Gents,

Going through the motions of a potential upgrade in sounder. Limited it down to 2 options being the purchase of a new sounder (Furuno FCV-295) or upgrading the transducer on my existing Garmin unit to 2KW. Both are relatively expensive options but the Garmin add on is far cheaper in the scheme of things.

Currently I run the full Garmin suite on my Boston Whaler 255. It consists of the Garmin Rader, Garmin 4210 Charts and GSD-22 sounder. My sounder has either a 500W or 1KW tranducer (I need to check). Main purpose of the upgrade is due to significant time spent deep sea fishing in the 450 meter range.

Have been out recently on friends boat with an FCV-295 which showed excellent clarity at that depth compared to my setup currently.

Thoughts welcome on these two specific sounders & comparison for my purpose above.

Cheers

John

Ive just recently bought a new boat and it has come with a HDS5 sounder and seperate HDS5 GPS.

Just chasing a bit of info on how people have there HDS5 sounders set up. I think it has a 600w tranny.

I took it out off mandurah to test it all out. The whole screen was coming up in blue and red every now and then we would get a solid yellow ball showing and sometimes yellow archs on the bottom.

Is there anyway to clear the screen from the blue and red and clear the pic up? It seemed to be worse when the boat was moving so i thought it might have been from prop wash but was still there when the motor was switched off.

i cant remember the exact settings it was on however i do recall seeing 200khz when i was scrolling through settings.

We where only in about 30m of water. I am going to be in jurien next weekend and will try a few more things but was just wondering if anyone had any tips.

cheers

Hi all

Thinking of upgrading my old monochrome sounder for our once a year trip to Coral Bay.  Went up there last year and it seems there is a lot of flat ground and the advise from some wise men at the ramp was it is a case of motoring around to look for the fish rather than the structure and in 70m - 100m.

Problem is only have a budget up to about $750.  

So what are peoples suggestion on what could get that job done that dosen't involve motoring at 1knot?  Not expecting the ideal picture of the bottom - just something that will give us a chance.

Happy to consider second hand if that is the advise.

Cheers

Craig

hav searched previous threads both on here and on thehulltruth

can only find one thread on both forums discussing this

i can figure that you use nmea 0183 but by all accounts its not possible to link the two because the 585 doesnt have TLL??

however when i was on the phone with chivers marine today, he said that you could link the two and he would send me the email with the info..

however i have found the unit at a better price elsewhere(hence he wont send me the email if i dont buy from him) and am wondering if i can find the info about how to connect the two to make them link up.

thanks

Hi Guys

In the next few months Im looking to upgrade to a new sounder/chartplotter.

Thoughts at the moment are going with the new HDS9 touch with side scan.

Anybody had experience with these??

I believe the sidescan isnt very good in deep water,thats OK as most of my fishing is in King George Sound(the mrs gets seasick out deep). Does the down scan imaging work well on these units in 60 to 100m depths if I do get out to the shelf????

Am I correct in thinking I need to purchase the HDS9 unit,the platinum map card(to make use of the 3D imaging) and the transducer wich is a 50/200???? unit.

Interested in peoples thoughts both good and bad on these units please.

It is tempting to buy ex USA,had a price of aprox $4400 inc fitting.

Not a 1 eyed Lowrance fan,are there other units I should have a good look at before commiting to buy????

Thanks

Andrew

 Hi all I am looking at buying a vdo colour GPS chart plotter because its in my budget just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this brand as I'd prefur not to blow my cash on something that is crap! Any info would be great thanks all Adam 

Hey There Guys

I have a furuno 585 sounder and im not sure if i am reading it correctly. When i fish on what i think might be a lump i get a lot of wrasse and other crap species of fish so maybe the small flare ups i see on the sounder might not be small lumps.

If any one has any sounder images of small lumps around 2 metres off the bottom or images of flat coral bottom they could post up then that would be great

All advice will be appreciated and hopefully after seeing a few images it might help me out more of what to look out for when searching for ground for dhuies / Baldys and Pinkys.

Cheers Guys

Well, in the past few months, I have done my level best to keep my hard earned casholla in Oz, but it is proving almost impossible.......

