Bow mount depth finders???

Hi folks,
I’d like to put a decent reasonably priced depth finder on the bow of my new boat, a Fish Hawk 1750, and am pondering many different choices. I know some folks put a flasher on front and some use a graph. What are your reasons for choosing one over the other. Also I know there are some graphs that have flasher modes built into them, seems like quite a few Lowrance finders have this feature. This would seem like a great compromise, you get both in one package. Does anyone use the flasher mode on their graph and how well does it work? Do you get good real time feedback with these and how is the target separation on them. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
Clark

Clark,

If you are looking for a reasonable price graph to put on the bow, I would take a close look at the BottomLine Tournament 320 or the Tournament 480. The 320 has a large 320 pixel x 320 pixel screen, 3,200 watts of peak to peak power and a 200khz transducer, and retails for about $150. This is the unit I use on my bow and I have had great success with it. The 480 is basically the same unit as the 320 but has 480 pixels x 480 pixels and retails for about $225.

As far as using a flasher, I typically only use a flasher at the console when I am traveling at high speed (over 50mph). Flashers are still quicker than graphs, but most graphs now days are very quick. At the bow, you will typically be going slow enough where the graph will show you “real time” and you will get much more detail that is easier to read than a flasher.

Hope this helps, good luck on your purchase.

Personally I about the total 180 of adam, I like the flasher up front because it is instant feedback. I can see my jigs, I can see fish, better than a lcd. I don’t personally put much faith in my X-51. Obviously this can vary from person to person, Ideally if the flasher mode worked on the my x-51 ( it doesn’t, but might have a lot to do with cone angles), that would be great I might even consider 2 lcd then, since it’s easy for everyone to read, not that flasher are hard to read, but I think just about everyone can understand a LCD graph without explaination. Basically when I’m fishing I want depth and instant feedback, short of a camera, no other depth finder or other method I’ve ever used or seen had come close to preforming like a flasher does. Flashers offer a different point of view that a lcd graph cannot reproduce, and like wise, Ideally, I’d personally take one of each for my boat. All that aside I love that I have something that works great in winter too. The choice is yours, but no other piece of technology has put more fish in my boat/ice shack than a flasher.

I have a Garmin 240 on my trolling motor. Has a flasher bar on the side which works quite a lot faster than the graph. I keep it on all the time and really enjoy having both in one unit. Pricing, I believe, is around $200. I paid $250 3 years ago, best money I ever spent on a fish finder.
John