Garmin's GSD 21 line should meet much of these criteria. Single frequency, dual cone width transducers are usually best for shallow water. I doubt any transducer can or should read any closer. I was able to get reliable readings down to 18" depth. Properly tuned, I found these able to show 6" increments (the pointer would be clearly between 2 numbers) in shallow waters. If cost is a major factor, I think there are still a few mfrs making an analog display with a lighted "pointer" moving across a fixed numeric scale. The automatic modes are truly for dummies, and just read averages over such wide areas as to be virtually useless for navigating in shallows. After chuckling over the obvious suggestions to drag a foot in the water or use a stick (although amusing, both have actually proved quite effective over the last 10,000 years or so), here are a few thoughts:īy all means get a unit with manual adjustments for gain and power. I sympathize with you, I operated for a long time in Barnegat Bay in NJ, notorious for going from 6' to 1' depth in a few yards. It gave fabulous bottom images - so long as you knew how to drive it. Our old (papar chart) Furuno allowed you to alter virtually everything - including the pulse rate. These days, of course, where equipment is 'dumbed down' so that ignorant 1st-time users can be spared from doing anything so outrageous as reading the owners manual, it's almost impossible to tune your own sounder. Our bigger boats have all had thru-hull fitting transducers and these have all been quite succesful. I doubtless could have improved this somewhat, but we sold the boat not long after, so I never got the chance to try. When I finally got 'round to mounting it on the transom, I found that there was a barely perceptable improvement in image return at low speed - but this was soon negated once I was on the plane: no doubt a result of the turbulent water in which it was operating. I had a transom-mount transducer on that, but for several years actually 'shot' it thru the hull bottom after setting it in a substantial dollop of grease. I had a Furuno plotter/sounder/gps aboard my Searay. These are often common across a number of brands (Airmar on our units) My experience suggests that it's at least as important to select the correct transducer. Granted you have to 'fiddle' with the controls a bit - and the picture becomes a little less obvious than it is a greater depth, but it is possible. All have a dual range facility - 50 /200kHz and all have been capable of reliably providing 'pictures' until the boat alomots touches bottom. We've had Koden, Furuno and Raymarine fishfinders on a variety of boats over the years.
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