Fish finder help

Merry Christmas everyone. Santa gave me a gift card for bass pro shop for $150 to spend on a fish finder for my kayak. Question is I have no idea which would be the best for that price. I have never operated a fish finder and most of the areas I fish are sloughs and the delta. I occasionally fish lake resevoirs. I heard a while back that the humming bird fish finders are a good device. Any input or advice would be well appreciated. Thank you

Sam

Add $50 and buy this...

http://www.basspro.com/Lowrance-Mark4-Fishfinder/Chartplotter/product/11090805011714/

You'll love it!

Mike

Thanks Mike, that is a pretty nice fish finder. I actually got another bass pro card so $200 will be my cap. I didn't see anything on there about the battery? Does it take a big battery or a bunch of small batteries. Sorry for the noob questions

You will need a separate battery unless you buy what they refer to as a portable version which takes alkaline batteries.

a 7amp 12volt battery is perfect for a two day trip.The Mark4 unit really doesn't suck up too much juice as others on the market. Plus this unit has back track. Combine this unit with all it's great features and the ability to use outside intel (Google Earth Data) see the below post. It'll change the way you fish for the better.

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=42408.0


They carry this battery everywhere but don't pay over $30. Usually companies will price match, if they don't go somewhere else but try to buy local.

http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-7ah-sealed-lead-acid-battery-f2.html?utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=CPC&gclid=CMTE3em1trQCFQtxQgodRSYA5g

Mike

Awesome Mike, you have me sold. Not sure where I would mount this battery at. I normally put my kayak carrier and cooler behind me. Wonder if any has did a mod where the battery would fit in a spot in the front hull of my kayak for easy access

just put it in a water sealed tupaware container drill a hole for the wires run em through the lid an goop the hole water tight then u can build something outta styrofoam or somethin to put the container in to keep it from moving, or buy a ocean kayak trident battery dry bag an mount it in the bow of the boat.

http://www.austinkayak.com/products/2619/Ocean-Kayak-Battery-Bag-Kit.html

http://m.radioshack.com/radioshack/product/detail.do?itemId=2062244&categoryId=&path=

Get yourself an 8 AA battery holster from Radio Shack, and wire it to your power supply cable that comes with your fish finder. AA batteries are 1.5 volts, so 8x1.5=12 V. I usually get at least 2 fishing sessions from one set of fully charged AA batteries.

Get a sealed lead acid 7.2 ahr battery. All those little batteries are a big pain. Then you just need a small trickle charger. the whole set up will be around 50 bucks. You will have power for years with this setup. Minimal hassle and maitenance. Buy a smal tube of die-electis grease to use on all pin connections and terminals. Napa auto parts store is where I get mine at.

+1 on 7amph 12v battery

7 amp for sure.

Sealed lead acid battery for sure.  I used AAs for a year or so and finally woke up and bought a decent 8 AMH sealed lead acid battery. I just put mine in a dry bag in the front hatch and secure it with a strap.


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I should have looked at more people's kayaks at the tiki event and saw hoe people had their kayaks set up. I'm definitely going to make more events this new year. Maybe I'll go to bass pro and check it out tomorrow. I'm going to try and get OTW on this weekend and it would be a good time to learn more about it as we'll. it's cool to see how everyone uses a different setup on their kayaks. I'll look at getting the 7 amp 12v and maybe go see Dan at headwaters about how he would set it up on my kayak. Thanks again everyone for the input

Side note: If u decide to choose a Mark 4 you can later upgrade to an another non-dsi unit, Elite 4 or 5 and use the same mount and transducer cable. Also check out the Lowrance ram mount, good stuff.

I'm in the same boat as you, but i have a little more $$$ to play with so I'm going with a HB 346ci.  Has both sonar and DI for around $230-$250.