[Basschaser]

Is there a pretty big difference in fishfinders that have 1500 watts versus 3000 watts as far as quality/accuracy/marking ability? I'm looking to buy a newer used bassboat for tournament bass fishing and have noticed a lot of the boats have fishfinders on them with 1500 watts and only some have 3000 watts. I wanted to know if it would be a big enough difference in quality/accuracy/marking ability to pay for an upgrade to a 3000 watt unit?

Thanks!!

 

[boatnfish]

I would not worry about the watts. GlobalMap 2000's with the SAM-I module had I believe 600 watts. I have had LMS350's that were much higher and paid extra for the lower watts of the 2000. The problem comes in on shallow water, the higher watts actually will loose the bootom much faster. It will drive you crazy to have to turn off and on the unit everytime you want to move becuase it lost the bottom.

Above the number of watts I would look at the pixel count on the unit. Has anyone ever needed a unit that will read to 1,500 or more feet? If I am in 100 feet it is only because I am croosing Grand Traverse Bay in order to get to the shallow water on the other side.

I would not worry about the number of watts on a unit, unless it is just way outside of the normal.

 

[Basschaser]

Boatnfish, I think I know what you're saying. The difference in pixels between a 160X160 graph vs a 240X240 graph or even a 320X320 graph is tremendous. Is the higher wattage mainly for guys that fish in deeper water as opposed to shallower water? I have a Lowrance X-70A which is 200X320 pixels which is fine, but the wattage is 3000. Every time I get below say 5 feet it completely loses the bottom and I have to bend over and turn it off and on. So I guess bottom line, if I get a boat that has fishfinders or a fishfinder/gps with good pixels (240 or 320) and 1500 watts of power I'll be o.k??? I remember reading an article and the guy said you have to have at least 240X240 pixels (which is understandable) but at least 3000 watts of power for a fishfinder to be worth a darn.

Not sure how much I believe this article now.

 

[No More Mini]

Wattage for bass fishing is pretty much a moot point around here. In dingy or muddy waters it helps some, but not a tremendous amount.

If you are having troubles losing bottom in shallow water, turn it off auto mode and put it on manual and adjust your sensitivity.....

Mini

 

[sonicartist]

Interesting subject here!

Pixel count is definitely more of an issue here in our beloved pond. Understanding the pixel issue is pretty simple. Just divide the number of pixels on your finder by the depth you usually fish. At the current lake levels, I typically fish in water about 14' deep (the same spots were 16 1/2 7 years ago as I am sure you all know). I just bought a new Eagle Fishmark 480 which is a vast improvement over my old Eagle Magna II. In 14' of water at 480 pixels that means that each foot of water is represented by 34 pixels which is just under 3 pixels per inch. This allows the finder to show fish less than 1/2 an inch long or to be accurate within 1/3 of an inch. My old finder was 128 pixels (or less) which meant that there were only 9 pixels to represent each foot. At that resolution, it is pretty easy to fool the thing. Pixels, pixels, give me pixels!
And definitely arches over fish symbols. So much more information there!

 

[fiker50]

Everything I've always read says that same, buy as many pixels as your wallet will allow.
Right now, BPS Catalog Sale has the Eagle FishMark 480 on sale for $189, and the Fishmark 320 for $149. They have 480 & 320 pixel counts respectively and 1500 watts.
Anybody have any knowledge/experience with either of these two models?

 

[Mexque]

I would always go with more watts as long as the pixels are the same. Get a minnimum of 240x240 and then get as many watts as you can. Like Mini said, you can always turn it down. I have adusted mine So that I get the deep water along w/ the shallow water. I have also turned it up when fishing deep water, which is a great help especially when your following baitfish. I like more watts, but you will have to do some adjusting to get it how you want. I've had more detail w/ the higher watts and fewer lost signals when running fast.