Fish Finder Selection

[Duke62]

Looking for opinions on fish finders. All in the $140-$170 price range, all black & white.

Which to choose:

Hummingbird 561
Lowrance Mark-5x Pro
Garmin Echo 200

 

[TNtroller]

can only speak of the Mark 5 pro.

Had two of 'em on my Tracker PT 175, worked great, no complaints at all with its performance. Worked good on the console with the ducer mounted to the transom, and had the other mounted on the TM, no problems either. Has a scroll back feature to review recent activity if you want to review something you "may" have missed, has a flasher option, split screens, etc.. It is B&W but the screen is easy to see in daylight. The ONLY complaint I have about the unit is if you use/prefer the "fish ID" option, the actual fish icon is very very small. i'm not sure if you have an option to change this size of the icon or not. If you will be sitting at the console and using it, no problems, but if the FF is beyon arms length, and you don't have eagle eyes, then I would recommend not using this feature and rely on the "arches" for fish location. I upgraded to GPS on my boat, and put one of the Mark 5's on my kayak, worked great there as well. have since upgraded to gps on the yak as well.

 

[Bass n flats]

I haven't had a chance to test yet but I just installed an echo 200. Found it on amazon and after a cover and shipping I had it to the door for $150. Install was very straight forward and after playing with it for a bit in the driveway seems very easy to use. I should be hitting the lake this weekend I will try to put a report up for you.

 

[MNHunter505]

I would go with the lowrance. When looking for fishfinders, you have to look at screen size and resolution. The lowrance is the only one that is 480x480 pixel resolution. This is most important because it will be able to display the greatest detail out of the other ones. The garmin is next in line, then the humminbird. IMO, but would be agreed with by most and I would argue different.