Choosing cheap but decent fish finder

Hey guys, so im a pretty new fisherman when it comes to fishing from a boat. Most my experience is just from fishing at streams and rivers for trout. Recently me and my friend bought a 17 foot boat for fishing, but we are not having any luck fishing with it. We are usually out at castaic and pyramid lake over in socal.

So now we are looking to get a fish finder. We really dont want anything too crazy and hopefully in the price range of about a 100 dollars. We are pretty confident that if we can find the fish, we can catch them. But we are getting mixed opinions in what type of fish finder is best, and many people have been telling us that if we dont invest 4 or 5 hundred dollars, we will be getting a worthless unit.

Can anyone recommend or advise on getting a good but cheap fish finder. Oh and if it helps, we are always in fairly clear water in lakes. Thanks!!!

I was in the same situation as you are. I started out by buying an Eagle fishfinder for $160. That thing was worhtless and immediately took it back. When I took it back after doing more research I ended up spending $50 more on a Hummingbird 570. I haven't had any issues with it and am happy with it. I use this finder and Diamond Valley and am able to locate the big schools of stripers there without any hiccups.

Whatever you choose to buy, please read the reviews on the finder. If you could spend another $100, go with a Hummingbird 570 or 718 (only costs $199).

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by sf-nightmare

Hey guys, so im a pretty new fisherman when it comes to fishing from a boat. Most my experience is just from fishing at streams and rivers for trout. Recently me and my friend bought a 17 foot boat for fishing, but we are not having any luck fishing with it. We are usually out at castaic and pyramid lake over in socal.

So now we are looking to get a fish finder. We really dont want anything too crazy and hopefully in the price range of about a 100 dollars. We are pretty confident that if we can find the fish, we can catch them. But we are getting mixed opinions in what type of fish finder is best, and many people have been telling us that if we dont invest 4 or 5 hundred dollars, we will be getting a worthless unit.

Can anyone recommend or advise on getting a good but cheap fish finder. Oh and if it helps, we are always in fairly clear water in lakes. Thanks!!!

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They will all show structure and fish. the keys is learning how to read it. anglers marine each year has a pretty good fishing siminar weekend and they always have someone from lowrance to teach you how to use it. also youtube has tons of fishfiner videos. so my suggestion to you would be to get the biggest display you can for the money you want to spend.

thanks guys, i think i will invest that extra hundred and get the humminbird one. Which model do you guys recommend the 570 or 718. Other then the resolution difference i noticed between these two, is there a performance difference?

The 570 not the 570DI is user friendly but had some issues on it (transducer going out and not reading bottom) and the 718 had better reviews (Bass Pro Shop website) but the manual a little diffcult to understand was the major complaint. The 718 has the ability to GPS plot with a GPS unit hooked up to the unit.

Like I stated before I have the 570 and am pleased with it for what I wanted (locate fish, water temp, structure read, baitfish). The only discouraging thing about the 570 I experienced is when the depth gets shallower than 5 feet the unit does not read bottom accurately. I have this installed on a 1991 15 foot bayliner trophy, so I may have it too close to the prop. Be sure whatever unit you get install a fuse to the power wire.

Get an Lowrance X135 you can use it as a portable. Buy a bracket you can clamp on the transom and a rechargeable small 12v battery. It's still a good unit and now you can get one cheap that works on ebay. You should be able to get a whole set up for the same $$.

If you need more info let me know and I can send you pics of my set up. I use it at DVL on the rentals.

I bought a 570 and I like it. I have also used I believe it was a 535 and it was decent enough.