Hummingbird or Eagle?

OK, I know that fishfinders are well-turned soil here, but after spending a few hours with the "Search" function on the boards here, I am still finding a lot of folks, who know a lot of things, not really parcelling out all those things efficiently to those of us who are truly green.. I find this in my job a lot, folks are such experts on the items they are talking about, that they assume everyone has the same base knowledge of the issue that they do, and talk from their own base knowledge, and end up confusing all of us without that base knowledgge...

Or, it could be that I am just a mallet-head?

Let me start; I don't know squat about Fishfinders, other then they are plastic and somehow show fish... Well I know a little more than that (thank you search function) and I think I have whittled down the fishfinders into two brands that I want to buy, but there is a lot of base-knowledge-type information (that would influence my choice) that I can't find anywhere else..

I am cheap. Which, works somewhat well because with three kids I am usually poor too. I have an old kayak, ie. not pretty and I don't need to impress anyone with fanciness of any kind. I plan on fishing local (non-ocean) slow waters, probably all fresh, lakes, sloughs, stuff like that, nothing I plan on needing a GPS for. So, with those facts in mind, I am thinking of getting either a Eagle Fish Easy of some model number, or a Hummingbird PiranhaMax of some model number, and THIS is where I lose it...

I don't fully understand the realities of mounting a fishfinder on a kayak, which means there are a lot of things that would inform WHICH model of the FE or PM I would order, that I have no idea of?

How do you power a fishfinder? I am assuming, no boat, no motor, no battery, so I need to buy one of the fishfinders that is designated "Portable?" I am, in general, lazy, and my kayak already weighs 60lbs or so, I try to keep things lightweight so I don't have to carry them, what do i need to do to avoid lugging around a car-battery to power a fishfinder?

Most of the portable units I have seen have a giant base unit they click into, and I have almost no space within arms reach (while paddling) that I can keep a giant base like that, can I mount the Head of the unit on a Scotty mount and hide the batteries in a hatch somewhere (without re-wiring the whole damn thing?)I can jury-rig with the best of them (my mom's knickname was "the Baling Wire Queen" so I come from a Noble Heritage) but back to Figure A: I am lazy, so which of these two brands is more idiot proof?

OK, before I compose another stanza in this epic phonebook I have written; based on the fact that I am looking for a cheap, simple, easy to mount on a kayak with very limited space, lightweight, remote power-source, easy to understand, fish-finder-only, which model of either the Fisheasy or a Pirahna do you folks recommend?

Phew.

Thank you in advance for your time!

i dont know much about those models but for around under 200 the lowrance elite 4 are great.no nosense fish finder nothing fancy

i dont know much about those models but for around under 200 the lowrance elite 4 are great.no nosense fish finder nothing fancy

+1 

What kind of yak is this going on?  That might help people answer in a more educated way.

I think I can eliminate one source of concern for you: If you have a tupperware kayak, then most any transducer can be made to shoot through the hull, and if you use the foam doughnut method - just a rind of foam Gooped to the inside of your hull cut so you can wedge the 'ducer in it, then you just pour a little water in the donut, and slip the 'ducer in it and it will shoot through the hull.  Unless you get a fancy FF, which require bigger batteries, you can supply 12 volt current with 10 1.5 batteries (AA's) wired in sequence (10 x 1.5v = 12v) . Don't forget to put a fuse in the line.   You can put your batteries in any kind of waterproof box or bag - I've got mine in a kitchen storage container with a hole cut for the wire, the hole is Gooped up, then I put that into a 6 pack cooler, so I can transport the head , batteries and wire in one container. I just run the wires under the edge of the hatch.  It can be put in and taken out for each trip, and it's stored out of the weather, and no worries about the Goop coming unstuck from the bottom of the 'ducer like you'd have if you tried gooping the 'ducer to the bottom inside your yak.  The Goop seems to stick the foam to the yak better than it does the 'ducer.  Gooping the 'ducer doesn't work very well in hot climates, because heat softens the Goop.
   As for type of FF, I can only say that you should look for one with well sealed up connectors, because otherwise, those little prongs  and sockets will get corroded even if you put light bulb grease (dielectric) grease on them.  I  have an Eagle 245, it has worked for years, but it doesn't provide a lot of info like more expensive ones do.
   