First, the hunt was on for a boat. I looked at Ozbuilt boats and dont get me wrong, some nice boats with Haines Hunterand Cruise Craft at the top of my list, but the costs both new and used were just too high compared with offerings from the states.......ended with me conceeding defete and getting a Boston Whaler 235 Conquest from the good ol US of goddam A, which was definatley not what I was expecting at the start of the journey. Whilst I dealt with some nice blokes in Oz, the Yanks were just that much better, more dilegent and knowledgeable.They get service! Boating was a profession for them, not just a job. I ended up with what I consider to be a top shelf boat at less than 70% the price of a lower quality Oz boat.

Then sounders and transducers.......samesame, I looked at retailers in Oz, tried my best to get the best information and to be honest price was secondary.........how is it I can speak via mail to someone in the states and get MUCH better service, advice and price than in Oz (with one exception it must be said, but they were limited in the tranducers they offered...). Ended up with a fully imported set-up with SS264N trannies and a new Furuno 587 plus excellent advice which suited what I wanted and needed.

Just waiting for the gear to arrive, and assuming its not all some elaborate Nigeria scam, I will save a fair bit of money, but more importantly, end up with great advice, quality gear and a great experience........

Its sad, but I think Oz retail is dying, and I dont know if there is a cure......................

Hi all, I have a lowrance lms 332 sonar / gps unit that I was thinking of putting in the landcruiser. The problem I have is that I cannot find any topographic maps or charts that I can run on the unit anywhere. If anybody has any ideas or can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Has anyone hooked up an autopilot system to a lowrance HDS 8/10??

AM under th impression it will have to be a raymarine autopilot unit?

does this mean that the Plotter must also be a raymarine unit?

thanks in advance

Jess 

 Hey crew, 

Sorry if this has been covered a lot, my lowrance plotter has failed me.. Hopefully I can put my micro sd into someone else's plotter and retain my waypoints? 

Also, Iam now in the market for a new stand alone plotter... Don't really want to spend more than 1k, but might if I have to...

My last plotter was nothing flash, (lowrance elite 5) and I found it was good enough for me.

im interested in feedback from Simrad, Garmin, etc users.. Like I said, nothing flash, just want a decent map with contours, etc that is easy to use, mark spots.. Then accurately drive back over them. 

The devastation lingers. 

Thanks in advance for your response

Hi Guy's

Just got my first boat (21ft Stejcraft) and I need to update my GPS/fishfinder.

I have been looking at a Raymarine c90w with a DSM300 and a 1kw TM260 but I dont know anyone with any of this stuffto see what its like. I will be fishing in about 50-100m, bottom bouncing mostly. I have also looked at the Lowrance HDS8 with the structure scan but im unsure if it will work in that kind of depth. Can you put a 1kw trannie on a HDS8? Does it put out 1KW?

Any advice would be much appreciated, I have around $2000 to spend so if you can recommend any other combo's let me know.

Cheers!!

 Hi guys I now have a 585 with a 1kw tm260 tranny I took it out for first time on the weekend and was really happy with how it performed picking up bottom at speed on the way out and showing fish in 200-300m however once I got passed 350 it was gettin scratchy and at 400 it stopped reading, any ideas on a slight adjustment to the tranny?? Or is that goin to be the limit? Any help much appreciated

Hey guys,

I've got a Lowrance GPS / Fishfinder and looking at buying the charts. I've noticed the Navionics charts are by far the favourite choice of people on here but is there a cheaper option too? I only ever really go in the Swan River and the Sound so don't really want to spend the money on having Australia wide charts. Any ideas? Second hand ones are fine just need to be regualr SD cards.

Cheers

Hi all currently considering the upgrade of my sounder currently a Fcv 582l  to either a FCV585 or FCV587. Have read one user considering the option to upgrade his 585 to 587 but rather than go off topic on that thread I thought I would start a new. The best I can see they are pretty much the same with the exception of the bottom descrimination function that until new firmware is written only works with limited number of transducers. If you can save some $ on a 585 would you? 

Thanks

Michael

Airmar info says that you can use the TM265LH chirp transducer with the Furuno 295. Haven't been able to find any info by anyone who has actually done it. I know its a long shot but has anyone on the forum heard of this combo. The reason that I'm interested is because with my Boston Whaler I need to go with a transum mounted transducer and I want a 295.....not very impressed with what I have read about chirp so far....

