fish finder and wreck locations

[flynnt]

Hi all
im new to boat fishing and just bought alittle boat to go out on in the summer but i was woundering wot sort of fish finder wud a need and also gps is it best to get a conbo or seperate and wot price shud i be lookin at(dont want nething flash just sumthing to do a gud job) been lookin on the net but not sure wot to get any suggestions wud be great

next is how and where do you find the wrecks ne help wud be great
cheers
andy

 

[oldessox]

You need a fishfinder and chartplotter if you want to fish wrecks , most seem to be good enough for what we do out there , on a small boat with a small budget I'd go for a garmin combo or similar , get some co ordinates , load them in and go look for the wrecks.
Norman has a full detailed post on here somewhere tells you exactly how to do it , read that then see what you can afford to buy as regards the plotter , bear in mind you need the plotter to get you over the wreck and the sounder to confirm you are over the wreck , so a split screen on a tiny combo might be a bit fiddly to look at , best have a look at some in a marine store to get a idea of how much detail you will get from a certain size .
It's much easier than I make it sound

Ray

 

[kingcod deano]

what ever you decide to get i would stay away from the cheep humingbird fish finders as they are very tempremental and dont like going deeper than 70ft as said the garmin gear is spot on for those on a budget i have owned a garmin gps for 5 years now and its never let me down as for finding the wrecks if you do a google search there is plenty of diving sites etc with co-ordinates on all you need to do is put them into your gps and when you are near the mark just check your fishfinder to locate it as 9 times out of 10 the wreck is never directly under the co-ordinates

 

[lingking]

wee boat

wee boat

hi flynt welcome to the site i take it you have the other basic essentialsvhf radio compass life jacket for each person on board,few bits of elastoplastif im preaching to the converted,apologies

 

[drifter]

There are some cheap "entry level" GPS/Fishfinding units in the market but do not be tempted as it's just false economy. They are unreliable, inaccurate and totally inappropriate for serious wrecking and/or casual fishing. My advice would be to spend as much as you can afford on one of the market leaders such as Garmin, Furano or Raymarine. These units will invariably come complete with the correct transducer (which is very important) and will have many wreck co-ordinates pre-programmed into their memory. It could cost you at least £900 but second hand units do come available when some lucky boat owners upgrade.

 

[Gash]

try these mate ! don't know how good they are ! (never used them myself)

Club Diving - North East Wreck Diving

 

[Falcone]

i agree with what dean said about the hummingbirds, i used one and they are awful, they give a very inacurate reading in more than 100ft of water.
I bought a Lowrance Fishfinder and its been great, very easy to use and only around the 200 mark for the one i got.
Also i have 2 GPS a fixed one with an external antenna and also a garmin hand held the latter being also very inacurate compared to the fixed one.
What the guys say about cheap is very true and in my experience you buy cheap, you buy twice.

 

[Funkmeister_Smith]

I haven't invested in a GPS or fishfinder yet. Haven't really felt the need as we don't go all that far out, but that being said we want to venture further out this year so could do with at least a GPS device.

I'll probably get shot down in flames here, but I found a Marine GPS for my Android phone (also on Iphone), from Navionics. See link below:

NAVIONICS: The Leader in Electronic Charts

It has some real good reviews on the Android Market and also on the net in general, and for ~£16 for the UK & Holland coverage maps, its a steal. For the sake of £16 I will give it a shot, but I was wondering if anyone on here already use this program on their Android or Iphone? Even if just as a backup to their 'proper' GPS?

*EDIT - forgot to mention, it also gives you realtime info on winds & tides etc. and you can geotag photos within the app and add points of interest downloaded from other users online (as well as sharing them yourself). Seems quite canny to me!

 

[Falcone]

my wife uses a gps on her android phone and it is poor. Like i said in my earlier post i have found handheld GPS systems to have a significant margin of error, in some cases my handheld has me 50 feet away from the desired location, which isnt very good at all.

 

[Funkmeister_Smith]

Could that be down to a poor GPS in the phone though maybe? I've got an HTC Desire and the GPS is spot on with Google maps, surely it would be no different on the sea?

 

[mark]

It has some real good reviews on the Android Market and also on the net in general, and for ~£16 for the UK & Holland coverage maps, its a steal. For the sake of £16 I will give it a shot, but I was wondering if anyone on here already use this program on their Android or Iphone? Even if just as a backup to their 'proper' GPS?

