Hello all!!! Ive got this friend who has takin me fishing on his boat for the last 5 years and refuse's to let me pay for gas or anything. Anyways he has this deterioration of the spine , so he just bought a top of the line Scotty downriggger to make things a bit easier on him. Problem is his fish finder sucks. 75% of the time it doesnt even work...it doesnt read bottom...In the 80's when i was rich and famous (now poor and infamous) i had a top of the line Lowrance fishfinder that did the same thing. Sup with that? Anyways...I want to buy this guy a fishfinder to show my gratitude...I dont want to spend more that $400 and would prefer to spend less. The key ingredients are
1. It works all the time
2.It has a depth alarm/warning
3. When it marks a fish it also has a number next to the fish that shows the depth
4. Its easy to use

Thats it. Dont need any other bells and whistles. Please help me out. Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!

JK, You may want to take a look at the Garmin
160 or 240 Blue. both well under $400. I have a 160 Blue and wish I had bought the 240.
Good luck and best wishes for your friend.

thanks Charr...That was very nice of u to offer those kind words....Thanks to u too Fishstick...I sure like the price and i most indeed will look into both of them. Peace!!

Hi JK:

I would check hummingbird dx 240. My friend and I have this. It works great and never had any problem and has all the feature that you want. I hope this helps. Please let me know any other people if you had good luck with hummingbird.

I think most of the Eagles and Humminbirds will do what you ask. In the deeper areas of the sound, many of the lower powered DF's will have trouble seeing the bottom, particularly at speed. That is rarely an issue with actually catching the fish. They'll almost all be able to see fish and bait to 200 feet or so, which covers most of the fishing I have done in the Sound.

Pretty much cost = power and resolution in this market. The cheaper units will have lower resolution and lower power. They're fine in shallower water and when you're not as concerned with what types of fish you are seeing. The midrange (200-300 dollar) units will work fine for PS salmon fishing, in my opinion.

The Humminbird Matrix 35 looks like a good unit in that price range. It is also gps compatible and has side sonar.
Check out there web site.

I bought the Eagle 320DF this Summer and its been great for me. Comes with speed and temp. Bought it at Boaters World for $234. Only down fall no swivel plate. Need to buy it seperate.

I have a Humminbird 300 that I got at Sportco for all of $119. Has all those features and also has sidescan sonar - sees fish out 45 degrees to each side which is way cool for fishing in shallow water like the CR, Willapa, GH, etc. This thing has stood up to 3 years of heavy abuse now, including regular smashing of the transducer on lousy boat launches, and still works great. I figure with the way I break things why go for the big ticket item like the Garmin when I can get 3 or 4 of these for that price

I can't recommend a specific brand, (I own an old Furuno), but have some advice: make sure the unit has both low and high frequency capability, and zoom. Most units have zoom, but not all have both frequencies. The low frequency actually marks real fish and has a wider viewing angle. The high speed is good for running and marking bait. The Eagle 320DF that Erndog recommended has both and looks like a good unit.

I just bought a Garmin 240 Blue last month. It has all of the features that you are looking for with zoom and a dual frequency transducer. I did a search here on a few different brands of fishfinders and decided this one suited me best.

I just finished installing my Eagle Seafinder 320DF a few minutes ago. I got mine from E-bay for $200. It was a Boaters World auction,and came with free shipping,and no tax. Migt be worth your time to check out E-bay.

Another vote for the garmins. I have a 160 blue and it is great!

I have a Garmin 240 and suggest you get a different brand.

It worked great, I used it 4 times and parked the boat in the garage for the winter.

I got the boat out again for the 4th of July weekend and the 240 would not work. I sent it to Garmin along with all the receipts showing date of purchase, and the $79. check to fix it in case they would not do it under warranty (it was 13 months old and the warranty was 12 months) . I got a new 240 back, with the note the old one had internal damage and no check returned..

They charged me to repair it, even though it had almost no usage time and was only one month past the warranty period.

I suggest you buy some other brand besides Garmin.

Stay away from Eagle/Lowrance. I'm on my 3rd fishfinder in 10 years and had nothing but problems on all three. My friends have had no problems with Garmin and Humminbird. Spend extra money to get a unit with lots of power. Cheap units will not read very deep in salt water.

I suggest you get a Simrad.....all the features you want and just a touch under $4000......oh wait, did you say $400?

Actually I have a Garmin 240 Blue and it works great. Had a warranty repair early on and haven't had any problems since. Great customer service.

I put my money into a Raytheon, now Raymarine. They designed and built the sonar systems for the navy, thought that was a good bet,Have a L365 cost about 300.Dual freqs for dept and clarity, temp,distance and speed. Has worked great for me and will read to a depth of 2000 ft, sometimes it gets deeper than that out there, but i have had great luck with it and have put it to some long days of fishing,Hope some of these comments help, Fishy p.s. now they cost about 200