best fishfinder today

[landingzone]

OK, here we go with the age old question that has been asked many times in the past. I plan to buy a new unit and so my question is what would be best to buy today. Price is not the biggest issue. My only requirement is that it is the best at marking fish .... nothing else is important!

I have 3 fishfinders on my boat (too many) and although they work, I'm not happy with any one of them. I don't have the model info available right now, but my primary one one is an old Furuno CRT dual freq. color unit. The backup is a Garmin mono color 320 (I think), and the last resort is a Lowrance mono color dual freq. about 10 yrs, old.

I have seen some LCD units that look pretty good but I would value the hands on experience of LOU board members.

Thanks, Dick

[Rich D]

LZ,

IMHO the Furuno FCV 585 is probably one of the best on the market right now, I have the 620, and love it, but I will up grade to the bigger screen in a few years. I know there are a couple of guys here that have them, if size is an issue, then the 620 would be my second choice. Good Luck.

Rich

I have dealt with By Owner Electronics , Jim is awesome, he can answer any questions you have.

[MANIAC]

I upgraded to the Furuno FCV585 last season. Huge difference over my older monochrome single freq Furuno. You can track your cannonballs and see the fish racing up to them. The unit is very user friendly. I love it!!! I also dealt with Jim at BOE. Here is their link:http://www.byownerelectronics.com/store/home.php?cat=2596. Good luck, Eric

[drlfc]

For the last three seasons I have been using a Furuno FCV 582L. It is an LCD color display and it works fantastic. I believe the 585 is the newest upgrade unit. I highly recommend Furuno products. I ttracks my cannon balls, great target separation and decent sunlight viewing. Good luck in your search for the perfect sonar unit.

Lou

[L&M]

What model is the Furuno? If it's what i think it is it's one of the best units out there. You could have a weak transducer, or your trying to run them all at the same time. That won't work usually. Give furuno a call and tell them your issues & if you don't have one down load a manual on there site for the model you have. Might save ya alot of $ for a good unit you already have.

[Billy V]

Another vote for the Furuno 585 here. Love mine!

[Erbyjoe]

I have the 620 great little finder I also used Jim from BOE he will match any price plus shipping is free.over $400 I don't have the room for a 585 but Have been on Maniac's boat nice unit can't go wrong

[daker1979]

OK, here we go with the age old question that has been asked many times in the past. I plan to buy a new unit and so my question is what would be best to buy today. Price is not the biggest issue. My only requirement is that it is the best at marking fish .... nothing else is important!

I have 3 fishfinders on my boat (too many) and although they work, I'm not happy with any one of them. I don't have the model info available right now, but my primary one one is an old Furuno CRT dual freq. color unit. The backup is a Garmin mono color 320 (I think), and the last resort is a Lowrance mono color dual freq. about 10 yrs, old.

I have seen some LCD units that look pretty good but I would value the hands on experience of LOU board members.

Thanks, Dick

I agree with Hank. and I think that Furuno CRT is better than any LCD out there. Have you tried sending it back to Furuno...to have it checked.....might be worth the time and money over getting a new unit. I have the Lowrance LCX-25 and actually like the picture better than the Furuno LCD's......but that's me. Is it better????????????

[HitorMissIV]

Dick,

I have an older furuno 620 on board along with a Sitex with a triducer and a Lowrance unit. The Sitex is a tru hull triducer & works ok while on plane , the lowrance unit is ok for shallow fishing, but the Furuno definitly marks fish well. I did up grade the transducer & the Tech from Furuno told me how to splice it into the existing harness. This is a transom mount transducer which allows me to see the riggers along with it marking my wire dipsey out 175 ft? I think it reflects off the wire & shows the dipsey diver off that side. On bottom lock you can see the kings comming off to attack! I can run both the Sitex & the Furuno simultainiously, being the Sitex was special ordered with a 135kz freq. I seen the Furuno 585 unit at work & must say If I were to up -grade it would definitly be on my List! Hope this helps.

Capt. Randy

[wilsonboatyard]

Theres no doubt the success of the Furuno 582 then 585 is note worthy as many have em and love em. Having fished on many vessels with a veriety of equipment ill put my Raymarine unit up against anything short of Highseas capability. Ray was the first company to offer digital filtering and any c or e series coupled with a DSM will show you a pimple on a fishes ass. The new a series and c wide(to be announced) have the same capabilities. You have to see it to believe it. If you guys are up in the spring be happy to offer you a demo.

[landingzone]

Hank & Guy,

The Furuno I have is a FCV582 and it does work pretty good. I bought a new transducer after I bought the unit on eBay about 3 yrs. ago. I just think I don't see as many fish as others at times. I usually like to use 50 hz because of the larger cone, ... but it seems to mark better on 200hz.

