New guy question re fish finder

[killdee]

I have a 14 foot John I use in small waters and mainly the river.I haven't fished much over the last 10-15 years and am semi retired now and got back into it last couple of years. I mostly fish for bream crappie and perch and decided to add a fish/structure finder on my boat and wondered what features would benefit me fishing more shallow waters. Also where and how to mount the finder and transducer. My last device was an old HB flasher on another boat 30+ years ago so I'm way out of the loop.

Thanks

 

[stinkfoot]

https://www.fishfindermounts.com/ These guys live 15 minutes away from me. They work out of their garage. Expensive but worth every penny.

 

[richg99]

My transducer is mounted on the motor end of the bow-mounted trolling motor. Works fine as long as the trolling motor is deployed. The FF is mounted near the front and center of the bow. I can easily see it from the front seat.

I have another transducer and FF mounted on the side console. Its transducer is mounted on the stern.

The bow-mount setup gets a lot more use than the other one.
richg99

 

[mbweimar]

Killdee what's your budget for a fish finder? If it were my boat I'd find a unit that has side scan capabilities. Every manufacturer has a different name for it...Side Scan, Structure Scan, Side VI, etc. It'll be the most useful feature in shallow water, but also work in deeper open water.

As far as how to mount the transducer, that depends on your setup. As Richgg mentioned, his is mountd on his trolling motor. It's ideal if your unit is mounted up front and you have a bow mount trolling motor. One advantage of this configuration is you get to see what's directly below you as you fish.

Another configuration if your unit is mounted at the back of the boat (or wherever you operate the boat from) is to mount the transducer on the transom. The most important thing to remember is that the transducer needs to make contact with good clean water flow. Avoid mounting behind thru hull fittings, rivets, chines, or any other kind of obstruction on the bottom of the boat.

 

[onthewater102]

^^^ +1 for looking for some form of side imaging - looking down in shallow water barely shows you what's going on beneath the footprint of the boat, totally useless in shallows. Side imaging (side scan etc. naming depends on brand) will at least show you that 75' to the right of the boat there is a rock beneath the surface.

Whether it makes sense to spend that kind of money is up to you - I'm currently selling my factory refurbished humminbird 798 setup that has the side imaging we're talking about, but I don't know if a $350+ price tag is the range you're looking to be purchasing in.

 

[killdee]

Thanks for the replys, This is the kind of info I was looking for. I do have my trolling motor bow mounted so I think this is how I should go. I guess you loose the ability to run the FF when running the outboard with this set up though. Do you need a special transducer for the trolling motor mount? I was also thinking the side imaging would be more useful for my river fishing. As far as budget, I would rather wait and pay more for the better unit than go cheap. A buddy works at Academy and has a Lowrance Mark 4 Chirp that was a display model for 76$ but it seems to be pretty basic and no side imaging. I suppose I could use this one for a stern mount and buy a si model for the front. Anyone know anything about this unit?

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

My first question would be what do you consider shallow water?

 

[onthewater102]

You don't want a side imaging transducer on a trolling motor mount - every time you turn the TM it will distort the image.

 

[killdee]

The river is 6-10' or less with a couple 20' holes, the places on the lakes are likely about the same likely with some deeper spots. Good to know re the transducer mount on the motor.

 

[overboard]

If you can get to a place where you can play with them, like Cabelas, it would be a big plus.
I just got done installing a Humminbird Helix 7 CHIRP sonar GPS on my 1648 Tracker, it had an Eagle Fish Mark 320 on it when I bought it and I didn't like that unit at all.
I fish a river with that boat, 3-12' depth mainly, with a few 30-50' holes, I'm more interested in the depth than anything else and finding drop-offs etc., so in shallows it's a depth finder and in the deeper holes it's a fish finder.
A small unit would probably do what I/you need, but I like the bigger displays. I didn't go with SI for the river, maybe would have considered it if used more on a lake.
Cabela's and other places sell a clamp on portable transducer bracket that seems pretty solid, might look into one of them for the stern, which is where I would mount a SI transducer if I were to ever get a FF with that capability.
Just some thoughts!
BTW: I didn't really need the GPS, but the river has a 15mph speed limit on it during the summer, so it was either get one with the GPS for speed or buy an optional kit for it to show speed.

 

[killdee]

I did tinker with a few at academy yesterday. I kinda like the hook 7, I could maneuver the menu pretty well and the bigger screen is better for my old eyes. I just need to decide if the added expense of the side imaging is important enough to keep looking. I'll go look at cabelas tomorrow or go fishing !!!!!!

 

[Catch Release Repeat]

I did tinker with a few at academy yesterday. I kinda like the hook 7, I could maneuver the menu pretty well and the bigger screen is better for my old eyes. I just need to decide if the added expense of the side imaging is important enough to keep looking. I'll go look at cabelas tomorrow or go fishing !!!!!!

I bought myself a garmin echomap 73sv from cabelas. Believe they're still on sale for 499 from 699. I've very user friendly. If you don't think you need true GPS I also would recommend the garmin striker series. Did I mention I'm a garmin fan?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[killdee]

I went back and forth on this stuff and after seeing a guy post pictures of bream beds from his side view I bought the Garmin striker 7SV Chirp. More than I initially wanted to spend but I could navigate the screen pretty well on the display and with a buddy discount 20% I went with the 7" screen over the Helix 5SV HB.

Thanks for all the input