Locator opinions

[HUSKER]

I am shopping for a new locator. Was hoping for some opinions on the best ones in the price range of $250 to $400. I fish catfish alot so marking fish right on the bottom is pretty important to me. Thanks in advance,good fishing.

[CJW]

Top locaters would be pinpoint,lowrance,bottomline,rathyeon. I'm sure there are others too. But on here alls I hear about are these locators. I have 6520 pinpoint would not trade it for anything. Like the option that I can send back for updates without having to buy a whole new product each time the company comes out with something new. Also like the fact of their trolling motors and sonars are in-synce. In other words you can use the transom mount transducer and the trolling motor transducers at the same time, with no interference. You don't have to buy this model they have others in the price range you stated. Second choice would be lowrance or bottomline for me. Hope this helps! Craig

[Backwater Eddy]

I too fish walleye and catfish and the search for a good electronics package was a trial and error thing for me.

What I have found to be most useful for me is a combination of BottomLine & Vexilar. The TL SF series with side finder technology has the watts to see well and search out baitfish suspended off to the side. This is a handy tool for open water walleye and scanning shoreline areas for fish.

I pair this up with a Vexilar FL-8 SLT for real time readings and high speed running on rivers. The Vexilar is very good for reading bottom content and often will pick fish up that are tight to the bottom that other electronics will miss. You can also tune out a lot of suspended clutter with the use of the S-cable in-line with the transducer.

The BottomLine would be a good all use unit in my book. Get the new series SF that was released this year (under $400), they are much more dependable then the older units were. You will get speed, temp, SF left and right view, and depth, all in a no brain'r package, a good deal. If you have a FL-8 already just pick up the kit for summer running and add it later if you wish.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Backwater Eddy.......><,,>

[Tideye]

If you need to see fish on the bottom alot of the time I think you may want to look at a unit that has the ability to change between two transducers or get a switch box. This way you can get a very narrow beam transducer(9 degree or so) for seeing fish on the bottom and use a wider beam like 20 degrees for other fishing. With the 9 degree transducer the beam is much narrower so it picks up fish on the bottom much better but it sees a very narrow path under the boat so it is not going to see as many fish off the bottom. This is why I suggest both in one unit or a switch box. I believe Lowrance sells a switch box for their units, and the garmin blue 160 has this built in. With the switch box you can upgrade as you go if you feel you need to. I'm not sure but I would bet pinpoint allows for multiple transducers of differing frequency. The Vexilar FL8 Backwater Eddie mentioned usually comes with a 9 degree but it is a flasher.

good luck.

I hope this helps.

Jim

[groovymoe]

I have an Apelco 360 and love it. Shows good bottom markings and is very simple to operate.

[Backwater Eddy]

LAST EDITED ON Jul-07-01 AT 09:09PM (CST)[p]Vexilar also has a 2 trancducer system with a 9 & 20 deg crossover.

[Doc_wi]

I like the Pinpoiny 7420. Excellent detail for showing fish and structure and I can see my jig on the locator in 30 feet of water. Very nice equipment as are others that are mentioned. I tried Pinpoint a few years back and I'm sticking with them. The customer service has been so outstanding that I would never consider changing unless something drastic happened. Nice company, good product, great people.

Joel "Doc" Kunz