New to Fish, Fishfinder >~$250

Hello all,

I fish up here in the interior of Alaska and I am new to fishing and to the area so I figured I’d pick up a fish finder. However it must be a portable one since I only have a canoe but I also go with other people in their canoe’s. I have a budget of about $250 and for the life of me I cannot decide on a unit. I know nothing about branding, other than Humminbird and Lowrance are the lead manufactures. I have seen the Humminbird Fishin’ Buddy 140c and that peaked my interest, but I would like someone who owns some electronics to give their 2 cents on what I should be looking at or getting with my budget. Thank you very much for any assistance you can give or any input you have.

Welcome to IDO. I have a bottom line lil buddy. I have had it since 2005. I used it one week straight and have not had it out since. It runs on 3 or 4 C batteries. The one I have finds fish to the side as well as to the bottom. Nice little unit but it’s not color. Has alarms for when a fish is in the area and other stuff I really liked it I bought a boat with all the electronic in and that’s why I don’t use it

Thank you very much!

After some research it seems Humminbird bought out bottom line.

From Humminbird site:
Does Humminbird own the Bottomline brand?
The Bottomline brand was purchased by Johnson Outdoors in 1995. We no longer manufacture, sell or service this brand. There are no known service facilities for this brand nor parts available on the aftermarket.
source: http://www.humminbird.com/Faq.aspx?TaxonomyId=91A3189

The new Humminbird uses 6 AA batteries instead.

So you are saying it was a good buy? I don’t need GPS as I have an old iPhone 3GS w/o a sim card in it that I turned into an HD GPS system. All I want to have is something that’ll help tell me where the fish are. The main reason I like the 140c is the side finder. (I also like the idea of color for more detail) How was the side finder in your opinion, was it all it was cracked up to be? I understand it’s supposed to be used like a flashlight, but since no higher end models use this I don’t know how useful it is in practice.

Thank you again in advance for any input!

If I were you I would at least give the x67c unit a look see. If you run the icepack you can have it set between your legs while you paddle, and the self leveling transducer is nice in a canoe too. Finally, if you were to pair it with a good quality 12v 9amp batt. you should get a whole weekend’s worth of use out of it.

It doesn’t make for the greatest of ice flashers when there is interference, but it sounds like you may not be in an area where there will much as far flasher to flasher interference.

The side finder was good for looking under docks and under brush piles . The closer the fish are the brighter the image

Quote:

---

If I were you I would at least give the x67c unit a look see.

---

Do they still make it? I had one for years and loved it. Sent it down the road when I sold my boat this fall.

When set up correctly, they block out interference from other flashers, too.

Quote:

---

If I were you I would at least give the x67c unit a look see.

---

I took a look around online and Lowrance doesn’t make them any more. Sucks too, because they look pretty awesome! I would love to have ice flasher as well, but my budget is a little under that price.

So you say it’s good for looking under stuff, how well would it work looking at a weed line? (like a lilly pad line) I assume it’ll just hit the line and disipate the sonor. Also do you think the color is worth the price? Or should I just go b/w?

Humminbird 385 is around your price range with gps

Quote:

---

Humminbird 385 is around your price range with gps

---

385 is no longer produced and on amazon, w/ gps the cheapest is $449 for the portable (well outside my range). Also as stated above, I don’t need GPS, I have an old iPhone 3GS for that. Thank you for the input though