This is a question about fish finders but not so much about using them in the BW. I am looking at upgrading in my boat...if anyone has something competent lying around let me know.

So what are you asking? Are you looking to buy one from somebody?

What kind of graphs / finders do people bring up with them in the BWCA?

I have an old Garmin Plotter from 2001. I am guessing this monochrome was quite the unit in its day but I like colors. So I would be looking for a 5-7" unit at this point and purchasing is what I speak of when you upgrade on your boats.

get the lowrance elite 7 or 9ti from cabelas
they had the 9 on sale for 599 a week or 2 ago
best bang for you buck

Good price I'm sure but exceedingly more than I can spend.

Probably high power draw too. You want something at 0.5A draw (@12V) or less. A lot of people's Lowrance X4s only draw 0.1A or something, which allows them to be run for a loooooong time on 10x AAs, or ~100 hours from a 10Ah Li-ion battery.

Take a look at the Garmin Striker 4. It draw 0.23A which is over double the small monochrome units, but it's remarkably low for a color screen and it looks to be a very nice unit. It's also priced very affordably at $120 and comes with a transducer. I am probably going to pick one up myself.

I should mention that I am on a 24V System.

Hi richwon— you might look at your local marina or boat dealer to see what they want for last year’s stuff. I just picked up a heavily discounted Lowrance Hook2 tripleshot, the 5” screen for $250, new in box with warranty. So it’s a smaller unit with chirp, down imaging, side imaging, and GPS with supposedly 1 foot contours on the built in base map, but also had a micro SD chip slot for adding Navioncs maps.


I think the screen will be a little small to make the side imaging effective but at this price it’s rare to get an SI unit I think. Lowrance wants $150 just for the transducer so I think I did alright. Could not believe the cost of used, outdated sonar units on Craigslist and Facebook.

Does that unit allow marking way points, have gps, and chart plotting?

It has all 3. I have yet to use them yet so I can’t say how good the plotter is. But it can record tracks and follow a course to destination or so it claims.