Which transducer is best for the Mississippi River

I’m looking at upgrading my electronics to a Lowrance product. Which transducer is best for the river?

I think with the dual you can’t go wrong. It’s nice to have the narrow cone when fishing steep breaks, and the fish are hanging tight.

Thats great advice RippinPigs, thanks.

Anyone else that has their point of view ,it will be very welcome !!

What model?
Better yet I’ve got a diving compressor, wet suit, weight belt, and 80′ of hose and safety rope, I’d sell ya.
Seeing is believing you know.

with a whole 9 votes , I’m curious as to why some people like the 200khz transducer over the dual transducer ?

On the Lowrance unit, the 50/200 transducer is running one or the other. That means you need to manually change the setting between 50 and 200 when needed. For Lowrance units, that means the option is (usually) buried in a sub-menu. So, you need to punch thru a bunch of screens to switch back and fourth between 50 and 200. Not something I any patience for!

200khz is a nice medium. Not so low as a 50 or 100 unit, not so high as a 400 unit. The 200 khz is a great all around good performer for most people who fish medium depths up to 50 feet.

The 50 khz option is there for saltwater applications or freshwater over 100 feet.

If you are considering a dual transducer unit, take a serious look at the Vexilar Edge 507. This units runs both (yes, 2 transducers side by side) at the same time on a split screen at 107 and 400 khz. Sweet unit.

Jon J.

Jon nailed it. If you have to choose between one or the other, go with the 200. My understanding of the question is not that you will be able to run both at the same time or choose back and forth easily. I have the 200/50 on my X15 and never use the 50.

how reliable would a portable depth finder be on the river. i have the piranna 1, walmarts finest for $99.99. this is the second summer i have had it. but the thing that i don’t like about it, it don’t get detailed. but as far as letting me know the depth of the lake, how accurate are they?

shane

Dave,

Save the $$$ for my X-mas present and get the 200 K…

Unless you plan to go hunting for Giant Squid

The Vexilar Edge has been a proven excellent river unit. You run both the narrow and wide angles at the same time on the screen. I don’t fish many rivers, but the guys I have talked to and use the Edge say its truly a great unit. Finding structure points like mentioned above is important to these guys. Check out the Edge and see what you think.

Shane, that little Humminbird is going to do just fine for giving you the depths, especially on the river where it’s not too deep anywhere, and as long as you aren’t looking to find depths at high speeds. Does it have the suction cup mount and if so does it stay on for you at cruising speeds? That might be a problem. Other than that, it should meet the most basic needs. There will be good prices and great rebates coming up this fall and winter if you are looking to upgrade. Good Luck!

Now thats the kind of information I come to know and love around here !!

Thanks Guys

And If anyone else has a view I welcome it with open eyes !!

I run the Vex Edge with both transducers mounted inside the hull. I’m not a expert on depth finders, but the Edge works better for me than others I’ve tried.

A couple weeks ago I put a couple Eagle Fishmark 320s on my boat which has 320 pixels x 320 pixels resolution, 1500 watts peak to peak, 200 kHz with built in temp and so far really like the units. And they are only 199.00 ea which in my mine is the best unit out there for that price. Its hard to find a unit with as many features as that model for the money. Take a look at one in the store and you will see what I mean. Good luck Bud and let us know what you choose. Thanks, Bill

Well the Eagle you have Bill is made by the same people that mke my X-51. The X-51 costs about the same as yours did but I don’t get the definition that I need from this unit. The X-51 has a High-definition 4″ diagonal high-contrast Film SuperTwist LCD,Fantastic 160 x 240 (w x h) resolution – 38,400 pixels total,16-level grayscale,1500 watts peak-to-peak (188 watts RMS) transmit power,FasTrack full-screen LCD flasher mode with GRAYLINE, High-performance, low-profile, transom-mount, 200 kHz Skimmer transducer,with built-in temp sensor,,tons of options but still doesn’t let me see what is under the water like I know a sounder can do…I am checking out a couple of units and I’ll be sure that I do my research before I buy one….

I gotta agree with ya Bill I just put a 320 on the back of my Explorer. It’s alot of bang for the buck. I used it to find cpappies sitting over holes in the riprap on Lake Pepin a couple weeks ago. It does all I need it to do. It also works great at high speed, even in 1.6ft of water on the back channel. That’s something my Humminbird would never do

Bottom content is key, so if you cannot spot changes in bottom hardness, your electronics are not doing the job. On the left you see the Edge screen display a double and even triple echo. With advanced technology, you should be able to see bottom structure changes before your boat gets over it. Fish love to hold on these transition zones and you can find them with the Edge.