I use a humming bird fishing buddy, I adapted the humming bird mount to work with a Scotty mount. I have been real happy with it.

The humming bird fishing buddy is a self contained unit, battery's, screen, and transducer all one unit. I would expect this unit not to meet everyone's needs, but I use it for depth as much as anything else.

What kind of yak is this going on?  That might help people answer in a more educated way.

Whoops, you are right, I have an older Perception Prism 14' plastic kayak

I understand where you are coming from, but when it comes to fish fishfinders, the more you spend the better you get, and you'll wish you did later down the line. The two main things when it comes to fishfinders is power and pixels. The more power and pixels you have, the easier it is to distinguish fish from  floating debris, trash, bubbles, etc. And this applies for any brand of fish finders. Lowrance, Hummingbird, raydon/furuno, or garmin are the best fishfinders on the market in that order. Lowrance and Hummingbird being pretty close together, and they both make simple to use and ease of use models. +3 on the new Lowrance elite models..For under $200 bucks, you get a 2200 watts of power and enough pixels to see fish and structure clear enough. A good buy to say the least..In my honest opinion, I wouldnt waste my $$$ on the fish easy's or piranha model ff's..Yea they'll show the bottom, but are hard to distinguish fish from floating debris like what you'll come across in the rivers. Powering your ff no matter what you get isnt a difficult task, it just depends on how soon you want to buy more batteries or recharge. Fuzzy tom pretty much sumed it up on that. hope this helps and goodluck..Btw, youtube fishfinders they have a lot of good info.

I have an Eagle 250 which I bought 6 years ago and it works fine after hard core salt water abuse. I have a Humminbird also and you get a little more detail but it is buggy and sometimes gets confused with regard to depth.

I have the Parana max 170 I was able to adapt the mount to the Scotty .I went with the 170 for 10 bucks more at Bass Pro Shops because it has a 200 foot better depth reading  and better  resolution. I too am cheap and was just wanting to see structure. All wiring and mounting is included. If you were extra cheap and lazy you can even use those square 6v  batterys from ace hardware tied together to make  12v.keep in mind you cant charge them.

I used a eagle cuda 300 (if i am not mistaken they are the same). Worked fine for less then $100. Simple B&W, no GPS and sips the batteries.

This is what I use....

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=humminbird+piranhamax+170&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1268&bih=684&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=9797152015118190917&sa=X&ei=UXg9UM6oFMHtiwLHbg&ved=0CFYQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers

*And if you paddle an ocean kayak, most, if not all of the fishing models comes with a transducer mount so you don't have goop the transducer inside your kayaks hull.

*another suggestion is to make sure you can detach your FF head off the base so you can store it in the hatch, plano box or dry bag when going in and out of surf. (wash/grease your connections after every ocean trip)

*also, refrain from attaching your FF in the area in between your leg / foot area. You want to keep this area clutter free just in case you land a fish of a lifetime.....you need to keep that space open to subdue and secure your trophy fish

*also, refrain from attaching your FF in the area in between your leg / foot area. You want to keep this area clutter free just in case you land a fish of a lifetime.....you need to keep that space open to subdue and secure your trophy fish

Wow I never even thought of that... Right now I have so little room on my Prism that I was thinking of plopping a FF right where you are saying not to... I think I am going to have to rig some kind of articulating arm around the base of my seat back, keep it down and at my waist and under my paddle/pole swing..

My next kayak is going to have to be based on on-water-useable storage area, my current kayak is a great starter kayak, but I can tell that it is not going to cut it if I get into heavy water or long-range fishing..

Wow I never even thought of that... Right now I have so little room on my Prism that I was thinking of plopping a FF right where you are saying not to... I think I am going to have to rig some kind of articulating arm around the base of my seat back, keep it down and at my waist and under my paddle/pole swing..

dude....here's a perfect example of having ample space