new fishfinder in my future

I destroyed my sonar unit last week and am in the market for another.When I
bought my current fishfinder [humminbird 400 TX] it was a middle of the road
unit price wise that was ok but not great.NowI'm looking for another and was
hoping for some experienced advise . I most likely could go as high as 400
to 500 dollars but would prefer not to .Thanks in advance for your help
Ken Blevins

I have two of the Humminbird 565's and am very pleased with the
graphics. They are around $200

Ken Blevins wrote:
I destroyed my sonar unit last week and am in the market for another.When I
bought my current fishfinder [humminbird 400 TX] it was a middle of the road
unit price wise that was ok but not great.NowI'm looking for another and was
hoping for some experienced advise . I most likely could go as high as 400
to 500 dollars but would prefer not to .Thanks in advance for your help
Ken Blevins

I was well pleased with the Eagle 320's that I put on my old Nitro. You can
buy two of them and still be under your $500.00 limit.


"Ken Blevins" wrote in message
...
I destroyed my sonar unit last week and am in the market for another.When I
bought my current fishfinder [humminbird 400 TX] it was a middle of the
road unit price wise that was ok but not great.NowI'm looking for another
and was hoping for some experienced advise . I most likely could go as high
as 400 to 500 dollars but would prefer not to .Thanks in advance for your
help
Ken Blevins

I have a Garmin 250 and love it.
Very dependable but discontinued.

http://www.garmin.com/products/ff250/

Ken,

I have a LMS-332c and LMS-334c-i, they are a little above what you
wanted to spend, but I'd have to say they are worth every penny. If you
fish a lot of open water situations you will really love these units. I
believe you can get either for $649. I guess it all really depends what
your primary use is. Also, if you were to choose one, I would choose
the external Antenna (332c), I have had nothing but issues with the
Internal antenna. The nice thing is I can share my external antenna
between the units now, so that is at least cool ;-)

Chris
Ken Blevins wrote:
I destroyed my sonar unit last week and am in the market for another.When I
bought my current fishfinder [humminbird 400 TX] it was a middle of the road
unit price wise that was ok but not great.NowI'm looking for another and was
hoping for some experienced advise . I most likely could go as high as 400
to 500 dollars but would prefer not to .Thanks in advance for your help
Ken Blevins

I'd like to reiterate the comments on the internal antenna. DO NOT BUY
an internal antenna unit, my unit a 339 has given me nothing but
trouble. Out here in W.Texas it is very open and sparse, and I still
have trouble connecting up with the sattelites at times. I have sent
the unit back and they replaced it, but I am leary of the internal
antenna units. My buddy has the 480, it works great if you do not need
color. BTW, the Eagle 320's are cool too, I have seen them all over the
web going for $99, not a bad deal for a decent Sonar, another good
option is a Lowrance X-96 my buddy has that bow mounted and it works
great. I have a Garmin on my bow and would not recommend any of
Garmin's products. My brother has an entry level garmin ($85?) it is
complete crap, it loses signal at about 4.5Mph and claims that it will
work at 70. Maybe to much cavitation, but not happy anyway. My Garmin
is bow mounted with the TRNDX on the trolling motor and it loses signal
all the time, it starts telling me that the water is 649ft deep, when I
know it is less than 10..... yad yada... I have had very bad
experiences with the Garmin's...... Not trying to start a flame of
Lowrance vs. Garmin, just my 2cents worth of experience.

