portable fish finders

[jeremonster]

gd day all,

im hoping to gain some info on what portable fishfinder/chartplotter to buy

i would like to get something that can be used for both my 14' aluminum boat as well as for ice fishing.

i dont care about name brand, i only care about the device getting the job done for minimal $$. im in the army with 4 kids so $$ is very tight..

i do have a backpackers 1 person pontoon boat i would trade worth $900+..but i am willing to pay cash if i have to...

any help or suggestions would be great....

[jrgreenbird]

I would suggest to keep your eye out on kijiji for a Lawarance Elite series with the chart plotter build in. This would be the cheaper portable finder for both hard and sort water. I do believe one of the finders in the elite series is on sale this week at CT. I do own one and find them to be good units for the money.

[Monster29/66]

Get a garmin echo 300 with the portable pack for it. Costs about 300 to 350$, team that up with navionics app for an iPhone ( 15$ ) and you should be good to go, the echo works awesome it's ability to accurately read bottom even at 15 to 20mph is great when looking for mid lake deep water structure..

The combination of these 2 devices has put a lot of trout in my boat.

[jeremonster]

i caved and bought the humminbird 385ci portable. took it out on lake vernon & loved it..

[fitzy]

Just picked up the hummingbird pirhanna max 175 last night. Hopefully I'll get it out tonight now that the battery is charged. Just went through the simulation and was happy with how simple it was to navigate the menu screens and also happy with how bright the screen was. Pretty happy so far and reasonably priced at 200 at CT. Let you know how it goes.

[Woodsman]

Just picked up the hummingbird pirhanna max 175 last night. ------- Pretty happy so far and reasonably priced at 200 at CT.

Radioworld has the same unit for $150 if in the Toronto area. Also will mail it out for $15.
I've had numerous things mailed to me without problems. Usually 3-4 days delivery not counting weekends.

[fitzy]

Tonight was my first time out with the 175. Really happy with the depth/structure readings. Kept the fish Id on, but I was skeptical about the amount of fish I was marking. Used bungee cords to strap it to my 11' kayak and was really happy with how it maintained position in some pretty good rollers on georgian bay. No fish though! One other thing I was really impressed with was how well the suction cup transducer mount worked. Could hardly pull the thing off. Very happy so far.

[jeremonster]

a great buy! like night & day for fishing....

[DUXX]

Hummingbird 385 here as well
has only been positive experience out the boat and on the ice. It can use navionics but I have only used gps feature to mark spots to stay on them

[muskokaguy]

I've had my portable Hummingbird for over 15 years. It may even be 20. It's still working perfectly.