Fish finder help

[IslandBC]

Hey guys, not much of a fisherman myself but trying to get some good input in a decent fish finder in the 300/500$ range? It's a gift for Christmas so trying to keep it on a budget. I know they get pricey, is spending this amount even worth the money?

Thanks in in advance gents !

[Gone_Fishin_]

Most definetly worth it to spend the little extra. If your going with a GPS model keep in mind you'll need a navionics card or map card for the GPS to work. That will run ya another 150$ and up depending on what SD card you want.

The hummingbird series are really nice IMO, had a Lowarnce and returned it within a week, damn thing wouldnt work once at full speed no matter how i mounted the transducer. Now have the 386ci which i havent had an issue with and works great.

[Peter Pepper]

Gone fishin. To make a sounder work at full speed you have to mount the transducer in such a way as air bubbles don't pass under the transducer. Then you have to set you ping speed at max. Set your noice reduction at max, surface clarity at med.
It took some fiddeling, but my Lowrance elite 7 (Not an expensive unit) works at 30knts. It shows me what is actually under my boat. Not fake images that show every piece of seaweed as a fish like the really entry level units.
You just need to learn how to use it like any piece of technology. However I know lots of 'old farts' (and 'young farts') that would rather watch fish cartoons go across the screen rather than learn to use the new gadget they bought. So don't waste your money if you aren't into learning to use the darn thing.

[BRvalley]

500 can you into a very decent unit nowadays, possible including DI or SI....hummingbird and lowrance both offer some great models in that price range, but all depends what you're looking for really and style of fishing

and going with gps will add a good 150-250 depending on the card, but still a great gift on it's own, let the guy receiving the gift decide which card they want to buy

[IslandBC]

Right on guys thanks for the insightful replies , I'm going to take a good look at the humminbirds.
Good info about air bubbles passing by the transducer as well. I definitely did not know that, I'm sure my brother didn't either!

[BRvalley]

cabelas had some on sale for the black Friday madness, I think it's still on....and I've found radioworld.ca to have competitive pricing and they know their stuff