Advice on Sonar

[mrk61]

New (to me) boat last year, bought specifically to fish for Salmon on Lake Ontario. Boat came with a Garmin 740s Chartplotter/GPS/Sonar/Radar all in one unit. GPS, Chartplotter and Radar work great, fish finder capabilities, poor at best. Has a dual frequency transducer, 50/200. The 50 interferes with the Fish Hawk and on 200, can’t seem to mark much other than an occasional blip or spec. Long story short, I’m suffering from fishfinder envy when I see pics of everyone’s sonar with Big beautiful arches and streakers going up to the DR line (which I don’t mark either)! Willing to drop up to $1500 on a new unit. Would greatly appreciate advice as to recommendations on an up to date unit that shows me fish so I’m not surprised when I actually hook something? Every fish I’ve caught so far seems like a total accident because I never Mark anything! Also, one that does not interfere with the Fish Hawk! Would like something in a 9” screen or larger.

 

Thank you very much and apologies for the long winded post!

Mike

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Gator]

Mark, before swallowing that pill and dropping a bundle of cash, have somebody who knows the unit adjust it for you. IMHO, a new-to-you sonar can be tricky to get adjusted correctly. You need a degree in physics to run some of them. Even the worst unit should pick up your DR weight.

[Big Spoon]

Did you see the HDS 9 for sale on here?  Great price for that unit

 

 

[rolmops]

+1 for Gator, but if you have $1500 to spend, you might want to consider a Furuno 585 or better a 588. These are 1 kh units . If you combine that with a good transducer you not only see your weights, but also your downrigger cables.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

 

 

[jigstick]

With that price point look at the Simrad units. But honestly my Garmin 9xx series display/sonar/gps captures beautiful marks on Lake O. Even in 600FOW. 

 

The trick is using your unit properly. Adjusting the power, gain, frequencies, etc depending on what your looking for and in what part of the water column.