Quality Color FishFinder Under $500

[Bucktail]

My brother-in-law is looking for a fishfinder for his 17' CC.  He mostly fishes Lake George, Raritan Bay and Barnegat Bay.

Any suggestions?  He's thinking about just a straight fishfinder, but can anyone recommend decent combo (fishfinder/GPS) units available at that price?

Thanks,
Bob

[IrishAyes]

I was checking out the Raymarine Dragonfly over the winter. Was going to add it to my arsenal of electronics but will have to wait til next year.

I have no personal experience with this but it does look like a decent machine for the money. A few hundred over what he wants to spend but it does have the GPS also. Not a bad feature to have for marking and returning to your fishing spots and to find your way back home in unfamiliar waters.

[Hunter 2]

Definately get a combo unit.  Most small ones have built in antenna.  Shop Garmin prices

[Treebeard]

Bob, I love the Lowrance Elite 5 I have on my Jonboat... I've used Lowrance stuff for for a long time, and have always been happy..I spent about 10x more for the Raymarine E series that I had on the Scout..it was nice when it worked.. but it did'nt really show me much more.. and was a LOT more troublesome...IMO the Elite is a sweet unit for the $$.. Here's a shot of mine doing its job..   

[fellinger]

I have the Gamin 441S. It does well, allows addition of an upgraded chart which you can manage your waypoints via computer and put them into the plotter via scandisk.

[Reefsquatter]

Had a 541s garmin and it worked except that it was trouble when anchoring, would never refresh fast enough, had their old garmin 498c and it was great.

[Maritime Matt]

Everyone has there own preferences. With that said and my experience in seeing and installing, you can't go wrong with Garmin. There Customer Service is A-1 and I see many older units still operating. I can't say the same for one of the others in a previous post. I have a 12 year old Furuno FCV 600L bottom machine on my boat and it operates the same as day 1. As well, my chart plotter is a Standard Horizon CP 150 and just as old. Had a few glitches with that but again there customer service was right there. Furuno has some new combos out and may be worth checking out.

[Bucktail]

Thanks guys.  Keep 'em coming.

[Fightin Irish]

I would go with the raymarine dragonfly.  I have the c127 with down vision and the down vision is the exact one used in the dragonfly.  A thresher was under the boat and you coul make out it was a shark with the high tail.  Was very impressed so far. I will be putting one on my father in laws boat this fall

[wb]

My old Garmin combo works just as Day One, never blipped at all

Based on that alone I would get another, their pricing is reasonable.