Thoughts on a transducer/sounder upgrade

[thylacene]

For the past four years I have been running a Garmin GPSMAP740S with the 600W 200/50 transducer. Over this time I have been quite happy with it, but now find that we have started doing a bit more Marlin & Tuna fishing out on the shelf, and about to go ooglie hunting with electric reels, so thinking a bit of an upgrade is in order.

The current setup is not too bad, 200Khz I get bottom readings at 20knots to about 200M, and trolling at 7 knots sees bottom loss at around 280M. 50Khz I can get bottom drifting to about 340M but not with the level of definition I would like.

I did a bit of research a while back, but didn't have the readies to upgrade and had mentally committed to a TM270W, and now that I almost have the dough together, Airmar have stopped producing them. The 740 will drive a 1Kw tranny. So my initial thoughts are;

Hunt down a secondhand TM270W, but they seem a bit like hens teeth.

Buy a TM260 and an adapter cable (as I have been unable to find one with a 6 pin plug to suit the Garmin. About $1300 +$200 for the adapter.

Buy a package Furuno 587 and TM260 at $3K on special as I type.

Any thoughts on other options? Anyone got a TM260 or 270 they want to sell? I would prefer to keep the total outlay under $4K as I have a couple of K and the rest will go on spastic plastic.

Thanks in advance

Thy

[chocolatemoose]

what depths are you looking at hunting in?

[thylacene]

250-350M deep dropping for ooglies, 60-140M bottom bashing on the drift, and bluewater trolling (bait spotting) where even a 1kw wont see bottom, but a wide view of the top 100M is desirable. Fish for Kings in 35-70M. 50Khz gives the width we want in under 100M but not the target separation I would like. I have become reasonable at "tuning" to get a reasonable result, and would be happy to be able to just upgrade the tranny.

[Marchy001]

I have a TM260 with the airmar cable mix and match maybe it's called? Allows you to buy a cable to suit your sounder. I've been considering selling it as I want to get a through hull. It's done probably 40 hours work and half of that has been in fresh water.

Great transducer with amazing defenition I'm just wanting to tidy up the transom a bit and modify my rear steps which will eat into transducer space.

Pm me and we may be able to work something out.

[thylacene]

PM sent, thanks, Thy

I have a TM260 with the airmar cable mix and match maybe it's called? Allows you to buy a cable to suit your sounder. I've been considering selling it as I want to get a through hull. It's done probably 40 hours work and half of that has been in fresh water.

Great transducer with amazing defenition I'm just wanting to tidy up the transom a bit and modify my rear steps which will eat into transducer space.

Pm me and we may be able to work something out.