Fish Finders...

Did not want to hijack the RF35 thread....

Suggestions on brands and models...

I'm looking to spend 100-160$, want more of a permanent FF with the transducer to read through the hull.  I have the scotty flush mount pole holders, thinking of modifying a mount plate to work with those...

I do like the color displays, not sure what all bells and whistles I need, perhaps something user friendly.  I've never used a fish finder before.

Thanks guys

And, are there any that meet PSR's description that are water-proof?

Good thinking Spot!

I doubt you'll find a color display in that price range.  
The two units I'd recommend in that price range..

Hummingbird 525 (nice big screen)
Eagle Cuda 245DS (dual scan - two different frequencies possible)

Also in that price range are the Humminbird PirhanaMax line, but I had issues with the one I had concerning moisture getting in under the screen.  The Eagle Cudas on the other hand, I  haven't had an issue with regarding water proof-i-ness.

Brian

Go Humminbird!! I've had both units and for the buck, the Humminbird has a lot better display and functions. 

Z

After my experience in the Strait at Whiskey Creek Saturday  (DENSE fog, viz about 50-75 feet) I'd pay the extra 50 or so and get the Eagle GPS/sonar combo or $200.  No color screen though...

On the Eagle Cuda combo....

Does anyone know if you can toggle the screen to full screen sonar,  or full screen gps instead of the split?

Yep, there's a sonar page, a map page, and a split page.  There's also accessory pages for things like satellite tracking, just like you'd find on a standard GPS.

Here's a link to the manual..
http://www.eaglenav.com/upload/Eagle/Documents/Manuals/Cuda250SMAP_0152-101_113005.pdf

Thanks for the link Steve.... Downloading the Humminbird manual now to compare..

Eagle also offers a product emulator.  Nice little toy to let you see how it works.  Quite useful when going through the operations part of the instructions, if it's the model you choose.

CUDA® 240 S/GPS Emulator

The 240 is slick (and on sale at Bi-mart) But the tides and currents on the Eagle 250 is worth the extra C-note. (the 250 is $200 at Cabela's)

perfect timing on this thread...My fish finder (an old Raytheon), bit the dust, worked the night before the PC get together, then Sat AM when I went to put it together, two of the pins had corroded off.  Would have been nice to have it work for the tourney.  Now it is time to start new!   Watching closely what people have to say on this.  I wish there was a unit (that wasn't very expensive) that would take my Garmin blue chart cartridge in addition to having decent depthfinder functions.

After my experience in the Strait at Whiskey Creek Saturday  (DENSE fog, viz about 50-75 feet) I'd pay the extra 50 or so and get the Eagle GPS/sonar combo or $200.  No color screen though...

I agree with kalli on this one. Even though theres no color screen it's still very visible in all light conditions and the GPS is really nice for those scary fog situations(15-20 foot at Sunset). The 250 s/map GPS has lots of bells and whistles too..

The 240 is slick (and on sale at Bi-mart) But the tides and currents on the Eagle 250 is worth the extra C-note. (the 250 is $200 at Cabela's)

Downloaded the manual and I don't see anything regarding tides and current for the 250...  Can someone confirm that it does include tide tables?  I noticed it had sunrise/sunset times but didn't find anything to do with tides...

This is a question I've had since first looking at FFs. Many have stated tides are available but it isn't mentioned in the manual or website???