After searching this forum and reading reviews from cabelas and bps, I'm wondering if anyone has experience using portable fish finders.

My uncles have been fishing offshore lately and unfortunately the fishing boat (like, a real fishing boat) doesn't have any power access. Wondering if someone could recommend an easy to setup and capable fish finder the runs on built in batteries. price under $400

So far I've read good things on the Lowrance X96
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0038967018290a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_RESULTS_NYR&returnPage=search-results2.jsp&Ne=3&noImage=0&Ntt=fish+finder&Ntk=Products&QueryText=fish+finder&Ntx=matchall&N=4294965839&nyr=1&Ns=SEL_LOW_PRICE|0&firstPage=true


much appreciated

Are they going out on a charter. I doubt this one would do you any good in the ocean. This one may not have enough power to reach the bottom.

sort of. the boat is extremely low tech and probably be limited to 5 miles offshore. they're gonna be fishing where that fisherman usually fishes I doubt it'll be more than 500ft.

sorry all this is speculation and I usually bank fish, much less use a sonar. I just want to find them something that'll make the fishing experience more enjoyable with the least amount of battery wiring.