I'd be interested too.
Would the depth finder be better than a dinner for four at Olive Garden (wine not included)?
Ken
First, you've got to answer these questions:
1) are you married?
2) (if so) would you like to stay married?
Seriously, fishfinders - even really good ones - don't show much of anything in shallow water. I've got a really nice Hummingbird that I rigged to be portable so I can switch it between different boats we keep at different ponds but, I hardly ever take it out any more because they are all 20' deep (or less) at the deepest part. My own pond is barely 10' deep in the 2 creek channels.
At a depth of 10', even a really expensive sonar is going to show you a circle, straight down, about the size of a dinner plate. You get good, accurate info on depth and water temp and sometimes you get lucky and see a stump or a submerged log if (BIG IF) you learn how to read the thing.
Sonar is not like a TV - you see stuff but half of what you "see" isn't really there once you understand how it works and how to read it. You might see an actual real fish on your screen some day but, don't bet on it.
After a couple of years of practicing with mine, I'm pretty good at reading the soft-bottom or hard-bottom info and figuring out what is really a stump or a rock. Still, just seeing the depths change gives you a lot of info about how to fish a spot if you combine that with some experience about how those fish are likely to relate to those features depending upon species, habitat, forage base, seasonal and weather patterns, shoe size, favorite flavor of ice cream, etc.
Seriously, if you buy any fishfinder for fishing waters less than 50' deep, you are probably wasting your money to get anything more than a depth finder and a water temp readout. No need to even worry about screen size or color or anything like that.
What I've discovered is that once you've done a good job scanning a pond to find the channels, humps, holes, etc. then, you're done. It's not going to change much for many years.
Hope this helps.
