Eagle and Garmin fish finders at fleet farm…

Does anyone have any opinions on the cheaper eagle and garmin fish finders at fleet farm? they have the eagle fish easy 245 ds on sale for $95 And the garmin is around the same price, not for sure on the model but ill check tomorrow.There is also a color garmin for like $180. My friend is looking for a cheap fish finder to put on his boat, cause his died, so just wondering if those cheaper ones are even any good. Do they actually show fish good? Or if anyone has a locator for sale, or knows someone who does let me know, cause he is considering a nice used one as well.

I got a cheap $150 hummingbird in my boat. I dont really use it as a fish finder its more or less a depth finder but it seems to work when marking fish as well. Funny thing is the fish are always swimming right to left not sure if the dang thing is broken or what

For the most part the eagle should be a solid unit, I’d spend the extra dough and get an color model, much easier to see in all lighting conditions.

I’d pass on the Garmin, myself had one didn’t like it one bit, no matter what I couldn’t get it to read just raw sonar, it would still automatically “declutter” the screen and I know I was missing seeing a lot of things like baitfish and such, this was on a garmin 160/240 something.

BTW if you want to most sensitivity, turn the little “fish id” option off and learn to interpret the “raw” sonar,

The cheaper ones are usually closouts or else just don’t have all the bells and whistles on the newer more expensive ones. They all show the same information but you need to be able to read it. This comes with practice and by going over water you know so you learn to tell stumps,rocks,weeds,sand, mud, and most of all fish and baitfish. I use Eagle and I am really happy with them, but I have never used a Garmin. I am sure they are all basically the same.

i have an eagle 480 in my boat, and i’ve been really pleased with it. (also, in case you didn’t know, but Eagle is made by Lowrance, it is just their lesser cost model.)

If it’s just for depth that eagle would be okay but if he wants to read bottom and detect fish he’ll need a unit with better resolution.

The Eagle 480 posted above would be a much better choice.

Yeah… me and my dad have an eagle 480 in our boat, he got that instead of a lowrance cause the guy at scheel’s told him they were the same thing. I think that is a little more than my buddy wants to spend though. So you think the little cheap eagle ones would be ok? I just thought the screen looked too small and unclear. there is also a hummingbird for 150, any opinons on that? And yes i know you are supposed to turn off the fish symbols…haha. Our old locator just showed fish everywhere.

I didnt realize there is the fish mark models, and then there is the fish elite, which have the gps, like what i have. Does anyone have the fishmark 320? It is only $150, and seems to be equivalent to the 480, besides less pixels. And I like the fact it has a bigger screen than those other eagle models.

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I didnt realize there is the fish mark models, and then there is the fish elite, which have the gps, like what i have. Does anyone have the fishmark 320? It is only $150, and seems to be equivalent to the 480, besides less pixels. And I like the fact it has a bigger screen than those other eagle models.

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The 320 is a nice choice but the extra pixels on the 480 would be worth the small cost increase, IMO.

Wade has great advice on the 480.

I would like to add that the Humminbird 500 series are worth a look too. The 535 and 565 Birds are nice as well.

If I were looking at a budget graph I would get at least a 5″ screen.
If you want just a depth finder than the cheapest is good.
If you want to actually read the graph for information 5″ screen is the ticket.
You can get a very good monochrome unit right at $200 or a bit less.
Well worth a few extra $$.
$50 is too much to spend on something that doesn`t do the job you want it to.

my friend ended up just getting a cheap eagle cuda model. I’m sure he wont get it hooked up for a while, but hopefully it works for him.