# Help on electronics purchase



## Mac (Sep 22, 2010)

First I read all the old post on the subject,  any updates I need to consider? 
I know there is load of experience on this board. Would you please direct me in a good direction for some electronics. I do have room for two seperate units, but think I would like to go with a combo.

I would like to stay in the the $1000 range to used on a inshore boat in the Carrabelle area. 
One guy on another forum said you could not even get a good transducer for that kind of money.
That said, almost anything would be better than what I have, a old B&W fishfinder with no GPS. 

All suggestions would be appreciated.


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## Wild Turkey (Sep 22, 2010)

inshore combo unit. super transducer not needed in shallow water.
I'd go with the Garmin color combo unit.
GPS and maps are great and easy to use.


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## d-a (Sep 22, 2010)

I would look at the ray marine A50D. Everything you need and can add satellite weather if you decide to venture farther out.

http://www.thegpsstore.com/Raymarine-A50D-Coastal-GPS-Fishfinder-Combo-with-Transducer-P1962.aspx

d-a


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## PCB Justin (Sep 22, 2010)

Garmin 740s.  A little more than you want to spend, but worth a little extra.  I have one on my skiff and love it.  Touchscreen rocks


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## pottydoc (Sep 27, 2010)

Furuno. Period. As far as a combo, personally I like seperate units. Then if one goes down, you still have the other. With a combo, you lose both . A good transducer for a high watt offshore unit can easily cost 1k, but wichever one comes standard with the unit you buy will be all you need for inshore.


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## Mac (Sep 28, 2010)

Thanks for the info,  
I know Furuno is great, but alot more than I wanted to put into a unit.

Thanks D-A,  a die hard Garmin guy told me he had heard good things about that unit.

Seems Garmin is the Choice for the Salt,  The fresh water guys fight over Lowrance HDS verses Hummingbird.  

Correct me if I am wrong,  
Is it because the Garmin GPS is best/most accurate and that is much more important in the deep Blue.


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## d-a (Sep 28, 2010)

Mac said:


> Thanks for the info,
> I know Furuno is great, but alot more than I wanted to put into a unit.
> 
> Thanks D-A,  a die hard Garmin guy told me he had heard good things about that unit.
> ...



No it because Garmin is the most user friendly, there GSD 22 fish finder has been problematic for them. Furuno is the best for offshore fishing.

d-a


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## grouper throat (Sep 30, 2010)

d-a said:


> No it because Garmin is the most user friendly, there GSD 22 fish finder has been problematic for them. Furuno is the best for offshore fishing.
> 
> d-a




x2 Furuno offshore.


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## grim (Sep 30, 2010)

I have had some very bad exeperiences with Lowrance and have heard they have gone down hill since then.  For an inshore unit, garmin is a decnet choice and their map packages are pretty good.


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## Big Texun (Sep 30, 2010)

My Lowrance HDS works great when I trailer my boat down to Destin. For a thousand bucks, I'd get an HDS 7 and never look back. 

BTW, Lowrance did have a lot of problems with the HDS 5 & 7 when they first introduced the HDS line. Those problems have long since been resolved. 

Note, when I upgraded to the HDS 10, I was running a high end Ray Marine unit. Not even in the same ballpark as  the HDS.


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## d-a (Oct 1, 2010)

Big Texun said:


> My Lowrance HDS works great when I trailer my boat down to Destin. For a thousand bucks, I'd get an HDS 7 and never look back.
> 
> BTW, Lowrance did have a lot of problems with the HDS 5 & 7 when they first introduced the HDS line. Those problems have long since been resolved.
> 
> Note, when I upgraded to the HDS 10, I was running a high end Ray Marine unit. Not even in the same ballpark as  the HDS.



What do you consider a high end Ray unit? 

d-a


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## Mac (Oct 1, 2010)

Big Texun said:


> Note, when I upgraded to the HDS 10, I was running a high end Ray Marine unit. Not even in the same ballpark as  the HDS.



Now you sure got my attention with that statement.

This morining I was sitting the fence between the HDS and Raymarine.  Probably leaning more in the Raymarine direction.  A50D or A57D

Would you please explain?


