$450 Fish Finder?

[cmb3366]

Alright, I'm relatively new to fishing, I just bought a 1993 Bass Tracker Pro-17, and I've been having great luck with it overall, but its 15YO fish finders (A Humminbird Wide Optic and a Eagle Cuda 128) leave a bit to be desired. For the time being, I want to update the Eagle to something newer, and keep the Humminbird.

Anyhow, Like I said I'm new to this, and I've got no idea where to begin. I fish mainly in the Upper Susquehanna river, with depths ranging from 4-20', though I do plan on taking it to Otsego lake which is 80' max IIRC. I wouldn't mind a GPS/Finder combo, but if they are a PITA, I'd happily go with a plain finder. For my budget (prefer around $400, $500 max) what unit would you go with? Thanks in advance.

[4dbass]

Check this on out - Eagle Fishfinder / GPS color combo.

http://www.fishfinder-store.com/eafi50cofich.html

[coldfront]

couple of things to keep in mind...

power...screen size.  for the money, you might be hard pressed to beat the Lowrance LMS-480m...ought to be able to get what you want at less than $500.

Now, if you have to have color...that'll cost you a little more...

I'm just old and stupid.  I run only black/white models  (LMS 480 on the bow and an LX-17m on the console)...

But lots of folks think color is absolutely the way to go...

[Jdaddy]

I agree, the Lowrance LMS-480m is a very good unit.
You can also try the Lowrance 322c or 520c (c-for color )
I know you can get them for that price and you will love it, its a GPS and a fish finder .
the 520 is a built in GPS antenna and the 322 is external but pretty much the same.
If you can't find one here on UB try ebay.

[coldfront]

one other thing...if you would decide to get a Lowrance...get one with the 'chip' tray...I use mine to record/save stuff.  This allows me to bring it up at home on my PC (using Lowrance Free-ware) and study what I may have not had time to do on the water...

I'll have to write up a protocol sometime for how to make your own high quality maps from personal survey data...