Help which fish finder!

[yoyo]

Hi Guys,

Im currently getting ideas to fit out my new 4.5m rib for the first time. (when i purchase the console).

What fish & depth finder for under £150 max do you good people think is the best value for money. Garmin, Navman etc. Any info or user feed back will be very helpful.
thanks in advance.

YOYO.

[Tim M]

I can't remember which model it is but I've often looked at a Navman priced at around £130. It had all the features I'm after. Must get around to buying it! I do however have a Navman 7100 and if that's anything to go by the fishfinder will be pretty well made (no probs with the radio after 10 months in the elements.)

Garmin has an exellent reputation for customer service although I can't pay testamony to this.

[roycruse]

I used to have an Eagle on my old humber that came with the boat when i bought it - i replaced it with a garmin plotter/sounder as i didnt have enough room for seperates - to be honest as far as fishfinding and bottom tracking went the eagle was a much better unit.

you can get the Eagle Fish Easy 2 from JGTech for £129 inc VAT and inc Delivery



Whatever you buy though - make sure you get one intended for salt water - some of the cheaper units only have low power transducers intended for lakes which will not work so well in salt water.

[Jizm]

My mate's got one of these Silva eagle Cudas, very compact and only £80 from towsure.

[wavelength]

We have a couple of those cheapy Cuda sounders (ours came from compass24.com). Work fine with the transducer simply siliconed into the well and sounds away happily at most speeds. If you only want a cheap reliable sounder, and thats all I need, they are fine, and certainly better than the humminbird we replaced. If you turn the sensitivity up you can kid yourself (or at least your passengers) that the sea underneath you is full of fish

[yoyo]

thanks roycruse,

Anybody else got any user reports on the eagle easyfish2 or sea-finder240df against Garmin etc.
i notice that the sea-finder 240df can handle a speed and mileage log. Is this worth the extra bucks?
yoyo.

[Jizm]

I haven't had a lot of luck with the speed reading on mine, (navman fish 440) so it's a bit of a waste of time really. The paddle wheel thing is a bit 10-1 ! quite a few people on here have found that. Better to have a dedicated speed/distance item such as gps or a 'pitot' (i think ) type speedo / log.

[Simon B]

We have the Eagle Cuda 128 its a very good basic instrument but as you would expect it is missing some of the fancy features you'd see on more expensive ones i.e. "Zoom" or "A" lock (I think its called) where you see the bottom part of the water coloumn. This is a feature favoured by divers if locting a sea floor feature.

[yoyo]

I am visiting the states soon where the local West Marine chandlery in Stanford CA. has got the Lowrance X58df fish-depth finder on offer. It works out with US tax at about 93 quid which sounds very reasonable as they are about £180 this side of the pond.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...01/10879/140/3

Does anybody have any user feedback on this model good or bad. Should I take the risk buying state side ie warranty etc.

They look very similar to the Eagle fish easy stuff. Are they the same instrument under different badges….

Any info much appreciated thanks

[roycruse]

Originally Posted by yoyo

They look very similar to the Eagle fish easy stuff. Are they the same instrument under different badges….

Yes - Eagle stuff is made by Lowrance.