formula, good luck.

Regards

Al

[Feral]

Whitworths have a sale on at the moment. (Still way short of O/S prices though) if you want a local warranty.

[Nastymind]

I agree with Funfisher.

I prefer two separate units because you never know when something is going to go wrong.

When something does go wrong, like power loss, at least you still have one of your senses to rely on.

Personal opinion, just another angle for you to consider.

[batman]

I think I am going to save up my dollars and go the Hummingbird 777c, yes top of the range but over the net from the US around the $430, which is more than half price off.

After the snapper seminar I spoke to the Furuno rep and he reckoned to me the Hummingbird would be a better option for my Yak.

He said that the most important thing when choosing a sounder is:

Pixel count

Processor speed and power - if you are not getting a clear pic of whats going on down there then you are getting the wrong info off the fish and bottom.

He and a few of the gun blokes from the marine shops said that you can not go past the 777c, with dual beam it is a great sounder and from the US you just can't go wrong!

Batty

[StevenM]

Good choice batty

I run the colour 777c on the yak. Just use a handheld GPS.

[rayke1938]

At the moment there is only about $100 differecne between an Aussie and a US sourced furuno. Furuno have just put their prices up in the us and here they are offering $75 cash back.Furuno will honour the us warranty here but you have to wait till they get authorisation from Japan.Only problem with the furuno is that they only come with a 10degree transducer so you dont get a wide field of vision in shallow water.Also if you are getting one from the states check what transducer comes with it some come with a 10 degree transducer.

Navman also honour overseas warranties with no hassles.I run 2 seperate units on both boats. T . Neither of my gps units have mapping capabilities, the gps is invaluable for trolling patterns.

Graham Pflaum has a split screen humminbird and using the split screen is a pain as what you see is too small, it may be ok with one of the 8inch screen models.

Cheers

Ray

[BassTracker]

To put my two bob in. I would spend as much as you can afford on your sounder.. there is definatly a differnce in the quality from the base models up through the range, and through the single to quad beam sounders. Some of the features on the better models will make you wonder what a cheap sounder is even good for.. (I had a portable (suction cup transducer) parana max for a while and it did pretty well)

As far as a GPS goes, I wouldnt buy a combo unless you want to get up around the $4000 mark and get something decent like the new stuff from Northern Star (baught out recently by Navman)

Rule: get the best you can afford, get seperate units unless willing to spend the bigger bucks to get quality.