I want to buy a fishfinder...........

[smbassman]

For screen clarity - Todays units pretty much have you covered.  My old LMS350 was 240 vertical pixels and was an outstanding, top of the line unit then.  Now the base units are 320 on smaller screens, so not to worry much about that.  Also, with split screen zooms, you can really get in close for a clearer view anyways

For the power, the standard units will have plenty of power to read depths in "bass fishing water".  Now if you are fishing for halibut or some other deep sea fish, you would need a higher power to read depths.  Now, where the higher power does benefit the bass angler(basically smallmouth fishing), is in better target seperation.  A stronger signal sent means a stronger signal received and therefore better detail.  I have a lowrance X87 that is 2500w PtoP and this seems to have plenty of power to crank up the senstivity and pick out fish hanging tight to the bottom in depths up to 30+ft.  I have not noticed any better readings with my LMS320, which is 4000w PtoP so that is probably overkill.

[blakstr1]

I saw in the Cabelas bargain cave, they have the Eagle Cuda 168 EX Sonar units for $99.99..not sure what these are prices normally but it seems to be a good deal.  This model is a standard box size (rectangle) not the smaller (tall and narrow) units that are out.

[huston]

I've got to agree with Dan. The Eagles are pretty good units. I first had the 320 and then I bought the 480. They both have all the same features of Lowrance. (Same Company). Temp.GPS. use of Navionic cards. The lowrance units are a little more powerful and I think can be linked to one antenae. The 320 is on the bow and the 480 in the cockpit

[Skulley]

How come no one has said anything about Hummingbirds???   Doesn't anyone use them?  Are they not a good Fishfinder?   Just asking.  Lots of talk about everything else....mostly Eagles.  Still wondering about no mention of Hummingbirds though.........  Has anyone used Hummingbirds before.  I have an old Wide One Hundred that I have been using that I won in a raffle about 10 or 12 years ago at an Oakland Bassmasters Tournament for Toys on Cass.  Remember Roy?  It has always worked well and still does, but I would like to upgrade to some more up to date technology......

BD   

[Dropshot]

Used Eagle for a while but they started shuting down while fishing. Guess they couldn't take the pounding of Lake St. Clair on a Saturday afternoon. Went with a Garmin and haven't had any problems !

[Skulley]

Well fellas, I bought a Hummingbird 565.  It has 640 vertical pixels and 340 horizontal pixels.  Total across the screen would be 204800 pixels, most of any unit out there.  It has output of 2000 watts peak to peak and 250 watts RMS.  I will give you all a report on what I think as the season goes on. 

BD     

[MaizeNBlue]

I have a Hummingbird 595 in the back of my boat, I love the GPS and the color screen, I don't like the bottom contours it displays, and I'm always adjusting the sensitivity to try and mark something.

[fishon1219]

I used to only use humminbird electronics, than they went to the docking station type mount. I had 2 different units both were of the upper mid range pricing at the time i think they were called the panoramma series. I always had problems with them losing power. The would wiggle in the cradle just enough when hitting waves and the power plug pins would come loose. Then I would have to remove them from the cradle and reseat them to make them work again. Went back to lowrance products with the screw in power plug and havent had any more of those type problems.

[Revtro]

Used Eagle for a while but they started shuting down while fishing. Guess they couldn't take the pounding of Lake St. Clair on a Saturday afternoon. Went with a Garmin and haven't had any problems !

At one time, some Eagle/Lowrance units were shutting down because of a software issue.  I had a unit that would do this and Lowrance sent me a free software upgrade on an MMC card and it never did it again.  Perhaps that was what was happening.  I'm on St. Clair every week and my stuff takes a huge pounding.  I've had an Eagle unit, and 3 Lowrance units, never had any significant problems with any of them.  (other than the occasional transducer that went bad, but that happens with all sonars)

[yukonjack2]

my lowrance products have been great - until late last year.
started losing bottom running full out - kinda annoying.

had the repair shop check the epoxy on the x-ducer, see if there was any air trapped in there - nope.

Did find, lots of lead sinkers, penny's, and all kinds of junk lodged against the x-ducer though - kinda had something to do with it. 
might want to take a look before the season.

Jack