First Post- I have 19SPX Outboard...Seeking a good Economy Finshfinder/Depth/Nav

[kogator05]

Hi All,

This is my first post. I have a 19 SPX outboard runabout. I use mostly in Lake Lanier...which is a man made lake filled with topped off trees and other underwater hazards. I love to fish and at least vaguely see what is beneath me. Any recommended Fishfinder/depthfinders/Chart plotter that someone has mounted on a smaller boat?

Pro install or DIY?

Thank you for any recommendations.

Chris

 

[tdgard]

Welcome.

I just bought a Garmin 53dv for mine. 5" chirp with down view-no side view. Comes with HD maps for inland lakes. Near as I can tell, Garmin got sued for using "down view" and had to rename everything to "clear view" so that makes this an outgoing model and was discounted around $70 vs the new model. Only thing different is the name. Amazon had a few left. I also considered the Raymarine Dragonfly 5" model but the display, while impressive, was much glossier than the Garmin and I thought it would be a problem for me. No real world experience with this so far and I feel your pain looking for these things. I thought I wanted a 7" but after looking at them in the stores a 5" seemed to fit my size boat much better.

 

[tdgard]

I'm going to DIY and am now searching Google for new curse words-especially since I will probably do it off a raft while my boat sits on the lift. No trailer and a haul out costs me hundreds. I'm a cheap bastard.

 

[CliffA]

Hi All,

This is my first post. I have a 19 SPX outboard runabout. I use mostly in Lake Lanier...which is a man made lake filled with topped off trees and other underwater hazards. I love to fish and at least vaguely see what is beneath me. Any recommended Fishfinder/depthfinders/Chart plotter that someone has mounted on a smaller boat?

Pro install or DIY?

Thank you for any recommendations.

Chris

Lowrance and Humminbird have decent combo units at reasonable cost......

cliff

 

[blaster]

It's tough to go wrong with any of the newer MFD's. I suggest you go to Gander, Dicks, Cabellas, or the like and put your hands and eyes on the different brands. They are all pretty good, so it really comes down to your preference of the user interface, resolution, screen size, etc.

The main consideration is mounting it. Most folks use a RAM mount.