Fishifnder wattage?

I am in the market for a new fishfinder. I only fish fresh water mostly 50 ft or shallower maybe once a year fish a lake where I might go as deep as 100ft.

My question is will a 2000w fish finder be high enough power for my application. Will it be able to tell the difference between fish and the bottom if the fish are hanging close to the bottom?

Sorry if this has been gone over several times but I did a search and didn't really find an answer.

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

nobody has any input?

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

diamondlangus said:

nobody has any input?

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I guess not! We have no idea which locator you are looking at. 2000W is only one parameter. But properly adjusted and properly interpreted, a $99 locator can do what you are asking.

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

the one I am looking at is a Humminbird 581i

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

Diamond...

The short answer is that 2000W may be enough, but as Silvertip has said, the more important issues are frequency and beam type (standard sonar, down image, side image, etc.) I am not familiar with that finder, but check this web site... http://www.bbcboards.net/zeroforum?id=279 They have some real fishfinder experts on there (not that we do not also have some really great people here, too.)

I looked at the specifications on the 581i and it is probably not a bad unit. Possible negatives are separate puck on the GPS and the fact that it is a monochrome display. As far as the separate puck, do you have room for the separate puck? On the plus side, the puck can be right next to your transducer. Monochrome tends to wash out in daylight. Color tends to be more crisp. I am in my 50's and the color is easier for me to see.

I ended up spending about $580 for the 597Ci HD DI. It is awesome, but pricey and it tends to fly off the shelves at stores, etc. It has a fairly steep learning curve, but any good finder will have a sttep learning curve.

Are you putting this in a fiberglass or aluminum boat? If Fiberglass, are you planning on a thru hull mount? Will you want the transducer on the trolling motor? There are a lot of questions that you will want to answer before you buy one.

TerryMSU

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

diamondlangus said:

My question is will a 2000w fish finder be high enough power for my application. Will it be able to tell the difference between fish and the bottom if the fish are hanging close to the bottom?

Click to expand...

The short answer is no. You will not be able to see fish hanging close to the bottom with a 2000W (250W RMS) unit and the inexpensive transducers that come with those units. Fish hanging right at or on the bottom will be mixed in with the bottom.

Power is definition and more is always better.

You?re driving down a small winding road in the middle of the night in search of the hub cap your lost earlier. Would you use a candle (250W) the low beams of your car (500W) or a spot light (1,000W RMS) to find the hub cap? The same thing is true with a sounder. The more energy you can put on a target, the better the definition of the object.

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

thanks guys,, I am looking at 3 units in all,,, Humminbird 581 or 597ci hd,, or the lowrance elit 5. I have an AL boat and I would mount a transducer on the transom an done on the electric motor.

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

First understand there are two ways they report power.
2000 watts PeP is the same as 250 Watts RMS.
Basicly RMS watts times 8 equals PEP watts or
PEP watts divided by 8 equals RMS watts.

I believe 2000 watts is enough but for seeing fish near the bottom screen resolution and frequency are more inportant.

200Khz or above does better as seeing a fish 1 inch off the bottom and higher screen resoultion also helps. Even more important is how unit is adjusted and your skill level at knowing what your seeing. Most times you will not see a catfish laying on the bottom.

Also if the bottom is sloped or has lots of logs or rocks you will not see fish near the bottom because of the dead zone.

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

200khz is the correct choice. Stay away from anything else. you don't need dual frequency unless you are fishing way, way past 100ft. 50khz is for very deep water and you loose resolution. Color in the $500 price range is a must. But the best finder in the world is only as good as the user. %99 point 99% of the time the "auto" settings can be greatly improved by a knowledgeable user. There are tutorials online to learn from.

You can do better than a Walmart-Hummingchicken or Lowrance. There is a whole nother world out there. Furuno, Si-Tex (invented the fish-finder), Garmin. I am not recommending Raymarine but they have good units also. Just too much Corp confusion with them right now.
Being from FL and having owned a marine electronics shop I have some idea of what I am taking about. There are many very good products out there that you won't see at a Walmart, West Marine, or other large retailer because they can't afford their payment-return policies. So instead you get a product made absolutely as cheap as possible with as much profit as possible.

