Good Reliable Fish Finders

[JohnMckroidJr]

Of the 3 fishfinders I have had on my kayak, the dragonfly 7 gets: A+ for picture -- super bright excellent look below water for the price, an A for software - easy to use good presentation displaying useful info for kayak fishing. C- for reliability, less than a year old and already sent in for repairs twice(about 6 weeks to get it back last time with multiple follow-up phone calls). Reliability issues include: broken plug-in pin, inconsistent operation (fails frequently in the morning, but works well once the sun is up), Failed card reader, On/Off button sticks on, and short in power cord( since the power and transducer cord are connected, have to replace both). I am wondering if it is time to switch to another brand, or if I should attribute the failures to the harsh environment of offshore kayak fishing. When I purchased the dragonfly 7, I noted it was IXP7 water proof rating, now note the website says IXP6 and IXP7. How can it be both? It is the lesser of the two, which in my opinion is unsatisfactory for offshore kayak fishing. Kayak owners with Garmin,Lowrance, and Humminbird, don't hesitate to chime in......... would like to know if other brands have similar reliability issues. Thanks.

[momo fish]

Sorry you lost me at the picture of the tuna!! What's the scoop? And congrats!!


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[Cadillyak]

Nice yak tuna! As far as FF's, I have stuck with Lowrance. Took a while to dial in my hds5. But well worth it. Now have an hds7 and love it long time!!!

[JohnMckroidJr]

Originally Posted by Cadillyak

Nice yak tuna! As far as FF's, I have stuck with Lowrance. Took a while to dial in my hds5. But well worth it. Now have an hds7 and love it long time!!!

Appreciate the compliment. I had a HDS5, was reliable, but upgraded to the chirp technology with the DF7 - better picture. Now that lowrence has chirp technology, guess it is time to consider switching back, glad to hear that your fishfinder is reliable.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Originally Posted by momo fish

Sorry you lost me at the picture of the tuna!! What's the scoop? And congrats!

Sorry I lost you with the picture, just wanted to put a face with a kayak rig to the post...since I have not posted on this forum before. The scoop is that I am asking fellow kayakers for recommendations on reliable good quality fish finders, with raymarine dragonfly7, the quality is there, but the reliability has been very poor.

[yak-fishing-socal]

Lowrence for reliability and now the new chirp feature should be a good picture not like they had a bad one be for...I have the elite 4 with GPS and like it just fine for image clarity as long as I can see my lure bouncing on the bottom im happy...
I did have a problem with it turning off for some reason and then having to turn it back on like once a trip but hasn't done it for a few trips out now might have been a wiring issue..

sent from my thumbs on my G4

[TJones]

Let's keep this rolling . I have also switched from lowrance to the dragonfly 7 . The lowrance has diffinately more power for price . The overall picture on the dragonfly and its simplicity are nice . For kayaking it is a good unit . On a recent trip out of Dana I discovered one of the units short comings was is depth range capping out at 1500 feet. On non El Niño years are we going to be at this depth? Highly unlikely . One other known issue discovered along with its solution was the instability of using auto depth range , which is quickly resolved by switching to manual mode . Kinda of strange for the amount of money you are spending on the unit . Maybe a future patch will fix this problem? As far as reliability issues , my unit is fairly new and I have not had problems . If it gives me problems , I'm dumping it . The down imaging is superb , and this is why I prefer the unit over the lowrance . Split screen image gives you a good view of what is below the boat . If a LSS-2 transducer were hooked up to the lowrance , the lowrance would be top notch . Installation is obviously an issue for a kayak other than a PA.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Originally Posted by TJones

Let's keep this rolling . On a recent trip out of Dana I discovered one of the units short comings was is depth range capping out at 1500 feet. One other known issue discovered along with its solution was the instability of using auto depth range , which is quickly resolved by switching to manual mode . Kinda of strange for the amount of money you are spending on the unit. The down imaging is superb , and this is why I prefer the unit over the lowrance . Split screen image gives you a good view of what is below the boat . If a LSS-2 transducer were hooked up to the lowrance , the lowrance would be top notch .

