fish finder for 12 smokercraft

[salmonbarry]

Hey there, so was thinking about outfitting lil' Tin cup with a fixed fish finder so was hoping for some suggestions- I'll include a picture of boat though it may not be there best but hopefully will give you an idea of what I have to work with. Was thinking Garmin or Hummingbird so wanted to get some feed back on what would work best- probably only using in fresh water lakes and rivers.

[MarkFromSea]

On my lil boat, I picked up nearly the least expensive humingbird product. I mounted the xducer on a small board then use a wood clamp for temporary mounting on the stern when I fish. The screen is mounted on a separate piece of wood so the whole thing is portable at a lower cost than the self contained portable units. Alligator clips hook it to the battery. Models and features change so much, I'm not sure which models are out there today.....depth and temperature seem to be the most useful.... The cone is so narrow at 10' depth, not sure it's much help to actually catching fish.... but everyone has a different opinion.

[salmonbarry]

Thanks Mark! Any and all info is helpful in my search#

[BentRod]

Similar to Mark, I've had a couple simple black and white sonars on my 12, with the transducer mounted to a piece of 1x4 that I c-clamp to the stern and mount the head unit to a small piece of plywood that I can set on the seat in front of me. They're more for depth and seeing structure than actually finding fish, but I have fun with them. My first was an Eagle Optima and my second (current) a Hummingbird Matrix 10...after the Optima died. Both perform great. I set up the wiring so I could either hook it to my trolling motor or hook it to a smaller 12v which allows me to transfer it to my kayak as well. Doesn't take anything fancy, so the cheaper black and white Humminbird, Lowrance, or Garmins would all do the trick. I do like the bigger screens though as it's easier to read, especially if you like split screen modes.