I have traveled from the dark side.

LOL.

J/K.

I joined the other side because I fish more than I hunt. I recently joined the boat club. I have a 1963 Crestliner 14' aluminum v-botom. I got two major questions.

#1 What would yall sugest for a fish finder. I want to locate botom structure, ledges, depth changes, brush piles. I also want to locate bait fish / shad. I was looking at the Hummingbird 500 units. But if these won't do the job I will put out the money required.

#2 How would one go about mounting a fish finder on an aluminum boat.

Seth

#1, three most important features in a fishfinder: resolution, resolution and resolution. vertical pixels per inch. best value for the $$$ is eagle fishmark 320, or even better 480. color if you can fit it in your budget but don't give up resolution. just my opinion

#2, hold the bracket against the transom & mark where to drill, drill, coat the screws with 3m 5200 and screw 'em in. centerline of 'ducer needs to be even height with the bottom of the hull and parallel to the waterline (which might not be level, with the boat trailered at the curb). 18" or so one side of the motor. it needs to run in smooth water, so don't put it directly behind strakes or rivets or other hull irregularity.

What do you mean by centerline of the transducer?

Dose a transducer point down at the bottom or infront of the boat?

Transducers should point straight down. That being said, I have seen them mounted a little off on the trolling motor to work a little like an underwater periscope. Dunno how well it worked, never tried it myself.

Anyone got a picture of a transducer mounted at the back of the boat like said? Having never seen one, I'm having trouble wraping my head around this one.

Check this out.

http://www.lowrance.com/Support/Tips-and-Tutorials/Installation-Guide/

Thanks...

Whats the diffrence between the Eagle Fishmark 320 and 480?

How do you tell the diffrence between fish and structure?

I found a 320 on ebay for 135.00. Is this a good buy?

a 320 is 320x320 pixels on the screen, the 480 is 480x480. The more pixels, the sharper the image.

you can find 320's on sale at BPS for $99.00 once in a while so no, $135 plus shipping off EBay isn't a great deal.

Go to the Lowrance site and download the simulator for the 480. Also, do a little searching on their site and you'll find some tutorials on how to use it and how to read it.

I agree ,if you can get a 320 or 480 you will be doing it, before long

What is the diffrence between the two?


1.

Eagle� SeaFinder 480DF Sonar
This fishfinder has 4,000 watts of peak-to-peak power and depth capability to 1,500 feet. It also has a high-performance, dual-frequency 50 kHz/200 kHz Skimmer� transom-mount transducer.

2.

Eagle� FishMark� 480 Plus with Speed and Temperature
High-detail, 480 pixel x 480 pixel Film SuperTwist display on the 5" screen delivers clear images. Comes with a speed and water temperature sensor and 20� transom-mounted transducer.

I think your asking the difference between Dual Freq 50/200 kHz and single freq 200 kHz.

If the Eagle is like the Lowrance (which I'm pretty sure it is)the dual freq 50/200 is mainly for Salt Water (50 khz is recommended for salt water and very deep water). The 200 khz of a 50/200 khz is more narrow of a beam (like 12 degrees) versus the 200 khz single beam is 20 degrees.

If your fresh water you would want the single beam 200khz. Some downrigger trollers use the 50/200khz because the 50 has a wide beam and they can better track thier cannon balls (down riggers). Other than that, fresh water is single 200 khz (20 degree and the 50/200 is for Salt Water.

Unless you get into the Humminbird Units. They have some different stuff that goes wide beam pretty well (83/200 khz) in fresh water.

Thanks mark

Looks like it will be the Eagle Fishmark 480.

Are speed and temp nessiary?

Not in my opinion. I never move around a lake because of water temp.

And I don't care how fast or slow I'm going.

Temp is built in on the transducer so it's a good additional tool to have if you wish. Speed on most units isn't very accurate unless you go with a GPS unit. It's not really necessary unless you want bragging rights on how fast you can get your boat going.