fish finder

Hey yall just got a boat and now time to do some crappie fishing! I am looking to stay at $200 or below on one. i mainly fish for crappie and catfish. I was doing some research on the Humminbird 550, and Lowrance Mark 5x. Are these two decent units or am i wrong totally? Please let me know if yall have anymore unit to suggest.
THanks!

Congrats on the boat! When my wife and I bought our boat, it was a project boat. We had to work on it, replace seats, buy a motor and basically outfit it totally. I ended up with a Fishfinder that I bought because it had side scan. I still like it, but when I'm in shallow water, it doesn't do me any good except to give me the depth of water.
My advice, for what it is worth, is try to get one that will be a wide cone or a dual cone. A wide cone of search will cover more area in shallower water. But if you fish for Crappie, I fish a lot of lay downs and I'm focusing on the fish structure and not so much on the TV as my wife calls our fishfinder. It won't hurt a bit to set out some Crappie condos and other structure for you to have some nice honey holes.

No such thing as a fish finder.

If I was going to buy a sonar unit for $200 or less it would be this one.
Humminbird® 718 Sonar Fishfinder

Dual beam transducer, optional GPS antenna, and a whole bunch of other features.

Dual beam transducers are better than single beam units.

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

No such thing as a fish finder.

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Tell that to the knuckleheads at basspro! Type in sonar units into their search engine and you get squat, type in fish finders and you get every sonar unit they sell... so they must actually be fish finders eh?:p Especially since the link I posted says it's a fish finder!!!

I have a Hummingbird 727 I want $200 plus shipping.

Humminbird 727 Fishfinder

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Originally Posted by GCD

If I was going to buy a sonar unit for $200 or less it would be this one.
Humminbird® 718 Sonar Fishfinder

Dual beam transducer, optional GPS antenna, and a whole bunch of other features.

Dual beam transducers are better than single beam units.





Tell that to the knuckleheads at basspro! Type in sonar units into their search engine and you get squat, type in fish finders and you get every sonar unit they sell... so they must actually be fish finders eh?:p Especially since the link I posted says it's a fish finder!!!

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pleeeeese explain the scientific theory of fish finders.:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

pleeeeese explain the scientific theory of fish finders.:rolleyes:

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I found a fish with one once!:p

I personally refer to them sonar units, but they're sold mainly as fish finders... maybe they should be called structure finders?

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Originally Posted by GCD

I found a fish with one once!:p

I personally refer to them sonar units, but they're sold mainly as fish finders... maybe they should be called structure finders?

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Glad to see you up and about.;)

My Lowrance and HB manuals don't have any instructional pages on fish finders as a function. I am lost.:p