*EDIT - forgot to mention, it also gives you realtime info on winds & tides etc. and you can geotag photos within the app and add points of interest downloaded from other users online (as well as sharing them yourself). Seems quite canny to me!

I've got the navionics app on my iPhone and cannot fault it. Chart quality is excellent, and the plotter functions are as good as most entry level plotters if not better. The iPhone GPS is deadly accurate as well I've found

It must be really annoying for anyone with a fixed plotter that has to shell out best part of 200 quid for the navionics cartridge when you can buy the same set of charts for a phone for 15 quid

magallen do a brilliant iPhone case which is 100% waterproof and floats

 

[Codfather]

Got that for my iPhone aswell, as said pretty good detail. I use the built in tide info alot, very handy.
Before I went to Norway last year I got the same app for that area and it definatly helped get us on some fish, handy to look thru on ya lunch break checking out possible marks.

 

[Falcone]

could be down to the phone, my wife uses a HTC hero and the general road GPS is not very good, but its with 3 network and it could be signal issue most of the time.
If the other lads have used it and think its usable then for 15 quid you cant really go wrong.
Some of the entry level plotters are quite poor on some of the reports i have heard which is why ive yet to buy one, because i would want something decent.
With the combo im currently using my fixed gPs is spot on and my fish finder picks everything up on the bottom with good accuracy.
I didnt really get the chance to use it all much last season i was in the midst of a boat upgrade and electronics upgrade so missed all of august and a few weeks in july, so im all ready to give it all a good go this year.

 

[flynnt]

im benn looking for awhile on the net but dont no wot to go for as theses to many so can anybody giv me a idea wot there wud go for i need a fish finder and gps been looking at the combos aswel im looking to spend at the most £450-£500 but rather not as much as im new to boatin and not sure how its going to turn out and i also need a few of bits radio 1 more life jacket etc

thanks

 

[mark]

I've a mint standard horizon CP160 charplotter if you want one cheap!. no chart cartridge with it though so you have to buy one of them from somewhere, probably a few radios in the shed you can have for next to nowt as well(none DSC ones though)

 

[kingcod deano]

i would go for a garmin 152 which is round the 160 to 170 mark poss cheaper if you search around it has a built in antena so easy to install and a lowrance x4 or x5 can get these for around 110 to 150 leaving you with a few bob to spend on other essentials one thing i will say whatever you decide to buy read a few reviews on them first just to double check

 

[Funkmeister_Smith]

Nice one well your responses have made me decide I'm definately gonna buy the Navionics app then! Looks like its had a recent update too so you can easily add on wrecks etc. on the go and share with & download from others. Sounds really good and makes me even more excited for the upcoming season!! I like the thought of planning a trip on it when I'm bored in the house... or does that just make me a bit sad? :red:

Only problem I forsee is battery life on the phone. I don't have a battery on my boat (Although I would like one, but I don't really have anywhere to keep one as it doesn't have a cabin ), so therefore I'm knackered once it runs out, which may not be very long! Harrumph! Actually, on the subject, I saw Maplins had some 12v solar panel chargers on offer for £10. I may have to find a way of incorporating a battery in a sneaky, custom made compartment this year, but then where would i put a solar panel on an open top boat? Oh the headaches, they never end!!

 

[mark]

problem with the 152 is that its just a gps plotter, not a chart plotter so you can't add any maps to it.

garmin fishfinders are pretty good, and the 160c can be had for £160 ish which is not bad for a colour finder with a reasonable screen size

 

[mark]

Only problem I forsee is battery life on the phone. I don't have a battery on my boat (Although I would like one, but I don't really have anywhere to keep one as it doesn't have a cabin ), so therefore I'm knackered once it runs out, which may not be very long! Harrumph! Actually, on the subject, I saw Maplins had some 12v solar panel chargers on offer for £10. I may have to find a way of incorporating a battery in a sneaky, custom made compartment this year, but then where would i put a solar panel on an open top boat? Oh the headaches, they never end!!

on solution I've seen a couple of times, is a medium sized plastic toolbox, plotter and fish finder fitted in the lid, 12v alarm batteries in the base, socket on the side for recharging

close the lid, unplug the transducer and carry the whole lot home with you

 

[paulR]

(dont want nething flash just sumthing to do a gud job) gps that will link to your dsc radio, might find a wreck, but be sure to come backs my motto and a compass