A new Fish Finder

[ReelFisher]

Okay so I am looking at getting a new fish finder and I honestly don't know what to lok for. I only have a budget of about $200 and I have seen that they can vary a lot from $100 to $1000 bucks and I am wondering if its even worth getting one if I can't afford the expensive ones ya know? Well anyway I thought I would get on here and ask you guys with all of your knowledge if it would be worth it or not.

[Anonymous]

Okay so I am looking at getting a new fish finder and I honestly don't know what to lok for. I only have a budget of about $200 and I have seen that they can vary a lot from $100 to $1000 bucks and I am wondering if its even worth getting one if I can't afford the expensive ones ya know? Well anyway I thought I would get on here and ask you guys with all of your knowledge if it would be worth it or not.

Fish Easy 245 DS by Eagle. This is a battery powered unit that is incredibly powerful. I use it for Lake Washington and stuff along those lines. It is portable and is suctioned-cupped on the back on a boat. I like it because a) it won't get stolen and b) it's portable and c) it was fairly cheap $115.00. You can look it up thru google by typing in "Fish Easy 245 DS Eagle." I love this unit. It's great for targeting bait balls and then fishing on top of them. It shows perch really well (down to around 200' -- I've had great readings at 220') and with all these features you just can't go wrong buying an Eagle product. I'm not saying another brand might not be just as good, because I'm sure some are, but when it comes to fish/depth finders I find Eagle to be superior to many other fish finders. I love mine and didn't pay too much....so you can get a very good unit for around $100, that you can rely on in all cases - one downside is you have to replace the batteries every 100 hours or so of fishing, but that's not too big a deal. I would look around and see what features you specificaly need (I needed mine to be portable because I fish out of a portable inflatible raft). It just suction-cups on the back of my boat. It would do the same for a canoe, paddle boat, etc. I hope that helps. The nice thing about portable is that it goes wherever you go...and if you go on your buddy's boat...you can suction-cup that sucker on the side and you're good to go...

[A9]

The more you spend the better. I have the Fisheasy 245 like cutthroat killer, and for the price, I wouldn't ask more, but then again, the more you spend, the better you are going to get in performance...I like the Fish Easy 245 DS, but if I didn't have to have a portable one with a suction cup, I'd never buy that model. It sucks batteries and the sonar is not too good. If you could spend $200, spend as much as you can as you will get a much better performing model.....

[Anonymous]

The more you spend the better. I have the Fisheasy 245 like cutthroat killer, and for the price, I wouldn't ask more, but then again, the more you spend, the better you are going to get in performance...I like the Fish Easy 245 DS, but if I didn't have to have a portable one with a suction cup, I'd never buy that model. It sucks batteries and the sonar is not too good. If you could spend $200, spend as much as you can as you will get a much better performing model.....

That's true with most everything - the more you spend the higher quality the product. The Fish Easy 245 DS is superb for local lakes and the batteries last a long time! I would highly recommend it, unless you are looking at spending upwards of $200.00, which I doubt you are, but maybe you are. I find the fish finding capabilities of the DS to be very good and I can attribute all my perch catching in the fall last year to my Fish Easy 245 DS. I'm closing the books on this one - good night all, and tight lines!

[A9]

That's true with most everything - the more you spend the higher quality the product. The Fish Easy 245 DS is superb for local lakes and the batteries last a long time! I would highly recommend it, unless you are looking at spending upwards of $200.00, which I doubt you are, but maybe you are. I find the fish finding capabilities of the DS to be very good and I can attribute all my perch catching in the fall last year to my Fish Easy 245 DS. I'm closing the books on this one - good night all, and tight lines!

I did spend a ton of time this summer fishing for blackmouth and in the fall for silvers, and the 245 really didn't help me out too much other then finding depth or temp when I was using it off my boat. For the money, it's worth it, there's no other portable models better then it from the ones I've heard about and used myself, and I don't recall knowing of any other portable fishfinders more expensive then the 245...Hummingbird maybe has a few suction cup ones but they probably run near $200. When I went on my neighbors boat (who had a GPS/fishfinder combo unit), I would mark a ton more fish, lots more bait schools, and I was more successful in locating fish on their high end fishfinder then the Eagle 245. And I found that the the batteries get sucked empty pretty fast....Not 100 hours like you mentioned....

[Bodofish]

When you're looking at fish finders it doesn't matter how fancy the case is or how pretty the buttons are. The bottom line is the business end. The transducer, period. That's what makes the unit what it is. buy the unit with the best transducer you can afford. figure out how to mount it. and get a small gel cell to run it. end of report. All of the big names have them. I'm a Lowrance fan. But Garmin and Hummingbird are good too. Eagle is the Lowrance budget brand. Transducer, transducer, transducer, transducer, transducer. You can't interpet a signal unless you can send and recieve a good one.

[Anonymous]

That's true with most everything - the more you spend the higher quality the product. The Fish Easy 245 DS is superb for local lakes and the batteries last a long time! I would highly recommend it, unless you are looking at spending upwards of $200.00, which I doubt you are, but maybe you are. I find the fish finding capabilities of the DS to be very good and I can attribute all my perch catching in the fall last year to my Fish Easy 245 DS. I'm closing the books on this one - good night all, and tight lines!

And I found that the the batteries get sucked empty pretty fast....Not 100 hours like you mentioned....

