Lowrance HDS 5 if you want the GPS. If not HDS 5X.
Q1: Higher kHZ means you can read down into deeper water beyond 200 ft depending on finders. Although the band circumference becomes thinner.
Q2: MUST HAVE COLOR! It is extremely important because you can differentiate between different structures such as rocks, kelp, bait schools, predatory fish, squid, etc.
Q3: GPS pretty important around this time of year especially to mark certain areas where squid have bedded. As well as find your way around in the soup fog.
Q4: I like Lowrance products a lot (I love my hds 5x had it for more than a year), garmins seem to be good as well however they don't come with transducers. Pretty stupid! Hummingbird
in my opinion. There are some other good ones, but they can get expense like Raymarine and Furuno.
One thing to remember the longer you own a certain finder the more you will learn as far as what is what. There are plenty of anglers out there doing just fine with low end finders. Its like learning anything else in fishing certain things start to become familiar the more you experience it.
Good luck Tom!
