New Saltwater Fisher Questions on Electronics

[daniel01]

I just recently bought a 24 foot Bayliner Trophy Cuddy Cabin. I have a bass boat and fished freshwater all of my life but never fished saltwater much. I am however aware of all of the shallow flats in the bays and heading out. My boat did not come with any electronics; it is however wired or a garmin unit and has an external gps antenna. I was wondering what kind of electronics everyone reccommends. I really want something that shows me the channels and adjusts with the tides for the fact that I do not want to run on a shallow flat. I do not want to spend to much money I dont want to spend to much over 1000 but if it takes more to get a good system then I guess I will have to do what it takes. I would really like to get the fish finder in the same unit. When it comes to this I am clueless so I can use all the help I can get.

 

[dingbat]

Re: New Saltwater Fisher Questions on Electronics

Maps give depths at mean low tide and do not adjust for the tides. Maps also don't take into account the storm last week that shoaled up the channel that was there the week before. Local and up to date knowledge of the areas you boat are critical in saltwater.

No one company makes the best FF and GPS so my preference is for a separate fish finder and chartplotter. My personally run a Furuno fish finder and a Garmin for chart plotter but that would require a higher budget than you have planned. When going with a single unit a Lowrance HDS 7" would probably fit the bill for you.

 

[daniel01]

Re: New Saltwater Fisher Questions on Electronics

Thank you that information helped out. I do however have another question, what kind of features do you reccommend looking for in a good chartplotter. As far as my budget goes if I have to spend a bit more to get a quality chartplotter then I am willing to do that I just want to make sure that I am just not spending more money for nothing. Right now I am totally clueless on this subject.

 

[dingbat]

Re: New Saltwater Fisher Questions on Electronics

Thank you that information helped out. I do however have another question, what kind of features do you reccommend looking for in a good chartplotter. As far as my budget goes if I have to spend a bit more to get a quality chartplotter then I am willing to do that I just want to make sure that I am just not spending more money for nothing. Right now I am totally clueless on this subject.

For me, the quailifcations where:

Good customer service
Ease of use
Large screen
Fit inside the electronics cabinet at the helm
Good readability from back of boat
NEMA 2000 interface for sensors
Bathy maps
Radar capable
Radar overlay on map
AIS capable

 

[turbinedoctor]

Re: New Saltwater Fisher Questions on Electronics

Boy, Lowrance has changed there product line since I was at their web site last time. I have been using the LMS 334C for about 4 years now and have no complaints with it. I also see no need to upgrade to any other model, since this one does everything I need. But since they don't make that model any more, I did a little research into the HD7 http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products/Marine/HDS-High-Definition-System/HDS-7-FishfinderGPS-Chartplotter/Specifications/ that Dingbat mentioned and it seems to be a little nicer then mine. For a little less money, if that is an issue, they have the HD 5 http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products...-5-FishfinderGPS-Chartplotter/Specifications/ which appears to be the same but with a 5 inch screen verses the 7 inch screen. One thing to note is that there is also the HD 5M and HD 7M, which don't appear to have sonar built into them. They are also featuring the Nautic Insight mapping, if it is the newer version of the Nautic Path, which is what I use, it should be a very nice addition to the package.

Hope some of this will help you in deciding which way to go. Just remember to research a lot and buy once.

 

[dingbat]

Re: New Saltwater Fisher Questions on Electronics

They are also featuring the Nautic Insight mapping, if it is the newer version of the Nautic Path, which is what I use, it should be a very nice addition to the package.

Go with Navtronics Gold or better maps. Much better than the Nautic Path stuff.