If you are going with a fiberglass hull in the long run you will be much happier.
http://midlandsstriperclub.homestead.com/Installing_A_Shoot-thru.pdf

Transom mounts work until you step on it. Break it loading the boat on the trailer. Or run over something. Don't get me wrong they do work.

Any finder is only as good as it's eyes.
http://www.airmartechnology.com/2009/marine/

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

kahuna123 said:

200khz is the correct choice. Stay away from anything else. you don't need dual frequency unless you are fishing way, way past 100ft. 50khz is for very deep water and you loose resolution.

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As an industry insider, maybe you can answer these questions for us.

1. Please quantify the difference in resolution between 200 and 50 kHz. 50kHZ has less resolution but what is the actual difference?

2. Why is 50 kHz good for seeing fish in deep water yet not good for shallow water? If the resolution is such that it?s good enough at 100? why isn?t is good enough at 20??

3. Many people use 50kHz in water a lot shallower than "way, way past 100ft". What would the benefit of using 50 kHz in water as shallow as 15'?

Re: Fishifnder wattage?

kahuna123 said:

200khz is the correct choice. Stay away from anything else. you don't need dual frequency unless you are fishing way, way past 100ft. 50khz is for very deep water and you loose resolution. Color in the $500 price range is a must. But the best finder in the world is only as good as the user. %99 point 99% of the time the "auto" settings can be greatly improved by a knowledgeable user. There are tutorials online to learn from.

You can do better than a Walmart-Hummingchicken or Lowrance. There is a whole nother world out there. Furuno, Si-Tex (invented the fish-finder), Garmin. I am not recommending Raymarine but they have good units also. Just too much Corp confusion with them right now.
Being from FL and having owned a marine electronics shop I have some idea of what I am taking about. There are many very good products out there that you won't see at a Walmart, West Marine, or other large retailer because they can't afford their payment-return policies. So instead you get a product made absolutely as cheap as possible with as much profit as possible.

If you are going with a fiberglass hull in the long run you will be much happier.
http://midlandsstriperclub.homestead.com/Installing_A_Shoot-thru.pdf

Transom mounts work until you step on it. Break it loading the boat on the trailer. Or run over something. Don't get me wrong they do work.

Any finder is only as good as it's eyes.
http://www.airmartechnology.com/2009/marine/

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I tend to disagree with Kahuna. Kahuna, based on your name and location, I assume you are fishing saltwater. First, I would not get Garmin. Garmin has a good history with GPS, but they are far from the experts on Sonar. Personally, I like the 597 from Humminbird. Consider putting out another $100 or so for the DI version. If you are fishing for bass, the serious bass fishing crowd uses either Lowrance or Humminbird Humminbird has a long history with fishfinders. I personally have a transom mount, for two reasons. 1. With my trolling motor, there are too many ways to catch the transducer cable and pinch it when deplying and recovering the trolling motor. 2. I have an aluminum boat, and I cannot shoot thru the aluminum hull with a 597DI. Also, with the trolling motor, you have a higher chance of having interference with the trolling motor, especially if you have a digital speed control. If you decide to go with a trolling motor mount, get a transducer guard to protect the 'ducer from ricks, logs, etc. Also, I tend to like the higher frequency systems, but that is just my opinion. They will give you better imaging resolution. Again, I strongly recommend that you check out the Bass boat central link I listed above (http://www.bbcboards.net/zeroforum?id=279)

One thing Kahuna defininately got right is that the "auto" settings are only slightly better than useless. Modern fishfinders take a lot of learning to get good results. On the other hand, when properly configured, they will give astonishing results. Also, his comments on color are right on, and the shoot thru is the only way to go (in my opinion) if you have a fiberglass hull. Note: If you go with Humminbird and you shoot thru, you should contact Humminbird as I believe they will trade (even trade, but you pay shipping?) you a transducer with a separate temperature transducer so that your temperature transducer will read water temperature, not fiberglass temperature.

One more comment... Do not forget to include the maps in your budget. Also, the maps that come with Hummingbird are worthless, Lowrance seems to have decent built-in maps.

TerryMSU