Inexpensive Fishfinders

[Dannowar]

Why are you over lowrance?

[skrilla]

Humminbird Piranhamax 160 user here. Bare bones unit. Black and white display, temp, reads bottom to 600ft, powered with 10 rechargable AA and has lasted me 4 outings with still juice left ( it never fully died before recharging ). I have a thru scupper transducer specifically made for the Prowler. Thru hull is do-able with the factory tramsducer but you wont have temp readings. 2 years of use so far and the only problem I've had was the cheap plastic mounting base cracking around the screws. Easy fix, just poured in epoxy to fill the "webbing". Reading marks takes a bit of training. Overall satisfied especially after scoring it on clearance.

[King Saba]

Gonna thread jack here, sorry. I have a eagle cuda 168 my pops bought years ago. I've used it on lakes at its accurate with depth and temps, but structure is iffy and don't even talk about fish. Has anyone had a better experience with this fish finder? If memory serves correct it was cheap, maybe 70 bucks?

[ronbo613]

Originally Posted by Dannowar

Why are you over lowrance?

Lowrance has really cut corners on quality with their lower priced fishfinders, maybe the more expensive ones as well but I'm only relaying first hand information, but the big reason is their customer service and support. The reason I bought the cheapest Lowrance is that I was worried about poor customer service in case something went wrong and that proved to be the case from start to finish.

Originally Posted by King Saba

Gonna thread jack here, sorry. I have a eagle cuda 168 my pops bought years ago. I've used it on lakes at its accurate with depth and temps, but structure is iffy and don't even talk about fish. Has anyone had a better experience with this fish finder? If memory serves correct it was cheap, maybe 70 bucks?

I have had an Eagle Cuda 168 on the my kayak for the past ten years or so. It stopped working, that's why I bought a Lowrance Elite 3x to replace it. Turned out to be a bad wire in the transducer harness. I did a test with two brand new Elite 3x fishfinders and the old Cuda 168; the Elite 3x color screen was nice looking, but the Cuda 168 was more accurate across the board. Both fishfinders, in fact most of Lowrance's lower priced units, use the same transducer. Try adjusting the sensitivity on the Cuda 168 and don't use the "fish ID" setting, use the one that shows arcs. I don't really trust fishfinders to find fish, I just use them to find out where they might be.

Until I find a replacement, the Cuda 168 is back on the boat. It may not be the best fishfinder in the world, but it works.

[King Saba]

Originally Posted by ronbo613

I have had an Eagle Cuda 168 on the my kayak for the past ten years or so. It stopped working, that's why I bought a Lowrance Elite 3x to replace it. Turned out to be a bad wire in the transducer harness. I did a test with two brand new Elite 3x fishfinders and the old Cuda 168; the Elite 3x color screen was nice looking, but the Cuda 168 was more accurate across the board. Both fishfinders, in fact most of Lowrance's lower priced units, use the same transducer. Try adjusting the sensitivity on the Cuda 168 and don't use the "fish ID" setting, use the one that shows arcs. I don't really trust fishfinders to find fish, I just use them to find out where they might be.

Until I find a replacement, the Cuda 168 is back on the boat. It may not be the best fishfinder in the world, but it works.

That's very interesting to hear. I'll give that a shot. Thanks! The lower battery usage is definitely a plus!