Sonar Advice

Hi all! I am planning on launching Saturday morning. That said, I am wanting to stop by Bass Pro on the way up and pick up a new Sonar unit/no GPS. I am wanting a new Sonar only unit because I currently run a Northstar M84 Chartplotter/Sonar system w/ a B258 transducer. I like my current unit for navigation but I feel my sonars cone angle is too small to be effective in Western Erie's shallow waters. My sonar screen says I am covering 22'-24' of bottom in 30'-35' of water at 50khz and 7'-8' of bottom at 200khz. That does not seem like enough bottom coverage for me.

I know the easiest/cheapest way to go about this is find a new wider cone transducer, but Northstar compatible stuff is not readily available as Navico has dropped that brand. Plus I want to launch this weekend so that leaves me purchasing a new dedicated sonar unit.

I am leaning towards the Lowrance Elite 7x HDI but can not find any info on its HDI transducer cone angle. Does anyone know this?

I saw a Garmin Echo 550c unit boasted 120 degree cone angle in its Dual Beam transducer but it lacks imaging, which I would think is pretty neat and would like to try out. Any experience out there with this unit?

Another thing. Can I run my Northstar M84 at 200khz and another unit at say 83khz without them interfering with each other. I would like to keep my depth data on my chart while simultaneously looking for fish on my other unit. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated and is much needed. Thanks!!!

Furuno 587 with b 260 is what I run and love it

Really? I was positive I had a B260 but edited my post after looking at airmars website. I changed my post due to the fact it said the B260 was 19 degrees @ 50khz (10' of bottom in 30' of water) and 6 degrees @ 200khz (3' of bottom in 30' of water). My screen says I'm covering 20+ feet so I edited my post to the B258 which is a bit wider cone. It's been 6 years or so since I installed it but remember it being a B260.

It seems to me that at that coverage, you would only see a fish if it is directly under the transducer.

I don't have any trouble finding fish but I also have one on my hds that's wider but hardly ever ise it my furuno will mark fish at 18knt no problem but it will also produce 1kw of power

Look at your cable it should say what it is

Give this guy a call gill travis a wealth of info he will give u the info u r looking for he is west coast so call him now if u like 8009250341

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Originally Posted by bowguy84

Give this guy a call gill travis a wealth of info he will give u the info u r looking for he is west coast so call him now if u like 8009250341

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Yes call Gill. He is the man!

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Originally Posted by bowguy84

Look at your cable it should say what it is

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Checked it. B258 is what I have. Decided to launch and stay with what I have. I guess if some of you are using a B260 and love it, even though it has a narrower cone than the B258, I should be able to locate the eyes. Was trying to get a wider cone to increase my odds, but I guess that is really not a necessity. Looks like I'll just have to update my rods and reels with the money I saved! Yeah!!!

I know you said you don't want another GPS but, why not just switch over to a Lowrance or H-bird with side imaging and be done with it?

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Originally Posted by BrantSFGDS

I know you said you don't want another GPS but, why not just switch over to a Lowrance or H-bird with side imaging and be done with it?

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Cost. To replace all the Northstar stuff (all of which works fine) on my boat with another brand would have to run several thousands of dollars. Chartplotter is one thing, but when you start adding in stuff like new sonar transducer, fuel flow transducers for both engines, autopilot head unit, course computer, flux gate compass, rate gyro, etc. it just gets to expensive for me to swing right now. Plus all the time removing old, installing new, learning all new stuff. Believe me, if I had the money, it would already have been done.

Good to hear island runner if u see one eye there is more than likley a 100 with him

This is mostly for shallow water anglers 60ft and less, all transducers that run 200hz (+ - 10hz) have basicly the same angle, typically divide the depth your at by 3. That number is how wide your cone is at the bottom as it tapers to a fine cone at your transducer. Folks use 200/83, 200/50 for the most part. The wider cone is used mostly to watch cannonballs etc while trolling or if your running 2 transducers and don't want them to interfer with each other. Side imaging is another beast and unless your going to move into using one, not required for the questions asked. Fish that are high in the water column usually do not get marked as they tend to move away from your boat.