I think the battery life has a direct correlation to the amount used, where it is stored when it's not being used (i.e. cold areas - garage vs. inside the house), and the ambient air temperature outside when the unit is being used. I wouldn't suggest this for fishing in Puget Sound, it's not the strongest by any means, just a great little lake unit that reads down to around 220' in LW. And Bodofish is right on, the transducer must be of high quality to detect pretty much everything. What I like about the DS is that it's so easy to use and you can easily adjust the settings so it doesn't take a ton of time to learn like some higher end equipment I know - up to you - I would do some independent research before making any purchase, especially over $100.00.

[ReelFisher]

Thanks for the info. I have something to go off of now instead of going into it blind and buying whatever i could find. So I checked into the 245 and I think I'll go with it. I would like to spend every penny I can on one but its easier saying that on here then convincing the wife of ya know? haha.

[AdsBot [Google]]

Thanks for the info. I have something to go off of now instead of going into it blind and buying whatever i could find. So I checked into the 245 and I think I'll go with it. I would like to spend every penny I can on one but its easier saying that on here then convincing the wife of ya know? haha.

Exactly. Haha...I think you'll be satisfied with your unit. Good luck finding them big ones!

[ReelFisher]

Hey cutthroatkiller I do have one question. I have been trying to find out through different websites but I haven't found any info on it. I have a 10.6 waterquest basstender that I'll be using it on and it is polyurethane so do you think a suction cup will stick to it?

[Anonymous]

Hey cutthroatkiller I do have one question. I have been trying to find out through different websites but I haven't found any info on it. I have a 10.6 waterquest basstender that I'll be using it on and it is polyurethane so do you think a suction cup will stick to it?

That a good question. Maybe someone else can answer this question with more validity. I can't say with certainty if it would or it wouldn't - I would mention that it sticks to most everything (even my rubber raft) so that's saying something, yet then again, maybe not. However, you can just dangle the transducer over the side of your basstender and that works too...if you went this route I wouldn't go with the Fish Easy DS 245, however. Sorry I can't be of more help - perhaps someone else can. I actually bought this unit on an experimental basis to try out on my rubber raft inflatible and it worked perfectly...so I got lucky. If it wouldn't have suction-cupped on the back on the rubber boat I would have been out the money as there was no return policy because I bought it over the internet on some off the wall website...nonetheless...perhaps someone who has a polyurethane boat explain the physics behind this dual sucking action.:bom:

[Bodofish]

Why wouldn't it stick? If it's resonably smooth there shouldn't be a problem

[A9]

Unless it's an uneven surface, it should work....

[VooDuuChild]

If you have yet to buy, I think you should also check out the Humminbird 565pt. For the price ($249.99), the screen size, resolution and features cannot be beat. It'll go 800 feet, does temperature and will do speed but speed costs extra, gotta get the paddle wheel. I've found that this unit (mine's in the mail) has more resolution than most color units twice it's price and has a bigger screen. Comes in a padded bag with gel cell battery, charger, everything to use it in multiple boats which is why I went with it; all in a neat little package of four pounds. check it out!!

http://store.humminbird.com/sonar/500-s ... 100-1.html

edit: here's some reviews from Cabela's customers that really put me over the edge, they love this unit!!!!

http://www.cabelas.com/link-12/product/ ... 380a.shtml

[HillbillyGeek]

I was in Joe's (Lake Stevens) today and noticed that the Eagle 320 fish finder is on clearance for $149. That's a good price for a 1,500 watt unit.

[HillbillyGeek]

This humminbird looks like a great unit for $129. (1,600 watts peak-to-peak)

Link to humminbird 525 fish finder

[A9]

Here's another portable with the suction cup mount:
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... id=PP_P2_2

[AdsBot [Google]]

This humminbird looks like a great unit for $129. (1,600 watts peak-to-peak)

Link to humminbird 525 fish finder

This is a really good unit, I agree. I think there is enough information in this forum to make an informed decision. You really can't go wrong with these units that are about about $115.00.

[VooDuuChild]

Just make sure that if portability is your game, take into consideration how it's powered; as most are just stupid AA's and such and those are expensive and more of a hassle, at least to me. Yeah, you could just get re-chargeable batteries and a charger, but that too adds into the price and typically those types of rechargeable batteries don't last as long as the larger kind the 565 PT comes with. It's similar to that of a motorcycle battery, but is a gel cell so no worries of spillage (can be mounted at any angle, totally sealed), no re-filling and will go thirty hours of constant running before needing to be re-charged. I cannot wait to get mine in the mail, haha, can ya tell? I know it's a bit over 200 (closer to 300 if you can't find it locally and have to pay shipping), but it's easily worth more just for the features. Good luck, there's a lot of good units out there.....keep us posted and do a review of whatever you get as I'll do the same helping all those others who were also in the position you and I and and were in.

[Joe Heater]

I may have one for sale here in the beginning of March. I am fishing with my new boat at RW at the end of Feb and if the fish finder I purchased (Lowrance X510C) does what I think it will do then I am going to be selling the one that came with the boat. I am going to be trying both of them. Its a eagle accura 240. It was really expensive when it came out in 2001 but I may be selling it cheap. If I feel it is too good to sell cheap, I will put that on my other boat and sell my fishmark 320 for $100 and it has never done me wrong. It marked fish as deep as 90 feet in Banks last year.

Joe