Fish finders how to choose and fit yours.

Hi all,
Its the start of most kayak anglers and boat anglers angling season. Soon the tope, coalie and ray will be in. Long with the warmer weather species as the summer approaches.
A lot of you will be getting ready kayak or boat ready and choosing a fish finder and fitting it will be top priority.

Choosing a fish finder.
 First of all before you break out the cash what do you want it to do.

1. Do you just want general depths and basic features along with thick fish shoals to show up. Price from E80.00 up.
2. Do you want a fish finder to show the above and pick up as much fish as possible as more basic units will not show up mackerel and herring unless the shoals are very thick. Usually from E160.00 up.
   
3. Do you want a unit that will do all of number 2 and have CHIRP which shows huge bottom detail and very accurately show up even individual fish. Normally from E250.00 up.
4. Or all of number 3 and have a built in gps unit with chart plotter. Can be got from E350.00 up

1. Sounds a mine field but it is easy with a little help to get you going. For option number 1 the Garmin 90 is not a bad choice. I have had an older version and it was not a bad unit. I did up permanently  sealing the leads into the back of the unit as they did start to suffer from corrosion.
2. In my view if you are on a tight budget try and push towards a better unit I have seen the lowrance 4xdsi for E160.00 new from a French seller but normally nearer the E200.00 . You will have to google that one they come up on sale from time to time. This unit has exceptional image quality and can even show he shape of lobster pots in 40ft of water. The only problem I had with this unit was it did fog up at times. But did clear with in a few minutes when out of direct sun light.
3. Now if you have the cash a top class unit that has CHIRP is worth the money, the Raymarine dragonfly 4 has this. But can be hypnotic, they can show up amazing detail and can be a real eye opener to what the bottom is really like. It is a big bonus to finding areas holding fish and will show even light shoals of sandeels.
4. Well option 4 is the top of the game and you could spend a small mortgage on one. The Dragonfly 4 is one of the cheaper ones out there. An excellent unit and well worth the money, the screen is bonded so it can never fog up. The only down side to this unit is, in my view the maps that come with it are very poor, they lack detail and when zoomed in show next to no detail.
   
   You can get Navionics for it, which are excellent but I was quoted E200.00 to get them on my unit. I was not happy about that but it is a good unit. Lowrance do a similar unit which I have great things about, but I have not had the privilege of trying one out. I have heard they are more expensive.