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IF you were to get a new one what would you get and why ?
What are the features you would want or be able to use later....Radar, Auto pilot, XM weather, music and what not.

Less knowledgeable people of said subject (like me) are curious. It's funny you brought this up Les, I have been lurking around on-line for a couple weeks & have NO CLUE what-is-what. I see some units for $500-$600, I see some for $6k. Is it realy necessary to spend $6k on a gps/ fish finder????

BOE Marine needs to jump in here because my head hurts from deciphering all of the jargon among the competing brands. For me, when the Hummingbird 360 is available, I will have one as I do not need all that stuff you pelagic fisherman need.

But sabs you are right about the prices, another reason my head started to pound. You can quite literally stack the high end units (milspec) at $6500-up and the high end consumer stuff at $3500. Lots more for the durability imo that SHOULD be built in at those prices imo.

May you choose wisely and well at those prices!!!

I got to chose my end of season bonus this year. Well told my boss that I needed a new fish finder, and he said order whatever I wanted. So I chose a NSE12

If I had to pay for it I don't think I would have gone so expensive. Especially since its only a 20'er. But I won't turn down free stuff. I only have the fishing pack though. So no radar, weather, auto pilot or any other add ones yet. Only the gps and transducer.

Sabs28 wrote:Less knowledgeable people of said subject (like me) are curious. It's funny you brought this up Les, I have been lurking around on-line for a couple weeks & have NO CLUE what-is-what. I see some units for $500-$600, I see some for $6k. Is it realy necessary to spend $6k on a gps/ fish finder????

NOT AT ALL, SABS

If you know the area, you can fish/and travel without knowing anything but the depth. I'd bet at least 75% of the folks on weekends putting their boats in the water don't even know how to read, or even use all the faculties of their own sounders/GPS/Plotters.

C'mon...most people don't even use thier boats enough. So how can they utilize all those bells and whistles.

Just like smart phones, do ya need all that crapolla? Or do ya just need to make a call and recieve a call? The market has to keep coming up with more BS, to keep making money, right?? The majority is fluff on a smart phone....

Look at the big picture.

It's all dollars and "common sence".

I'm hearin ya Dave. A VHF & Depth finder are usually the "minimum". But I wouldn't mind having a Chart plotter/ Fish finder combo. I just think $6K is a bit high in price. It's kind of like comparing an XLT to a Lariat. Yah, the Lariat is nice, But do you REALLY need it?

I would get a Lowrance HDS 8 or 10, I have a HDS 7 now, unit works very well for GPS with insight USA, very detailed and easy to use, the fishfinder seems very good as well but I use it mostly as a GPS.

JETTYWOLF wrote:

Sabs28 wrote:Less knowledgeable people of said subject (like me) are curious. It's funny you brought this up Les, I have been lurking around on-line for a couple weeks & have NO CLUE what-is-what. I see some units for $500-$600, I see some for $6k. Is it realy necessary to spend $6k on a gps/ fish finder????

NOT AT ALL, SABS

If you know the area, you can fish/and travel without knowing anything but the depth. I'd bet at least 75% of the folks on weekends putting their boats in the water don't even know how to read, or even use all the faculties of their own sounders/GPS/Plotters.

C'mon...most people don't even use thier boats enough. So how can they utilize all those bells and whistles.

Just like smart phones, do ya need all that crapolla? Or do ya just need to make a call and recieve a call? The market has to keep coming up with more BS, to keep making money, right?? The majority is fluff on a smart phone....

Look at the big picture.

It's all dollars and "common sence".

For bottom fish you are right.

However when fishing salmon you are wasting your time if you just hit your numbers. IMO anyways. But then I am a commercial fisherman so I don't fall into the 75%.

Dawgaholic: I agree, BOE needs to chime in. Or anyone else has a good knowledge of said subject.

Jetty: I agree, No sense of spending alot of money on something you won't use.

MacCTD: The HDS8 & 10 look like good units to me.

Buck3: What does "Hitting your numbers" mean???

I am looking at Garmin GPS/FF combos. I know it all comes down to opinion & preference. I don't need auto pilot & radar. I just want an easy to use gps so I can find my way home if I get lost. Or if I want to meet up with some other East Coast Members to go fishing, find a certain fishing spot, place to eat, get fuel etc. I don't mind spending the money if it is something I will use. But to spend $6k on something & only use $1500 worth of it's potential, to me is a waste of money.

Come on boys, don't be shy, chime & tell us what you have, how it works, what you recommend/ don't recommend. 77 views & only 7 responses????

