Thread: Fish finder/chart plotter

I've used recent model Garmin, Humminbird and Simrad fishfinders and they're all good. Nothing to add to what's written above apart from the side scan thing. Unless you're seriously in to lure fishing in shallow water, I'd skip it.

I imagine you will be fishing Jackson’s Bay/Hokitika Trench so quite deep water.

If you want to target Puka and Blue Nose you will need a 1kw transducer, that means you will need a 1kw capable unit to run it.

Dedicated sounder and value for money would be the Furuno 585 + TM260. Still $3000 off the shelf, but they come up on trade me and often prizes in game fishing tournaments so a few new ones get listed.

I still use my iPad with Navionics, same as any sounder but a 10.5’ screen and don’t need cell reception.

I quite like the look of some of the Garmin units.

Bay Marine electronics have a few good vids

I have a garmin echomap 95sv plus. Side scan isn't worth it in my opinion. The chart and fish finder combo is great though. Easy to use. Only fairly shallow depth range with the factory gt52 transducer.

Furuno or Simrad with a 1kw Chirp transducer seems to be where its at for deep water or game fish.

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Originally Posted by Wildman

I have a garmin echomap 95sv plus. Side scan isn't worth it in my opinion. The chart and fish finder combo is great though. Easy to use. Only fairly shallow depth range with the factory gt52 transducer.

Furuno or Simrad with a 1kw Chirp transducer seems to be where its at for deep water or game fish.

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Deep water (over 500m ) would be a FCV295 or FCV1150 with 38 Khz transducer. Budget about $10k
Most commonly used sounder on Small commercial vessels.
FCV588 + 1KW transducer would do as stand alone fish finder (about $3699 is new at a guess)
New TZT with built in 1KW sounder and TM260 would also do
Stingray has one of these

But I have not herd if he likes it yet?? and Cam has the Earlier non touch screen model.

Touchscreen is a pain in small boats underway................Personally I would buy a standalone sounder like a FCV588 and a DB7 to use as a plotter if I had the budget.
I have a Navnet VX2, Radar Plotter Sounder and TM258 in my boat which has not moved in over 12 months now
Unless you are fishing deep more than 80% of your time then a P66 600w transducer is best value and best performance for general fishing
I seem many people buy the 1KW ones (We dont mind) then only fish shallow (less than 100m) except for once or twice a year.
They are handicapping themselves in the shallow water with the 1KW units
a 1KW transducer has a very narrow beam angle so while good in the deep for finding holes and stuff in shallow water you are only looking at a very small area in shallow (in 20m water you are mybe looking at 1m bottom area so you can miss the school of fish by 1m!!

Originally Posted by mikee

Deep water (over 500m ) would be a FCV295 or FCV1150 with 38 Khz transducer. Budget about $10k
Most commonly used sounder on Small commercial vessels.
FCV588 + 1KW transducer would do as stand alone fish finder (about $3699 is new at a guess)
New TZT with built in 1KW sounder and TM260 would also do
Stingray has one of these
Attachment 132839
But I have not herd if he likes it yet?? and Cam has the Earlier non touch screen model.

Touchscreen is a pain in small boats underway................Personally I would buy a standalone sounder like a FCV588 and a DB7 to use as a plotter if I had the budget.
I have a Navnet VX2, Radar Plotter Sounder and TM258 in my boat which has not moved in over 12 months now
Unless you are fishing deep more than 80% of your time then a P66 600w transducer is best value and best performance for general fishing
I seem many people buy the 1KW ones (We dont mind) then only fish shallow (less than 100m) except for once or twice a year.
They are handicapping themselves in the shallow water with the 1KW units
a 1KW transducer has a very narrow beam angle so while good in the deep for finding holes and stuff in shallow water you are only looking at a very small area in shallow (in 20m water you are mybe looking at 1m bottom area so you can miss the school of fish by 1m!!

He likes it.
Best feature of it compared to mine is the ability to drive over something be it some structure or a school of fish and touch the feature on the sounder even a minute or two ago and put a gps mark right on it, mine I gotta loop back up my trail and find it again and mark it.

I have no experience with side scan but I think it would be great for finding rocks/turf to dive?

I really thought furunos fish size thing would be a gimmick but if you see some bait and it marks some fish hunting it at 98cm or 105cm and you hook up it is that size within a couple cm....unbelievable but it just works.

Bottom discrimination is also great and is how I hunt my fish......yes you can learn to read any sounder for bottom type but how many years will that take you.

Something like my setup would really suit you in close 100m or less but you have all that deep water so close it would be a shame to handicap yourself.

Big transducer.

I own a garmin and I am by no means technology clued up but I find it easy to use

I finna garmin gps7412, gps7410, gsd26, tm265lh, gm18rhd, fusion bb300, garmin heading sensor, gps19x gps puck and a gt56 transducer.... about 18k worth. Its fucking amazing.

I have 2 on my boat, ones is just a fish finde where as the other is GPS linked. Was a clown when I installed it. Should of asked for some advise from Mikee before drilling more fucking holes. The issue is I cant run both at the same time as they default one another. I kid myself when asked saying oh that ones more accurate as my shallow unit where as the other is my tracking system. All bullshit but it does kinda look cool, even if it is a retard concept. So R93 be aware if looking one guns enough, but I guess you would be more on to it than me. Not my skill set.

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

I have 2 on my boat, ones is just a fish finde where as the other is GPS linked. Was a clown when I installed it. Should of asked for some advise from Mikee before drilling more fucking holes. The issue is I cant run both at the same time as they default one another. I kid myself when asked saying oh that ones more accurate as my shallow unit where as the other is my tracking system. All bullshit but it does kinda look cool, even if it is a retard concept. So R93 be aware if looking one guns enough, but I guess you would be more on to it than me. Not my skill set.

What you say it true BUT if either fails you can still go fishing where as with an all in one fails you are left with not being able to find the fish on the one hand and not knowing where you are or where your marks are either.

Mind you my boat has not moved in over 12 months so I know exactly where it/I am

Originally Posted by Gapped axe

I have 2 on my boat, ones is just a fish finde where as the other is GPS linked. Was a clown when I installed it. Should of asked for some advise from Mikee before drilling more fucking holes. The issue is I cant run both at the same time as they default one another. I kid myself when asked saying oh that ones more accurate as my shallow unit where as the other is my tracking system. All bullshit but it does kinda look cool, even if it is a retard concept. So R93 be aware if looking one guns enough, but I guess you would be more on to it than me. Not my skill set.

Not mine either mate I will get anything I decide on professionally installed. Probably be a year before I do anything and something new and flashy will be out by then. Those ones you can track fish in real time might be the go in some spots I will use it.

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I kayak fish a lot and I use a Garmin 7sv https://buy.garmin.com/en-NZ/NZ/p/592111 - I used to use Humminbird.

It's not a chart plotter, but it has GPS, draws it's own contour maps and traditional sonar and side scan and down scan.

I don't need a chart plotter because I can usually see the rocks and islands etc before I hit them.

The side scan is really good, if there's a tire on the floor, you can see it's a tire, can't quite read the 'GoodYear' but it can be very clear.

The quick draw mapping is really good too, I can get so much more detail in 1' increments, much better that current charts and chart plotter, and this can be all shared online so I can take advantage of scans that other folk have been and done.

Recommended.
also - https://www.fishfinders.info