What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

[Karl Seibel]

Recently got my boat out of storage, 88 Pro-craft Bass Boat, and I have one fish finder already installed one the boat. It's an Eagle fish easy. Bought a 9.9 hp recently, for smaller lakes, and it came with a Wide Portrait Humminbird. Should I install the Eagle on the trolling motor and the Wide Portrait on the back of the boat? Or is one fish finder sufficient? Still learning, second season for me.

 

[BassMan283]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

One is sufficient if you don't mind walking from whereever you are in the boat to wherever the fish finder screen is.

 

[Karl Seibel]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

BassMan thanks for the info...but we usually just tell each other of what is on the screen...Is that fish finder that important that we need to see what is going on immediately, or is it just ok to see the contour on the bottom of the lake and tell the driver to stop...this looks like a good spot?

 

[JB]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

Maybe you could find two fish at the same time?

 

[Karl Seibel]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

Two fish are better than one.

 

[NOSLEEP]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

I like the idea of two fish finders. But I only<br />have one on the boat. Its located at the helm<br />so I can keep a close eye on the depth when I <br />am cruising in the boat. I have tried a second<br />fish finder at the back of the boat to keep an<br />eye on contour and depth. But I seem to get a lot<br />of interference on the two screens when ever both<br />depth sounders are on at the same time.I have<br />tried adjusting the gain or sensitivity but still<br />get interference.Any one else have this problem ?<br />Any fixes?

 

[Boatist]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

Seibel<br />If the two fish finder are the same frequency then they will interfeer with each other unless in real shallow water. My friends bass boat has two one at the helm with a shoot thru hull transducer near the transom and the other mounted next to the trolling motor up front with transducer on trolling motor. In water 30 foot or more interfear with each other so when fishing and useing trolling motor turn off the back one.

 

[Barlow]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

I like having two finders on the boat. It's more practical than a single unit, more expensive but, convenience leads to less frustration and better communication between you and others on the boat. My time fishing is valuable so anything to make things easier, less stressful, practical and, more productive were things I considered when setting my boats up. I remember seeing an article last year on tournament walleye boats which basically gave the Zen outlook to boat set-up and layout. I picked up a few things from that like using RAM mounts for the finder/gps units so you can position them to see more easily. Give it some thought and make things easier and more comfortable for yourself and how you fish. <br />NOSLEEP- do you have them hard wired to the same fuse? Are the transducer cables close together or touching other wires? Even looping the same cable can cause grief. Are the transducers mounted correctly? Are the cone angles/degrees larger than what they should be for the set-up you have(distance between the 'ducers or different mfg's)? A few things to consider I guess.

 

[augusta]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

one fish finder is fine if you have two there bothe going to pick up the same thing anyway.

 

[Fishbusters]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

Both ways mentioned are the way to go depending upon how you fish. If what you are doing is anchoring (or trolling with your main engine or kicker)on a specific spot all you need is one on the dash because you position the boat using the main motor then anchor. If you are using a trolling motor then you want 2 and specifically a rear mounted trancducer for the dashboard unit and a troling motor mounted unit for the front unit. You use the dash unit to find a spot and the front unit to keep you there or following the drop off or what have you. Without a unit you can see as you use your trolling motor you can veer off course in a real hurry and spend a lot of time away from the structure you want to fish. There are a couple problems with this the first is trancducer interference which is simple to cure just turn one unit off when using the other. The other problem comes in with weeds and a troling motor mounted tranducer. If you fish the slop a lot you will need to mount the tranducer like you did for the dash mounted unit to keep it from hanging on weeds. <br />Some cost cutting can be done here if you don't mind taking a little extra time. Get one unit and two tranducers, power plugs and mounting brackets. You mount one set up front and the other on the dash then move the unit from one position to the other as you move from front to back. Personally I would buy two units and mount them so all I had to do was turn one off and the other on but if you have to cut corners you can.

 

[miloman]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

2 finders are great you have to be careful of interference.

 

[cotterman]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

the more toys the better!lol

 

[Karl Seibel]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

Thanks, I'll try them both out and see how it works.

 

[mrmuskie]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

If you have two identical locators they can be hooked to the same transducer, two seperate transducers will more than likely cause interference. I have problems with my sonar unit causing interference with the locator and can not run them both at the same time. Two locators does make it nice if you use one while searching and then you can move to the front and watch the other locator as you move around with your trolling motor

 

[Karl Seibel]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

Hey, went fishing today with the new fish finder on the helm, but the old finder on the bow was not hooked up yet, who ever was in the front of the boat kept asking what this..what that, so gonna hook up the Eagle on the trolling motor soon and see how they both do...anyway caught 2, both on a spinner bait, lg. mouth and a trout, yeah i know...thats it...but 48 degrees water temp, windy, and about 45 degrees air temp, i'll take it

 

[Red Rider]

Re: What are the benefits of having 2 fish finders onboard?

I have two each, on two different boats.<br /><br />My fishing boat has two Lowrance units. One is a flasher at the helm. Why a flasher? Because it gives faster response to depth changes. The other has a LCD screen and has one mounting bracket with cables at the bow next to the trolling motor and another bracket with cables at the helm.<br /><br />My work boat has an old Bushnell flasher (e-bay special for $12.50) and an Lowrance Eagle (recording type finder) at the helm.<br /><br />The Eagle can also be used on the fishing boat if I want so I don’t have to move the Lowrance unit on it between the helm and bow. I usually forget to remove it from my work boat, or put it back on the work boat. This is bad as I have to have it on the work boat.<br /><br />I have never had any interference problems when using a flasher with another fish finder. But I have had to put a high by-pass filter (I think that is what it is called) on the power supply to reduce electrical interference from the engine, and the other electronics.<br /><br />The main benefits are the faster responce from the flasher, and the chart view from the other unit. Sensitivity on both units is about the same, however I keep the chart type very sensitive and the flasher less so. What I am interested in from the flasher is a quick accurate reading of the water depth.