Reply With QuoteNeed a bit more background info first. What sort of fishing is the primary question - bay, offshore or deep drop.
I am in the market for a new fishfinder. I already have a chartplotter, but my preference is to have them in the same unit. Its not important though. I would also like the ability to connect the chart plotter to an autopilot. OF course the primary goal here is to have a decent fishfinder first, then tack on the accessories. The receiver is a 29' foot cat.
The problem is though, when I look around now there is so many different products, side scan, total scan, structure scan down scan and I cant make sense of which is best as each manufacturer seems to have different names for similar products.
My preference is for about a 10" screen and I dont really have a budget in mind at this point. I know its going to hurt my wallet, but I want to buy something decent just once. It would be awesome to be able to link gps,fishfinder autopilot etc, but might be a pipe dream.
So if you were out to buy a brand new fishfinder without prejudice, what would you buy and why?
Need a bit more background info first. What sort of fishing is the primary question - bay, offshore or deep drop.
Mainly bay and offshore from Moreton Island. Boat cant be trailered, so aside from the occasional trip up north I would say most of the time will be spent from Mooloolaba to Gold Coast.
TRA
I went thru the same search recently and ended up getting good advice and a good deal from AF member Spaniard King (Gary)
Could be at least worth a PM or phone call.
Cheers
Chimo
PS https://www.ssmarine.com.au/
Last edited by Chimo; 06-12-2017 at 01:58 PM. Reason: link added
What could go wrong.......................
No secret I'm a big Furuno fan. You could go with the new TZT2 if you want everything combined. Personally though, if you aren't looking at sidescan type set ups, I would be sticking with a FCV588. Transducer choice would be determined by mounting area and maximum depth requirements. Dependant on your existing plotter and pilot, hooking them up could be as simple as wiring or interfaces could be required. The sounder can possibly be connected by using a "Markfish" or similar.
Second choice would be something from Garmin or Raymarine IMO.
Originally Posted by Chimo
Yup, Garry used to service my old boat. Need to get him out to do a service soon, so will probably utilise that time to get some advice as well. Will probably end up getting him to do the install anyway.
Just my opinion on combos--some can be a real PITA for adjustments on the fly to either function, ie, you need to go into the sonar page to get the context-sensitive menus to adjust it, or the plotter pages to do the same. IMO it's a lot easier, in general, to be running two separate screens with each staying on their own function. Although the later touch screen interfaces seem to have gotten a lot better in this respect.
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