Sounder Fish Finder

248voyager

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Looking at new sounder fish finders, the 8 year old Lowrance has stopped working. Looking for recomendations inshore and offshore, transom mount tranduser, 4" to 5" screen color. I have a Garmin 2006 GPS that is in good shape but I have never used the sounder part of it. Should I get a Transducer for the garmin or a newer stand alone unit?
 
if you have a fairly new gps you like, and it has sounder capabilities, why not by a ducer and try it out? it would be a relatively low priced low risk experiment.
 
You would need a GSD 20 or 21 box for the 2006 to become a sounder. Sometimes you can find them on eBay relatively cheap. For the price of a new one, you are well on your way to a sounder.

It all depends on your budget...you can get a decent sounder for $200 (Garmin FF160). If your budget will stretch to $600-$700 you could get awfully close to an HDS-5 combo machine.
 
do you have a budget in mind?
usually upgrades can be skies the limit unless there's a budget.
in the 4-5" screen size range, i'd have to favor either the Furuno FCV620, or Lowrance HDS 5-series. I'm not a fan of Garmin FF's. If you are using it to see bottom and more for boating than fishing, then either the FF add on module or a stand alone unit would be fine. The FF module would mean split screen on the 2006 which leaves you with a relatively small picture, so i'd go for a separate screen.

May also consider upgrading and getting an overall larger MFD unit in the 8" screen range and using it as plotter and FF.

Some good deals on RM's C90W combo kits.
 
Thank you for the input!! I will let you know whai I end up with. It would be nice to have some redundancy, get the 2006 working as a sounder and a good stand alone unit that will fit in the dash console.