I’ve copied this from the Vexilar Website…Does this mean when you see double and tripple echo’s that your over hard bottom ? The comment doesn’t really say..

Yes, double echo signals hard bottom.

If you get a chance, print out the entire owners manual and give it a once over. Pretty good stuff!

Jon J.

Guys just a heads up, I have had some problems with eagles I have rigged for customers. Maybe a coincedence but there may be a reason for there price point.

Ecnook, the sonar on the right is over a soft bottom by the looks of the skinny bottom in the pic where the one on the right is over a hard bottom by the double/triple echoes. A hard bottom will give you a fat bottom and or double echoe depending on the unit. The older guys I see buying new boats seem to make sure they get a 500.00 locator as they want a real good one for bottom reading and target seperation when they fish the river and lakes. I bought a total of 4 units, 2 locators and 2 gps so I went with the best bang for the buck and the Eagle Fishmarks 320s will work great for what I want them for. It all depends on what a guy is going to use them for. I use a Lowrance X-65 for my kickers main locator with now a gps next to it. I love to troll alot more than I do jig or cast. But the ones I bought will work alot better than the Fish Easys that were on the console and front trolling motor before. Let us know what you choose. There is alot of new tech stuff out there now that wasn’t offered to us before. Boys and their toys-what more can I say. Thanks, Bill

I echo Derec & Kevin’s feelings on the EDGE II and a duel frequency system.

I would add it is very user friendly, day or night. Set it, and go fish, no mind boggling layers of menus to wade through to get things ready. Just see fish and fish, simple is cool!

“See what you have been missing, run a Vexilar”

Great info….for a guy that’s looking for a new unit. But, I’m thinking of a GPS/Sonar combo.

Anyone have experiance with them? Brand/Model? Or would it be a better choice to go with seperate units?

I have a Garmin hand held right now. But the screen is too small for moving along at night and it doesn’t want to stay on my dash. Otherwise I like it.

Thanks in advance!

Hands down is my 7ft St Croix. The places I fish a simple sticking of the rod tip into the water will give you results that are 100% accurate every time.
jc

Beach Brian, I have a Lowrance LCX 15 CI combo unit. It does a great job for me. It has many combination screens available and can be updated from the Lowrsance web site. The unit has a drawer with 2 slots for MMC chips up to 128mb each. I have the Mapcreate 6 software for my computer. You can download maps you customize on your computer and then load them into the unit. Any data gathered by the unit while fishing can be saved to the chip and then reviewed on your PC. For your own informatiion on this though go to the Lowrance web site and download an emulator and you can practice operating the unit on your computer. Lowrance web site.

Beach Brian, if you like Garmin, the GPSMAP 168 is a nice Combo unit. Street prices are about $475 with transducer and internal antenna.

Eagle (which is made by Lowrance) has a nice unit in the Eagle FishElite 320 and runs about $475 street prices as well.

Since you already have a sonar unit (it sounds like), you may consider adding a separate GPS unit, such as the Garmin GPSMAP 162 . I believe James just put one of these on his boat and you might get a review out of him. Street Prices are around $325 TO $375. One advantage to having a separate unit is you can run full screen on both at all times. Good Luck!

Thanks Chit and Jolly!
I started looking and found I was wasting too much time. You guys narrowed it down for me and save a ton of time…think I’ ll go fishing!

Since I do have a card reader already, the removable cards intrige me. But I haven’t been to the Garmin site yet.

Thanks again…and good fishen!

Nate has the Lowrance LMS 320, which has a split screen for locator and map and likes it but he says he would like to get another unit [locator] to run next to it so he can have the map on full screen. So when I went shopping I bought a Lowrance 3200 Global Map unit and bought the #10 chip which is Minnesota and Iowa and run it next to my Lowrance X65 locator. Since I bought several different locators for my boat all at once I had to keep the price of each down some or I would of looked closer at the X15 unit. If I could afford it I would like to have 3 X15s on board or two more 3200 Global Maps with a chip for each one but have to be realistic here unfortunately my pocket book said. So far I really like what I bought but still want another 3200 Globel Map. But they are more of a benefit for the lakes than the river but I can and have used it for river fishing some and will use it more too. Between a tour with Nate and his GPS/Locator on Mille Lacs and from the info I got from the post/thread on this site about GPS and Global Mapping units I was sold enough to up grade my units. Thanks for all the imput everyone put in on this subject a short while back ago as it really helped me to choose what I did and spend the money too [ouch] lol. Thanks, Bill

Brian, You’re welcome. No problem. Lots of options out there. I shot you a Private Message. Might be able to help you out and save you some time if you like. Good luck!