Recommend me a fishfinder/ Gps combo.

[fazmac]

Hi guys
New to this so please go easy on me.
Seems to be some well educated users on this forum, so I thought i would pick there brains.

Can someone please recommend a user friendly fishfinder/ Gps.

Had a look at some today and it seems that you get good maps on some but a crap fish finder or vice versa.

So if you could recommend one that would be great.

Thanks

[frozenpod]

I strongly suggest separate units.

The garmin GPS/plotters are pretty good.

Furuno sounds best of the traditional type but the new Lowrance units are good too.

The Chip sounders look great but they are not cheap.

[re-tyred]

A sounder and a map on say a 6 inch screen is very difficult to see. The second thing you need to consider is if you are doing a lot of inland waterways and lakes then it is unlikely you will get a map to cover them. e.g. there is no cmap or navionics map of the gippsland lakes. Almost none for any river system. So if you are fishing these you will need something that shows satellite maps. Satellite maps will help you work out where you are but not give you any info regarding channel markers, so you will have to put them in manually. Cmap and navionics are the two main chart systems, the quality of each is high with them leapfrogging each other with each new issue. Garmin use their own but it is based around info the buy from the main chart producers.
Regarding sounders. Broadband or chirp technology generally does a better job than traditional pulse sounders. Simrad and Lowrance are the only ones with this technology as far as I know.
Having said all that and have been the East Coast technical manger for Furuno for a few years, I am very impressed with the garmin plotter sounder we have on one of the coast guard boats. I have not yet seen Furunos latest GP1870F but it is based on the FCV587 sounder with the screen arranged in landscape format. It looks pretty good. But for overall sounder performance I am super impressed with Simrad broadband.

[Bartnmax]

One word - BUDGET.
Everything depends on how much you've got to spend.

I agree that seperate GPS & sounder units are often the best way to go, but they are also the most expensive way to go & may not be practical, depending on how much room you have in yer boat for em.
There's certainly heaps of good quality combo units available, & IMO Humminbird & Lowrance make two of the best 'middle of the rod' units available. Yes there's better (I absolutely love the new Simrad stuff) but it will also generally cost more.

I use a Lowrance HDS7 combo with Navionics chart card & it is brilliant. I also have the structure scan setup with it & it does everything I could ask of it.

As far as quality of sounder is considered, given that the sounder/transducer is properly set up to start with, more will depend on your ability to correctly read/inperpret your sounder, than it's quality or lack thereof. Even crappy sounders by todays standards are way better than good sounders of 10-15 years ago. You can have the best sounder on the market but if you can't read it, it's worthless. They ALL depend on correct interpretation of what is put on the scfreen by the transducer.

What you need to do is give us a better indication of your budget & what type of boat it's going in, as well as what type of fishing you do. No point saying "go for the new Lowrance HDS12" if you're river fishing from a 10' tinny.

[fazmac]

Thanks for the replies.

Well first its going in a 5 metre quintrex.
Ill be mainly fishing off Warrnambool, Portland, Clifton Springs and Barwon Heads.
Budget wise is interesting cause for a good unit i would spend big bucks, so lets say a 1000 buck range. (so i limeit myself)

So what do you recommend now?
thanks guys

[frozenpod]

Pretty sure you will have to get a combo unit with that budget.

[fazmac]

I was thinking of a combo, probably want the one that is the easiest to use. (father in law borrows the boat occasionly)

[frozenpod]

For comparison my transducer alone was nearly double your budget.

If I was you I would forget the GPS/plotter and spend everything you can on a good sounder.

I would suggest a furuno 620 or the new 627.

If you have a smart phone tablet you can down load navonics and it is good very cheap as well.

[Bartnmax]

Ok, just to let you know - I also fish from a 5 meter quinnie (2002 Seabreeze with 70hp Yam)
I have a Lowrance HDS7 sounder/gps combo with structure scan & whilst it's the earlier Gen 1 model, it does everything I could ask of it. However, this size unit is probably a bit our of your budgetary range (comes in around the $2500+ mark new).

$1000 might sound like a lot but it's not really when you consider that many higher quality units go for $3000 & WAY up. However, for $1G you should be able to get a very good unit none the less.

My own recommendation would be to go for a Lowrance HDS5 combo.
The 5" screen is a touch small for running the unit in 'split screen' mode (sounder & gps both taking up 1/2 the screen) however it still works fine, & you can still switch between full screen sounder & full screen gps any time you want.
Down the track you could also couple it with another seperate unit so you'll have seprate sounder/gps'.
If you do this you wont have to buy another transducer as you just use the new unti as the gps.
If you're budget limited you also don't need to buy the Navionics card right from the start.
The unit can still be used fine without it as it already has a rudimentary base map installed & you can just plug in your marks as you go. You can puchase a chart card down the track a bit.

You could also go for a Lowrance Elite 5 which is also a very good unit & a bit cheaper than the HDS but it's not quite as 'upgradable' as the HDS. That may not ever be a problem for you if the std unit does everything you want of it.

My advice is to give Sam a call at CH Smith in Collingwood & have a chat to him.
He's a great guy & very knowledgeable with sounders.
He deals with a lot of guys chasing after exactly the same setup as yourself.
Tell him Bill told you to call. He'll steer ya straight.

[re-tyred]

Yes " what Bartmax said' saved me typing it. Lowrance or garmin have nice units in the price range. CH Smith is an exellent trader I have known them for 25 years or more. We purchase our Coast Guard gear from them.