Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
October 27, 2025, 12:28:30 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Recent Topics

[Today at 09:50:48 AM]

[October 24, 2025, 06:43:12 PM]

[October 22, 2025, 08:34:17 AM]

[October 14, 2025, 10:14:18 AM]

by [WR]
[October 12, 2025, 11:41:58 PM]

by [WR]
[October 12, 2025, 11:37:09 PM]

[October 01, 2025, 04:23:31 PM]

[September 23, 2025, 01:30:32 PM]

[September 23, 2025, 01:29:36 PM]

[September 20, 2025, 02:16:06 PM]

[September 19, 2025, 06:43:49 PM]

[September 16, 2025, 09:06:41 PM]

[September 13, 2025, 04:55:06 PM]

[September 08, 2025, 08:30:37 PM]

[September 04, 2025, 03:31:25 PM]

Picture Of The Month



Guess who's back?
jed with a spring Big Mack

Topic: Lowrance Elite 3X Fishfinder field review  (Read 2816 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Tinman

  • Herring
  • **
  • Location: Portland
  • Date Registered: Jan 2015
  • Posts: 42
I got a Lowrance Elite 3x fishfinder a few months ago and am quite pleased.  It's their bottom-of-the-line unit, priced at $99 with transducer.   It is very simple, full color, and is switchable between 83 and 200 kHz.   

Since I am rowing, the boat starts drifting the instant I take my hands off the oars.  So I wanted a simple unit that didn't have lots of nested menus.  I don't have time for nested menus out there.   I also didn't want a combo fishfinder/gps unit since I'm facing backwards and the unit is mounted sideways on the seat next to me.  Following the gps arrow with that arrangement would drive me nuts.  I use a seperate handheld gps.

I've used it in the ocean down to 200' and in the CR/Willy to good effect.  Here are some pros and cons.

PROS
* Simple operation.  One-button switching between 83 and 200 kHz.  One button zoom.  Simple gain controls
* Highly readable display
* Very compact, even more compact (shorter) than the Elite 4 series.  This was important to me
* Shows fish well (salmon, suspended schools of rockfish, baitfish)
* Price

CONS
* Noise rejection is marginal.  When a powerboat passes within a couple hundred feet the screen gets cluttered with noise.  It gets a little better with noise rejection on the high setting, but can still be a problem
* No A-scope feature.  I really like A-scope, especially for ocean use
* Clunky zoom feature that sometimes excludes bottom.  You can't adjust the range
* No fuse holder in the power wiring.  I had to add my own

Overall I'm quite pleased with the unit.  For human-powered boats it is very good.   I wouldn't get one for a powerboat due to the electronic noise issue. 


« Last Edit: July 23, 2015, 01:22:47 PM by Tinman »