Hi, I have a Garmin 750s GPS with the extra  bluechart card and am disapointed with the lack of information displayed on the chart compared to my old GPS running a navionics gold card. The Navionics card displays so much more in the way of contours and names  compared to the Garmin charts. If anyone knows of a setting that increases detail shown i would love to know. Cheers

 Looking at buying another members lowrance elite 5 combo unit as I have just taken out my old lowrance LMS-332. The problem I am facing is I have a navionics gold XL9 card in my old unit and was hopeing that I would be able to just switch it straight across to the elite 5 does anyone know if this is possible or do I have to by a new micro SD card? Hopeing not for the cost factor, any help would be much appreciated. 

I have a Furuno fcv-582L in my boat

I have installed a new transducer

Digitally I can see a depth readout but nothing is showing up on the screen just a blue screen

I am assuming I have some settings wrong for the page not to show sonar stuff and only digital but I have played with everything I could find but nothing has helped.

Does anybody own one of these and are able to help or show me what im doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

DPI Fish Aggregating Devices

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/saltwater/fads

Check the link for coordinates for the East Coast.
Each one has the location listed and coordinates listed.

 Hey guys i have a 585 with a 1kw trannie transome mount reads well out in 250  300 but only at about 2 knts anyone had the same drama an how do i fix it be nice if it would read up to bout 8 to 10 knts so i can look for more ground . Oh and it reads 160 no prob at 25 knts im out of ideas

Well with Monday being such a hot day and the forecast being for low wind and swell conditions it was too good to waste even if it was NY eve. The decision was made on the spur of the moment to go deep, test out the new transducers and see if we could land ourselves one of these deepwater fish that we keep seeing posts of.

7.30 launch at Cockburn and hit the throttles. First thing that became evident was that we could pick up solid readings at 30 plus knots even if it was only shallow but surprisingly this performance did not seem to fall away as we held speeds at 25 knots or more all the way to the deep.

The pic below clearly shows sambos on the wrecks whilst travelling at speed on 200kHz in 111m

Still tracking clearly at 160m on 200kHz

Swapped over to 50kHz as we dropped over the edge and dropped speed to 5kts - still showing plenty of detail

Change of background colour and tuning in a full screen at 5 kts - what is that at 260m in the top right, would they be fish or a school of something ?

Still at 5 kts on 50kHz and quite clear at 404m

Overall very happy with the SS264's and the HDS depth capability surprised me, now I need to spend more time learning to drive it to get the best out of it so I can catch some of the big buggers in the deep !

cheers

 Does any one know if you can transfer marks from your hds to your iPad 

Well the new SS264 transducers are now installed. These ,as a pair, are the equivalent of the M260 but are through hull rather than shoot through the hull. Bloody big suckers.

Thanks to David of Bonzer Imports for a very competitive price from the US and super fast delivery of 6 days via USPS and Fedex. Also thanks to Shane and his team at Hayway Marine for a great install job at a good price. Now comes the job of learning how to get the best out of them. We tried them out yesterday and were able to mark fish (or what we think were fish) at 26kts in 42m - they certainly helped us out in getting our bag limit by providing much finer detail than a 600w transducer mount is capable of. A few more trips before we get ourselves sorted for 300-400m

As we progress I will post up some pics.

cheers

.

I have just fitted a Lowrance Elite 5 DSI unit to my bay hunter and am trialling it up at Horrocks over the Christmas break. Has anyone heard or have a unit the same as mine? Is there any problems with the unit? Any tips on using the unit. Any info would be good.

Looking at purchasing a new sounder and gps for my boat and just wondering if anyone out there can help me with cutout dimensions for a furuno 585. i already have a cutout in the centre console from an old sounder and trying to work out whether one will fit. if anyone has a 585 installed and knows the dimensions of there cutout would be much appreciated.

also not being very electronically minded would like to leave it to the proffesionals. anyone know a rough guestimate of cost of install and if anyone can reccomend somebody that does a good job?

cheers,
chris

Looking at purchasing a new sounder and gps for my boat and just wondering if anyone out there can help me with cutout dimensions for a furuno 585. i already have a cutout in the centre console from an old sounder and trying to work out whether one will fit. if anyone has a 585 installed and knows the dimensions of there cutout would be much appreciated.

also not being very electronically minded would like to leave it to the proffesionals. anyone know a rough guestimate of cost of install and if anyone can reccomend somebody that does a good job?

cheers,
chris

hey,

I am looking at importing a sounder from the US  looks like it is going to be a bit over a $1000...($1400)just wondering if anyone new the additional import duty cost?

cheers Steve