$300 Fish finder

[upstart]

Hey All,
I want to buy a new fish finder for my tinny. Main use will be in the creeks around here (Townsville). I only want to spend around the $300 mark. Any suggestions? I want to buy locally i.e. not ebay etc.
Thanks, Ben.

[trev1]

You should get a reasonable grayscale unit for that money. Might pay to look around for a run-out model sale or a special, may get you a little more for your money.

[nigelr]

Lowrance x52 is about that price, quite a good little b&w unit.
Make sure the retailer is reliable, warranty issues, such as fogging of the screen, are not unknown, although Lowrance were pretty good in honoring warranty in my experience.
A good idea may be to go to the retailer with whom you have the closest rapport, and see what they can do for you. Would make the abovementioned returns a lot easier, although chances are you wouldn't need to.
Cheers.

[BaitThrower]

Garmin FF140 B&W unit. Had one originally and it was very good! Nice large screen and ultra-scroll showed lot of detail, even when on the move. Around $200.

Upgraded to a Garmin 300C color unit. They are going for around $360. Had some issues with it to start but was all because I had my transducer slightly too high. Fixed that and now the unit works great. Smaller size screen than the FF140 which can be a bit of a pain in the bum, but has higher resolution and, of course, coluor! Bot good units I can recommend from experience.

[Sniper]

Humminbird are upgrading some of their models in the new year so there may be some clearance sales on the old models in the very near future. I know of the 700 series is getting an upgrade and so is either the 300 or the 500 series. Which ever one it is is getting the larger screen that is used in the 700 series, so higher pixel count and larger screen at the lower price. Check out the 300 series as I think the colour comes in at around $500, so the b&w should be a bit lower. Plus I think that price is for the GPS model as well. Non GPS should be cheaper.
If you can get a colour, then go for that. I now won't go back to a monochrome unit after having colour.
Cheers
Bill

[Outsider1]

Hi upstart,

here is a link to Bias Boating's Fishfinder section;

http://www.biasboating.com.au/c-72-fish-finders.aspx

Lots of choices there including all the models mentioned in this thread so far I think.

I see they have the Garmin FF160C colour unit for $299. That seems like a bit of a bargain to me;

Specs etc here;

http://www.biasboating.com.au/p-1576-garmin-ff160c.aspx

Bias have a store in Townsville I believe so at worst you can eye ball all the models you are considering there.

Cheers

Dave

[Coontakinta]

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...d.php?t=141313

Dont reckon there is anything wrong with these for the $

U could possibly buy both and still be around budget