Kevin,

I certainly am interested in the FCV 585 especially with all the recommendations here. But if I were to look into the Raymarine units, what specific model numbers should I look at for comparison? ....or should I wait for new units coming out?

Dick

[Yankee Troller]

Theres no doubt the success of the Furuno 582 then 585 is note worthy as many have em and love em. Having fished on many vessels with a veriety of equipment ill put my Raymarine unit up against anything short of Highseas capability. Ray was the first company to offer digital filtering and any c or e series coupled with a DSM will show you a pimple on a fishes ass. The new a series and c wide(to be announced) have the same capabilities. You have to see it to believe it. If you guys are up in the spring be happy to offer you a demo.

Kev,

Do pimples grow on a fish's ass? I usually just reel 'em in and toss 'em back. Never looked at the anus! LMAO

[Fishtails]

Dick,

Personally, when fishing Lake O I keep my Furuno on Dual frequency/split screen most of the time. The 200 will mark the deep fish and the 50 will mark the fish that are up top. On 50, you will not mark many/any fish beyond about 50 ft of water because the cone angle Is becoming to wide and the signal weakens. The narrow cone on the 200 doesn't show much (that's not directly under the boat) until you get down beyond 50 ft.

Keep In mind that the cone angle keeps increasing with depth. The wider It gets, the weaker It gets, so where the 50 leaves off, the 200 picks up.

I'm no authority on fishfinders and I could be a little off on this, but I think that's the general Idea. That 582 Is a very good unit and my guess Is you just need to get It dialed In.

[Fishstix]

Ive got to agree with the other two old timers above,keep the CRT model.

I run a Furuno 667 If there something there, I see it. If you can not track your downrigger

ball something is wrong.

If I show a thin green line,my speed is right.

If I show a red line Im to slow.

If I can not track my ball down 80ft Im to fast....

Some days you only mark fish in one direction.

Some days you dont mark fish and still catch fish

Some days you mark fish and cant catch them {worst days}

I kinda go by if I can crank the gain up[power] and totally fill the screen my units working good ,

then turn it down to just track the balls.I guess the new units could be better but mine must die first.

[on the lam]

as far as the 582L is concerned, i have one and probably won't replace mine until it takes a sh#t. works fine for me.

They are no longer manufactured as far as i know (585 replaced it), but you could snag one on EBAY from time to time.

[luv2fish]

I gotta agree with Wilson about Raymarine. I have spent a lot of hours in front of the C80 display with the DSM300 module. Clear, accurate, powerful and more screen than you really need. Of course the price is more than you really need also, which is why I dont have one on my own boat. I am currently running the Humminbird 917C, which gives me a pretty good color picture of whats under the boat, especially with the split screen dual frequency. I cant speak for the Furuno graph, only experience I have with Furuno is with radar, but it sounds like everyone else here is pretty happy with it. One thing I will say is that once you get used to watching a color graph, the old mono just doesnt cut it.....

Dan

[Billy V]

I've owned both a Furuno 667 and the 585. While the 667 was a great unit, the 585 is just that much better. First off, the 585 has twice the power that the 667 has (600 watts RMS for the 585 with the ability to go up to 1,000 watts, 300 watts RMS for the 667). The 585 screen is much easier to see in daylight than the 667 is even with the sun shield on, and with an Airmar thru hull triducer I can mark bait & fish while up on plane with my 585. I couldn't do that with my 667. Don't get me wrong here, the 667 is still one of the best out there but the 585 is incredible and worth every penny to me.

I've also spent some time with a Raymarine C120 and was very impressed with it as well. Make sure you look very seriously at Raymarine as they make great stuff.

The new Lowrance HDS Series looks sweet too, although I've never seen one in person.

[fishman08]

we have the new ray a series and it's alright...little disappointed from the high reviews it had. With the new boat on the way we started looking at new finders and the new lowrance has definitly peaked my interest. If you go to their website you'll see what i am talking about, very impressive.

[TeamHelgoya]

Hi.

I altso think the new series from Lowrance sounds exciting, but I will not baught them as pure fish finder since I'm convinced they can't match my Furuno. Best fishfinder I've ever had. And I have the small 620 with an airmar 50/200 transducer.

I altso have a lot of hours with the Ray E120 with the DSM300 module since my best friend have this one, and to be honest, it's a great machine but I don't find it "up there" with the Furuno even if the screen is more than twice the size.

A bit of topic, but the radar release picture from Lowrance on they're HDS serie.... WOW

Maybe I'm incompetent to discuss fishfinder since I'm sponsed by Furuno on fishfinders, but if Belanor (Raymarines agent in Norway) had offer me the Ray E serie I would have refused based on my experience (and a lot of others) with the Furuno fishfinder.

Before I got the 620 ( I choose this in favour of 585 because of the size on my boat) I run Lowrance for 14 years.