Fish finder recommendations

[hvnj]

Looking for some advice on a fish finder.  Hoping to buy my first boat this week and would like to put a fish finder on it.  Ill be largely bass fishing on Lake George.  If all goes according to plan it will be a 20ft deck boat.  There are all types of reviews out there and no clear cut consensus.  Hoping someone here has some good recommendations.  Would like to keep the price under 500. Thanks in advance. 

[MGHunter66]

For under $500 Humminbird makes some decent units. 

[hunterbob1]

Oh boy. don't ask me I got confused from going to ShopRite what an I haveing for dinner tonight.lol

 

[hunterbob1]

Hanner 4 reel will tell you trust me

[hammer4reel]

1 hour ago, hunterbob1 said:

Hanner 4 reel will tell you trust me

What Bob , you can’t find something to cut and paste .

.

for the original poster are you looking for just a fish finder , or a chart plotter / fish finder ?

all the brands are good , some a little easier to work .

go to a store like Cabela’s , bass pro , west marine and actually run them to see which you find easiest to use .

all brands sell out older models for less than half of the original prices . 
‘always get the biggest screen you can afford 

[hvnj]

6 minutes ago, hammer4reel said:

What Bob , you can’t find something to cut and paste .

.

for the original poster are you looking for just a fish finder , or a chart plotter / fish finder ?

all the brands are good , some a little easier to work .

go to a store like Cabela’s , bass pro , west marine and actually run them to see which you find easiest to use .

all brands sell out older models for less than half of the original prices . 
‘always get the biggest screen you can afford 

I’ll be on Lake George with this  so not sure I need a plotter.  Reading about forward facing, side imaging, different sonar, etc.  I’ll be largely fishing in 30-60 ft of water for small mouth.  Don’t want to overthink it but I’d rather buy once.  Thanks for the advice.  

[hammer4reel]

Just now, hvnj said:

I’ll be on Lake George with this  so not sure I need a plotter.  Reading about forward facing, side imaging, different sonar, etc.  I’ll be largely fishing in 30-60 ft of water for small mouth.  Don’t want to overthink it but I’d rather buy once.  Thanks for the advice.  

FF is way more than the budget you stated .transducer alone in 1000-1500 and then you still need a MFD to see it 

a chart plotter allows you to actively see depth contours and changes .

and confirms those contours with the FF that they are actually there .

IMO without a chart plotter you loose a lot of  valuable  information 

[hunterbob1]

52 minutes ago, hammer4reel said:

What Bob , you can’t find something to cut and paste .

I have no problem doing that! 

Thought you could do thatof

[3Blade]

Hey Bob, you’ve now posted three times in this thread and not a single comment relevant to the thread 

Edited June 8 by 3Blade

[hvnj]

51 minutes ago, hammer4reel said:

FF is way more than the budget you stated .transducer alone in 1000-1500 and then you still need a MFD to see it 

a chart plotter allows you to actively see depth contours and changes .

and confirms those contours with the FF that they are actually there .

IMO without a chart plotter you loose a lot of  valuable  information 

If necessary I’d spend more. Looks like I need to research it a bit more.   Thanks for the info.