1500ft, is that a typo ? the transducer is rated to 600ft, and when my dragonfly7 meters the bottom at that depth, it is weak. Typically my picture is good down to 350, then details...like fish marks and bottom structure start fading out. The down image is nice, but I prefer the color detail of traditional view, while the other half of the screen is marking location to structures. I also have issues with the auto mode being unstable and loosing picture in very shallow or deep ranges(note all the static on the first photo after coming from too deep to meter). As for the Lowrance LSS-2 transducer, Raymarine CP-200 has that beat with more range and sharper details on wrecks. Neither of these sidescan transducers have the range that they claim....they pick up structure well in close and shallow, but fall short on metering fish in deep water. Sometimes useful for determining which side of the kayak a school of bait is on, but so far every way that I have mounted them has been more trouble than the benefit...slowing the speed down of an already slow kayak. If you fish frequently, the first thing to go on the DF7 will probably be the on/off button sticking on. I have had this issue on 3 different units. Putting the unit in a big ziplock full of rice can help dry it out and make the problem go away. I was having a problem with a degraded picture due to sand getting trapped between the cover plate and the transducer -- solved it by trimming the coverplate.

[tamddo714]

Originally Posted by JohnMckroidJr

1500ft, is that a typo ? the transducer is rated to 600ft, and when my dragonfly7 meters the bottom at that depth, it is weak. Typically my picture is good down to 350, then details...like fish marks and bottom structure start fading out. The down image is nice, but I prefer the color detail of traditional view, while the other half of the screen is marking location to structures. I also have issues with the auto mode being unstable and loosing picture in very shallow or deep ranges(note all the static on the first photo after coming from too deep to meter). As for the Lowrance LSS-2 transducer, Raymarine CP-200 has that beat with more range and sharper details on wrecks. Neither of these sidescan transducers have the range that they claim....they pick up structure well in close and shallow, but fall short on metering fish in deep water. Sometimes useful for determining which side of the kayak a school of bait is on, but so far every way that I have mounted them has been more trouble than the benefit...slowing the speed down of an already slow kayak. If you fish frequently, the first thing to go on the DF7 will probably be the on/off button sticking on. I have had this issue on 3 different units. Putting the unit in a big ziplock full of rice can help dry it out and make the problem go away. I was having a problem with a degraded picture due to sand getting trapped between the cover plate and the transducer -- solved it by trimming the coverplate.

what maps are you running?

[ronbo613]

I had an Eagle on my kayak for years and they worked well in salt and fresh water. Nothing fancy, I'm a believer using a fishfinder and handheld GPS because I don't really use a GPS that often. The fishfinder stopped working due to a bad cable, instead of replacing the transducer/power cable, I decided to get a Lowrance Elite 3X. I don't need a lot from a fishfinder, for less than $100, the Elite 3X looked good. I say "looked" because the one I got was defective. Lowrance is sending a replacement transducer/power cable to test the unit.

I was thinking of getting a DSI or CHIRP model and I emailed Lowrance for some pre sales and technical information four times without a single response so that made the lowest price model look even more of a safe buy. I know this stuff happens, but cutting corners on quality control by using customers to test their products is pretty poor business. Hopefully, things will get straighted out and the Elite 3X will be a decent fishfinder, but this is surely starting out on the wrong foot.

[JohnMckroidJr]

Originally Posted by tamddo714

what maps are you running?

Navionics Sonar Charts

[Fishin' Magician]

I had an Eagle 350 with GPS which worked great, but changed it out to a Lowrance Elite 4. The Lowrance is pretty good, but I posted a thread last week about it suddenly freezing up and then not working at all. Fortunately I was able to find a fix online that seems to have solved the problem, but as it is a new unit, I was very surprised to find out that this seems to be an issue with some of the other Lowrance fishfinders. I like the unit and have not got it all configured to the way I want it, but I'm a little concerned about the reliability of the unit. While it wasn't all that hard to fix the problem, finding out HOW to fix it was.

But all that being said, it seems like it's a good unit and it certainly has a lot of options that make it very useful. If I were to do it again, I might go up a size as the screen is a little small. But other than that, it's good.