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## Big Texun (Oct 1, 2010)

d-a said:


> What do you consider a high end Ray unit?
> 
> d-a



It was a Raymarine C80. I sold it to a guy on the swap and sell for $500 a year ago.... We both were happy campers.

I'm sure the C80 probably isn't the top of RayMarine's line... but, it costs more than an HDS 7 and there is NO comparison between the sonar capabilities, with the HDS winning by a landslide and a half.

Trust me, if I could've "made do" with the C80, I would have. I make money fishing... and I make more when I don't have to spend money on new equipment.


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## d-a (Oct 1, 2010)

Big Texun said:


> It was a Raymarine C80. I sold it to a guy on the swap and sell for $500 a year ago.... We both were happy campers.
> 
> I'm sure the C80 probably isn't the top of RayMarine's line... but, it costs more than an HDS 7 and there is NO comparison between the sonar capabilities, with the HDS winning by a landslide and a half.
> 
> Trust me, if I could've "made do" with the C80, I would have. I make money fishing... and I make more when I don't have to spend money on new equipment.




Raymarine was like garmin still is, fighting program issues with there black box fish finders. Now that they have that corrected I would still buy a raymarine over a lowrance for the same price but thats my opinion


Do you use your HDS in saltwater? 

d-a


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## Big Texun (Oct 1, 2010)

When I fish in saltwater, of course I use the HDS. 

Bear in mind, I am nowhere near a saltwater expert but instead, a freshwater striper guide. In freshwater, we live or die by sonar because we have to find more than just bottom structure...complex structure is everywhere in most freshwater lakes but our fish are constantly on the move. 

That said, when I have had my HDS system in saltwater, it performed exactly the same as it does in freshwater. I will admit though that I haven't yet used it in saltwater over 100 feet deep so I was able to leave my frequency set at 200 kHz. When I get the opportunity to get in deeper saltwater, I'll likely have to switch to 83 kHz.... That'll fuzz the image a little.


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## pottydoc (Oct 2, 2010)

Big Texun said:


> When I fish in saltwater, of course I use the HDS.
> 
> Bear in mind, I am nowhere near a saltwater expert but instead, a freshwater striper guide. In freshwater, we live or die by sonar because we have to find more than just bottom structure...complex structure is everywhere in most freshwater lakes but our fish are constantly on the move.



That statement makes it obvious that you are, by your own admission, "nowhere near a saltwater expert". If so, you'd know that you have to do more than "just find bottom structure". Check the electronics on high end offshore boats. You see Furuno, followed by Ray Marine, then Garmin and a few others. You'll see pretty much zero Lowrance stuff. On commercial boats, Furuno owns the market. Especially in bottom machines. And, fwi, I have spent a "few" days on both commercial and offshore sport boats.


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## Mac (May 17, 2011)

d-a said:


> Raymarine was like garmin still is, fighting program issues with there black box fish finders. Now that they have that corrected I would still buy a raymarine over a lowrance for the same price but thats my opinion
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I see Raymarine, has a $500 rebate on the A70D,  that sure would make someone lean that direction.


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## Mac (May 20, 2011)

Just placed my order, with Anchorexpress

A70D 6.4 inch combo,  I ordered the unit with no charts and purchased the Navionics Platinum Plus-East Gulf

Total shipped to my door $1428.97 less rebate of $500 = $928.97

  I check around a bunch and anchor beat bethel about $70,  Bethel had the best price with silver charts, but I decided to upgrade for only a few dollars more.


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## Wild Turkey (May 20, 2011)

On my prevoius offshore boat I had a Furuno color bottom reader and also a combo Garmin color unit mostly for GPS. The Furuno would show defined bottom structure and the Garmin wouldnt show anything at all. My bro in law has the Raymarine unit and he couldnt find any of my spots on his reader. He did catch fish by gps but never saw the structure on his graph.


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## CaptainCraig (May 20, 2011)

Furuno!!! I can't say enough them. Every commercial fisherman I know use Furuno. I have an old 582 that makes me a better fisherman.


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