New Member

[Gray]

If your budget will run to it, get one with a plotter in. It can be very hand at sea and when approaching harbours / river estuaries as it will show you where the channel is and can be a big help in finding those first couple of marker bouys or posts.
I have the Garmin striker plus 5 and while it does have GPS and allows me to drop waypoints, markers and the like it doesn’t have any mapping so I wind up carrying carts and using Navionics on my phone. Given the choice again I would get an all-in-one solution. As Harrison was saying above, most chart plotters don’t come with transducers and you have to buy them separately, but I think the Dragonfly is the exception there.
I also have a lowrance hook 4 on my short cabin dory and that does have mapping on it. I bought that from Force 4 when they had a “free maps” offer so I was able to get the maps for free.

[Gray]

Hummingbird also come with a transducer.

https://www.marinesuppliesdirect.co.uk ... gJeY_D_BwE

[Sibfisher]

Your right there I have a barrow loaded with gear when I go fishing with the boat fishing not so complected by far and not so much to take.
Looking at the fish finder I am looking paying around £150 cheaper if pos if that will get be one with Built in GPS lets you mark way points, create routes and view boat’s speed.
If you have any recommendations be great full as confused what to get.

[harrison]

No personal favourites to be honest but for small screen basic fish finders with gps for a £110 don’t think you’ll go far wrong with either the Lowrance Hook 2-4x GPS or the Garmin Striker 4
https://www.cactusnav.com/stand-alone-f ... _5929.html

[Martin]

Do you have a cellular iPad & A waterproof case ?
You don’t need to ru a SIM card, the cellular iPads have GPS built in.
How’s about the Navionics on IOS option with vexilar Wi-Fi fishfinder..
That’s what I use.

Martin

[Sibfisher]

Martin
As a new comer to all this and not being a teck wiz I am totally confused, I have a samsung galaxy tablet and a smart phone if that is any good I also have a Gamin Sat Nav in the cars it is a shame you cant install a app and use that as you would in a car.
So far I am looking at the Lowrance Hook 2-4x GPS or the Garmin Striker 4/Plus recomended by harrison and confused which one as they both have good reports and both reasonably price.

[harrison]

You can download for free the Navionics Boating App to your smart phone which has decent charts to view. There are also subscription upgrades for more features if you so wish.

https://www.navionics.com/usa/blog/post ... n-features

[Sibfisher]

Sorry - apologies, I should have posted in more detail.
A tab/iPad will require a GPS receiver to be able to work with the Navionics.
Phones obviously have the device installed but not all tabs/iPads do. If the iOS device has a sim card slot then It will run Navionics great, as for the android devices I couldn’t comment as I don’t know if they have GPS receivers fitted ??

If you have a GPS enables receiver device, Download the Navionics onto the device, the clear large screen makes it so much easier than squinting at these small devices.. however, a fishfinder is not part of the Navionics but one will work within Navionics software if you purchase a secondary device called sonar phone.
https://www.navionics.com/fin/partners/sonarphone

I’ll try and find my post on the whole set up and link to that.

Bare in mind, the sonar phone/Navionics kit is mainly navigation based with a little fishing ability built in, where as a fish finder is all about finding fish...
For me, it was about trying to find something that does both, with a big screen and clear navigation.

Martin.

[Martin]

@Sibfisher here you go buddy...
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=239&p=1145#p1145

[klingon999]

Hi
found this board by accident, just passing through