Fishfinder

[seavr]

My 8 year old fishfinder (Garmin 160) seems to have lost sensativity. The transducer is clean and there is nothing obvious. I've had to put the gain setting on manual and cranked it way up to find bottom and it sees no fish or bait. This seems to have happened all of a sudden. Any ideas?
I'll likely replace this unit over the winter. What is the finder of choice these days? I don't want gps. just sonar. Thanks for the help.

 

[profisher]

Will be the transducer..could have been wacked hard enough by a chunk of wood not to break the casing but had caused internal damage.

 

[chris73]

If you are looking for a cheap and older replacement please send me a PM as I have one older Eagle and one Lowrance model sitting here unused that worked fine the last time I turned them on, and I am willing to let them go cheap.

 

[seavr]

Talked to Garmin today and they too said the transducer could have got banged up and that they do wear out over time and gradually lose sensativity. Mine went kind of sudden, likely wacked.

I am not looking for a cheap replacement (thanks anyway) but would like to know what others are using. Looking for sonar only, not GPS combo.

 

[seavr]

Please help. Forget about trying to analyze the current problem.
What is the fishfinder of choice? No GPS, just sonar. Thanks.

 

[Marsman]

I have an older Tri-Frinder 2 and was starting to loose sensitivity. I read about it and what I did is wet sanded the bottom of the transducer with 800 grit wet sand paper. Well I ran the river in my tin can and it was back to reading like new. I read that the fine scuffs and scrapes interfere with the transducer working properly.

Cheers, Rob

 

[eastpoint]

seavr

I bought a Furuno LS-4100 50khz/200khz display and transducer package. Gives me temperature as well. Very well designed and built unit. It is a monochrone display but that doesn't bother me a bit. It can be interfaced to other equipment as well. What I like is that I can be traveling at 30mph and see the bottom. Once I hit really deep water , like >400', it shows depth but not great bottom contour. When I installed it I tried to find the deepest water in my area, that was 800' and it worked great.

Just my opinion. Good Luck
Eastpoint

 

[Seafever]

Lowrance now makes one which COMES with the Navionics Seamap, so you don't have to go out and buy the card separate. The whole thing goes for around 600 bucks or so I think.

Personally I like a black&white screen fishfinder (which the Lowrance mentioned is) as color tends to use up a lot of power just for the picture.

I'd go DUALBEAM....it's nice to be able to see the downrigger balls (actual depth).

Get one that can read at least 1000 feet deep.

Nothing's worse than running a low powered fish finder that craps out in saltwater as soon as it gets over 300 feet deep.

I'd personally stay away from Humminbird.....every one I've ever had
died in action.

The Eagle 480df might suit you. Eagle is actually made by Lowrance I believe.

Garmin is not bad at all considering price. I had Garmin and it never let me down.

A 200 watt finder is useless for ocean. Go up to at least 1500 or 2000 watts for power.

Standard Horizon makes some pretty good stuff too.

 

[profisher]

Furuno 585..great stand alone unit with 1kw of power.

 

[seavr]

I've pretty much landed on buying a Furuno 620. Now I'm looking for some way to protect the transducer when I beach the boat or trailer on gravel. Thinking about putting a bracket around it so I can flip it up and pin it in the upright position. Any ideas (esp. pics) would be helpful thanks.

 

[Charlie]

Furuno 520IHD In-Hull Adjustable Puck. 600 watts. 50/200 kHz frequency. 45/15 degree beam angles?

 

[SpringFever552]

I also just replaced my old Lowrance with a Furuno 620, I installed the transducer on the transom,same place old one was, I'm know that it will kickup out of the way if you'd be wanting to do that for trailering or beaching?...

p.s. GREAT sounder...

 

[wolf]

I got a guy to make me out of SS one time a slide bar that you could slide up out of the way and then slide down when you wanted to fish worked really well on land all I did was slide it to where I wanted it to stop and put a big stop screw so it would stop at the same spot everytime on the top side it was a big set screw with a big knob on it easy to turn and un do before we put it all together we screwed it in all the way then peened the end of it so it wouldnt unscrew all the way.

Good luck wolf

 

[seavr]

Thanks Wolf. You gave me some ideas I'll work on over the winter.

 

[cheech]

If your boat is glass, you can probably epoxy it into your bilge. Launch your rig. Check the punkiness of your hull by filling the bilge with some H2o, hook up the transducer and lower it to the bottom of the bilge, see if the FF is working properly. If it isn't you may have a bad hull or the core material is 'airy'.
I've done this on a few boats. Works well and saves the transom.

Chromatose Charters
www.viangling.com

 

[seavr]

Aluminum hull. Transom or drill a hole seems the only answer.