I run a Furuno GP7000F , it was $2500.00 installed [New Complete package running] I have been running it 6 years and it has NOT let me down yet .
As my eyes are getting older the 7" screen is as small as I would go AND it fits in my overhead E-box. It does take a little time to learn the extra things the machine does but once done is easily mastered.

I would buy again .

The best thing to do is get down to a shop the sells the units you may be interested in [they will be plugged in and in demo mode] and play with them and better than that get on someones boat so they can demo it for you.

By hitting numbers, I mean going to a lat and long and start fishing.

I am a fan of separate systems for redundancy, it's a product of my commercial fishing upbringing. For my money I would
Get a FURUNO fish finder and cheap chartplotter. But if you mainly after groundfish only then you could probably reverse those.

I don't know if you get the same kind of fog we get in the northwest but here it's horrible and makes a radar essential.
Again for, my money I would get the FURUNO fcv585. And probably garmin chartplotter. But since I Was shopping with
Someone else's money I went with a Simrad NSE12.

$2500 gets you the Lowrance (LR) HDS 10 with insight mapping and Structure Scan Sonar. If needed Radar added is $1100 Auto Pilot for $1000 to $2400. A VHF Radio is $190 Yes it is $6000 for a complete system. You can get a smaller screen size to lower your cost. The HDS system is more than capable to handle your Fishing and Navigation needs.

Simrad Is the Cats meow but it will cost you. Garmin is in the same price point I think as Lowrance. I learned on LR so I keep it LR Family. I have not had to relearn a different system. I have used Garmin and Raymarine FF on friend's boats to me they are harder to use cause I do not know the system. They are all basically have the same features. Cost is all over the scale.

It is hard to pull the trigger on a new system that makes all of your older stuff obsolete. If use the manual to learn your system's features you will enjoy it more and benefit by catching more fish and getting to and from your Fishing grounds. Decide on the cost you want to spend and start building your system.

My phone is a Droid and it has a lot of bells and whistles and I do not know all there is to know about it either. I am okay with it thou.

I bought last year a furuno 585 with a tm 260 transducer. Couldn't of made a better purchase. "It works great at all speeds and marks fish like a champ. I also boat the furuno navnet 3d in a 12 inch screen. Compared to the garmin i had for the last 6 years what a difference. The best thing about it is that is doesn't take time to load up when u zoom in or out. instant. "i have separate unit for all my units and like it that way. Great units and i think i couldn't of made a better decision.

A buddy of mine used to install and work on Marine Electronics for a traveling tech company. He said, there's nothing worse than a Raymarine system, and that mine won't last a year before I have catastrophic failure, and have to send it back.

Because 50% of the work he does is always on Raymarine stuff....his personal boat a 21 footer has a big Lowrance machine.

(Maybe 50% of what he works on is RayMarine because so many people have Raymarine )

Well it's almost 6 year now, and not a single problem. I use it alot, it sits in the rain, sun and doesn't get turned off for 8-10 hours at a time.

Hmmmmmm, that's funny. Maybe it's the ole "USE IT OR LOOSE IT" thang going on with the ones he has to work on.

USE YER SHET! if not, don't complain when it doesn't work

SIMRAD has touch screen, many companies do. Can imagine touching the screen on a REAL fishermans boat?????
Please, wet, stinky hands touching the screen all the time. That's one I'd stay away from.

JETTYWOLF wrote:SIMRAD has touch screen, many companies do. Can imagine touching the screen on a REAL fishermans boat?????
Please, wet, stinky hands touching the screen all the time. That's one I'd stay away from.

You can stay away from it Jetty because by the time those ones get through the market they will have ones that you can talk to and you won't have to touch them lol. That is how fast the industry seems to be going.

I have the HDS system on my craft with the side scan option...it has been a very good performer. So I use the chart plotter, the sonar, the sidescan...I can add radar and weather and i am sure that AIS will be out soon, if not already! I am thinking that when I finally enclose the cabin i'll do the radar unit, but then I wonder why! You see when I ran a big charter vessel in the 80's I had a compass, a depth sounder, VHF and Charts...fog was all dead reckoning...always got there! So all this new stuff is fun and really NICE!!!

When I was in the GOM the sea-fog rolled in and I knew where to go due to the chartplotter. You don't need to buy everything all at once...but do settle on a system and go with it! Garmin and others have very good systems as well as Lowrance HDS and they look like the prices are good for any and all...I totally watch the sales. Good LUCK! Capt PJ