Lowrance 500 series

[Russ]

I'm looking to upgrade my fishfinder to a Lowrance 500 series but wondered about the difference in watts and the types of transducers.

For watts - how much difference does 2500 watts vs 4000 watts make when trolling?

For transducer - one has a 50/200 khz transducer and one has a 200 khz transducer?

Is it worth the extra money for greater watts and teh 50/200 khz transducer?

thanks

russ

[Yankee Troller]

Get the dual transducer. Most guys on the lake get it and run them simultaneously. What one misses the other will catch and they will take you from pounding the shore out to the middle of the lake and mark fish.

I seen Lowrance came out with some new HD (High Def) stuff for 2009. Looks real nice! Don't skimp on the power either. This is a one time purchase that should last you for many years.

[Billy V]

YT is right on. Get the dual frequency if you can. We run ours with both frequencies on almost all the time. And as far as power goes, get the most that you can afford. Most of us have found that a unit that's rated at 500 watts RMS (that's 4,000 watts peak-to-peak) will do all that we need it to do out on Lake Ontario. That 2,400 watt unit you're talking about is only 300 watts RMS. That'll work for you, but you'll get better target definition and separation with the higher power unit.

[jekyll]

There is no substitute for wattage!

Dual Freq is worth ever penny.

[Gene Shenk]

Russ

I have the LMS525 4000 watt dual freq with gps and I got a free map chip and it is a nice unit for the money and the gps is pretty nice to. If I did not need both I would have went with furon but I was furnishing a new boat and the budget was runnung dry. I will not complain about this unit it is great for the money and like these guys are telling you go dual freq and grab all the wattage you can get.

Gene

[Russ]

Thanks much for the feedback, I appreciate your input and your posts during fishing season!

russ

[chowder]

When I got into this last spring I got the 525c DF and I have felt it was money well spent. I am in the process of installing the Navionics Platinum Hot Map, which requires a software update. To do the update, I need to do a download onto a blank sd chip using card reader with a USB port, then run the chip through the 525 and then it should read the Navionics Map. Has anybody done this? I just hope I am on the right track- the factory map is only fair, nothing that you can truly troll structure with.