Learn me on fish finders please
 

A buddy and me are getting a boat and going to outfit it for lake fishing... what do you know about fish finder equipment?

Lots.
The most important part of a fish finder is the maps.
With the maps you can find structure that hold fish. Maybe you will see them on the screen, maybe not.
What type of lakes?

3 mainstream players. Garmin, Lowrance, Hummingbird. All work great. I think hummingbird has the best looking side scan.

Oh. Now there’s your views. Down scan, traditional, side scan, and forward facing sonar. Every company makes their view something markety.

Hummingbird does have one more view option call. Hummingbird 360. You dip a saucer shaped transducer into the water and it gives you a view similar to side scan all around your boat. This and forward facing require a special transducer. Forward you have to physically aim at things.

Right now, most companies are coming out w the latest and greatest so the discontinued models are on sale.

I'm on the salt side but don't imagine there's a ton of difference- i have long hated almost every interface Garmin has created. And in no category more so than boat electronics. Lowrance, ime, is the best thing going for interface use.

Northern Utah Wyoming and Idaho

That matters ... these guys will steer you to something apporopriate for those waters... local knowledge when you visit ...

Fishermen/wimmins like to talk... errr lie ;)

Have fun!

How do maps help you find underwater structure? My maps give me sunken timber that is usually there. That’s it. I think it’s based on historical info prior to flooding the valley.

Not really structure, but humps, points, flats etc.

What is the budget?

I still have paper topo maps that show old roadways, tracks, elevations, etc. Never used the "fishfinder" other than to determine depths and rarely ... mostly shallow lakes ... and the areas I fished.

On a big, strange, lake, in the middle of BFE .... look backwards as you head out .... you wanna be able to get back (or have a map) :D

I had nada... a bass boat newbie with the lake to myself ;)

Paper map does not show you exactly where your boat is on the lake.

If you are going on large lakes buy one with chartplotter (GPS) built in, if it fogs over you can get back in. Also shows contours of the bottom of the lake, and you can mark locations and paths you traveled. The extra money spent on the chartplotter will likely be way less than the cost of propellers hitting rocks. EDIT, a larger screen is really nice, quite often you will want to run with a split screen, but they do jump up in cost.

I didn't even have a map ;)

Modern electronics rock.... no debate here...

I use a plastic worm to find fish :)

When I'm in the boat and find a good spot to fish I look at the hills, then 90 degrees to the shore and mark a large X on the side of the boat.

Option overload... less than $300

Thinking back to 27 years of owning a bass boat I actually used my "flasher" way more than the "fish finder". On my "familiar" lakes ... virtually never... old skool ;). I don't find fish ... they find my worm .... or not :D

I don't cheat :)

This guy has a handle on the basics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pexop3Uo88

My fishing boat is 45 years old now. 16' 4" Aluminacraft Competitor w/a 90 hp Merc Tiller

You have to learn what your target fish uses structure for and how they feed in relation to that structure.

This is what I would get. (The Canada links won't work for you)

This HELIX 5 CHIRP GPS G3 model features Dual Spectrum CHIRP 2D sonar, internal GPS with Humminbird Basemap and AutoChart Live built-in, with additional compatibility for Humminbird and Navionics premium fishing charts.

I have the much larger units for my old eyes.

No lake boating here , all bay and offshore. Ive been running Lowrance HDS units in mine for the past bunch of years. I want to switch to the new HDS 12 Live. was gonna get the Hummingbird Livescan, but want to stick with the Lowrance line. I also have an older Simrad chartplotter next to it. Don't always like using the split screen.

I still like to have all my analog backups, charts, etc. I run 30, 50 miles out to the Canyons. Always need a plan when you electronics take a dump.

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I will add i've fished on buddies boats where they have that fancy new 3d scan type stuff. For me it's more gimmick than function. But my focus would be looking for anything on the bottom that is different and/or harder than mud. Doesn't matter if that is the bow or stern of a sunken freighter, just that it's there.

I go to the grocery store , ask a clerk where the seafood dept is and pick out my fish . It works 100 % of the time 😁