Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
October 05, 2026, 08:40:02 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Recent Topics

[October 03, 2026, 05:47:33 PM]

[September 29, 2026, 12:06:23 PM]

[September 12, 2026, 10:21:13 PM]

[September 10, 2026, 07:02:35 AM]

[September 08, 2026, 08:56:45 AM]

by jed
[August 21, 2026, 05:45:53 PM]

[August 21, 2026, 04:28:27 PM]

[August 20, 2026, 08:30:22 PM]

[August 20, 2026, 07:10:29 PM]

[August 11, 2026, 04:33:52 PM]

[August 09, 2026, 11:33:18 AM]

[August 09, 2026, 11:31:45 AM]

[August 07, 2026, 05:09:12 PM]

by jp52
[August 03, 2026, 05:06:39 PM]

[July 31, 2026, 08:40:54 AM]

Picture Of The Month



2025 & 2026 AOTD champ Nobaddays
with a trophy lingcod

Topic: Lowrance Elite 3X Fishfinder field review  (Read 3020 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 »


 

anything