-Bryan

Chris Rennert wrote:
Ken,

I have a LMS-332c and LMS-334c-i, they are a little above what you
wanted to spend, but I'd have to say they are worth every penny. If you
fish a lot of open water situations you will really love these units. I
believe you can get either for $649. I guess it all really depends what
your primary use is. Also, if you were to choose one, I would choose
the external Antenna (332c), I have had nothing but issues with the
Internal antenna. The nice thing is I can share my external antenna
between the units now, so that is at least cool ;-)

Chris
Ken Blevins wrote:
I destroyed my sonar unit last week and am in the market for another.When I
bought my current fishfinder [humminbird 400 TX] it was a middle of the road
unit price wise that was ok but not great.NowI'm looking for another and was
hoping for some experienced advise . I most likely could go as high as 400
to 500 dollars but would prefer not to .Thanks in advance for your help
Ken Blevins

"Chris Rennert" wrote in message
...
Ken,

I have a LMS-332c and LMS-334c-i, they are a little above what you wanted
to spend, but I'd have to say they are worth every penny. If you fish a
lot of open water situations you will really love these units. I believe
you can get either for $649. I guess it all really depends what your
primary use is. Also, if you were to choose one, I would choose the
external Antenna (332c), I have had nothing but issues with the Internal
antenna. The nice thing is I can share my external antenna between the
units now, so that is at least cool ;-)

I dunno Chris, I have the 334C (internal antenna) on the bow of the boat,
and the only time it drops the signal is when I find myself standing
directly over the top of it. If I step back, it immediately locks back onto
the satellites.

I've been very pleased with the electronics on the Cat.
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com

I bought the 339 last year and have noyhing bad to say about it. It
preforms flawlesly and with the Hot Spots map card I'm dead on for
structure. I'm learning more about it's features and buy another in a
heartbeat. Doc (fishing New York's southern tier and Lake Erie)
================================================== ============================

"Bryan Scott" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'd like to reiterate the comments on the internal antenna. DO NOT BUY
an internal antenna unit, my unit a 339 has given me nothing but
trouble. Out here in W.Texas it is very open and sparse, and I still
have trouble connecting up with the sattelites at times. I have sent
the unit back and they replaced it, but I am leary of the internal
antenna units.

Steve,
I applied the patch from Lowrance, and it fixed a lot of issues (like
importing waypoints from Mapcreate), and added some more menu options,
but the antenna is still a problem (well not anymore, because of the
Network), but I am thinking the main reason may be how I have the unit
tilted up on the bow. I have it tilted pretty far forward so that I can
see the screen. The deck on my boat doesn't extend very far, so I am
standing over the top of it constantly, so that is probably the root of
my problem with that unit. Again, the Lowrance-Net is awesome, I have
never dropped a signal on my external antenna, so that is a nice carry
over to my bow unit. Warren had mentioned it before, and I am really
looking forward to the day when my waypoints are shared for me, so I
don't have to use software on my laptop to merge my waypoints and then
re-add them to the unit.

Chris
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers wrote:
"Chris Rennert" wrote in message
...
Ken,

I have a LMS-332c and LMS-334c-i, they are a little above what you wanted
to spend, but I'd have to say they are worth every penny. If you fish a
lot of open water situations you will really love these units. I believe
you can get either for $649. I guess it all really depends what your
primary use is. Also, if you were to choose one, I would choose the
external Antenna (332c), I have had nothing but issues with the Internal
antenna. The nice thing is I can share my external antenna between the
units now, so that is at least cool ;-)

I dunno Chris, I have the 334C (internal antenna) on the bow of the boat,
and the only time it drops the signal is when I find myself standing
directly over the top of it. If I step back, it immediately locks back onto
the satellites.

I've been very pleased with the electronics on the Cat.

Thanks to all who took time for their advise but I located the unit I
needed on the " eBay " bid on it and won .[$60] If it works I'm good till
next spring.Come spring I think I'm going to go with a combo unit -GPS-sonar
in color.
thanks again
Ken Blevins


"Ken Blevins" wrote in message
...
I destroyed my sonar unit last week and am in the market for another.When I
bought my current fishfinder [humminbird 400 TX] it was a middle of the
road unit price wise that was ok but not great.NowI'm looking for another
and was hoping for some experienced advise . I most likely could go as high
as 400 to 500 dollars but would prefer not to .Thanks in advance for your
help
Ken Blevins