Need educating

[ncredbear]

I am planning on upgrading my 'fish finders' by purchasing new units. I currently have 2 very old, 15 years old, Lowrance fish finders. As you might guess the technology has improved greatly since these units were new. So I have been reading, studying, and trying to learn about many of the new features and capabilities available. Right now I am leaning toward the Garmin Echomap Chirp 73SV. One small thing that I have not really seen any mention of for any of the units is water temperature sensing. It is not necessarily a big deal but as we know variations in water temperature can make a difference in fish behavior. So is temperature a standard part of most or all current fish finders / chart plotters? If so is that done thru the transducer unit? The old Lowrance units I have are the old type where the transducer was a puck epoxy mounted against the hull in the bilge. There was a separate temp probe that mounted on the stern. Please educate this dummy! I have only been an occasional fisherman, which is why my equipment is so outdated. I recently retired though so hope and plan to be able to fish much more frequently and am looking to upgrade my equipment as well as my knowledge and skill.

[coachallen]

Yes your transducer would have temp built in. All the transducer I have bought latley have had temp built in. You must be able to connect a transducer to the chartplotter/graph. I have 3 transducer on my boat and all of them can do temps.

[Schins]

The Echomap 73sv is a good all around fish finder at a good price

Sidescan and Downscan are probably the biggest evolution in fishfinders since youve used yours

[LWINCHESTER2]

I've done some experiments with water temperature measurements. Yes, most of todays transducers include a temperature sensor and most all of them have the same problem. That is that the appearance of instant measurements is not so instant. Unless you have an reliable instrument to measure instant temperature you wouldn't know. The temperature reading of the sensor in the transducer is affected by the temperature of the transducer housing. I wouldn't say that any one brand is better than another. This causes a delayed response in the reading. For example, let say you are idling along at 3-4 mph looking for a slight change in water temperature. You notice that change on your display. The actual location of the temperature change is likely a couple hundred feet behind you. If you want deadly accurate temperature measurements, you need a separate device designed specifically for that purpose or one designed to plug into the unit and supply the temperature. Fish Hawk makes and excellent separate device.

[coachallen]

I noticed the temp of the trolling motor transducer is always a couple of degree's higher than the one mounted on the back of the boat.

[Schins]

I used to carry a dollar-store thermometer in the boat