Garmin Echo 550C

[Kamel]

I'm going to be upgrading my fishfinder in the very near future.

I'm contemplating going with the Garmin Echo 550C.

I've read various reports on them and most all are positive.

Anybody here have a Garmin fishfinder, and if so, what say ye?

[fishingmachine]

garmin is OK,remember,you get what you pay for,I'd still probably go with a lowrance or humminbird, in the same price range,around $365,yes? I'm sure you'll get a lot of advice on this one

[jusgrinnin]

I think you'd be at the mercy of garmin maps,not saying anything against them just saying.
BARRY

[fishingmachine]

I think you'd be at the mercy of garmin maps,not saying anything against them just saying.
BARRY

that unit does not have map capability,which is another reason you may want to upgrade to a more pricey unit,or you can buy a separate gps later if you don't have one already,and navionics maps are the way to go,which seems to be the consensus on this forum.personally,I like to have 2 units,one for gps and one for sonar.My vexilar edge is a super sonar unit and I wouldn't trade it for any of the other ones,my gps is a Lowrance 5-M and uses navionics maps and is also a super unit, however they run in the 6 to 7 hundred dollar range,each,,,and it took me a long time to upgrade to units like these.

[Black Ghost (Ken)]

I have a Garmin 442. I frequently wish for the ability to detect the depth while I am in manual depth mode. Sometimes when I'm over deep water I don't want to be in auto mode because the resolution sucks. I set the depth range to say 70 for great resolution but it loses its ability to measure depth until I come up to 70.

I don't know of any or if any can do this.

My two cents.

Ken

I'm not a Garmin user but on my Lowrance I adjust the depght range like this when I'm over deep water: I set the range to 40 for the upper limit and 80 for lower limit. The depht (bttom) is on the left upper screen corner. Because I'm using just a certain part of the water column that allowes me to see more details and to mark smaller fish. If you use 600 vertical pixels for the entire water column you loose a lot of details. I'm pretty sure you can also see the depht somwhere in the screen.
If you set the range to 70 and you are over 70 or more feet of water you won't see or track the bottom. For myself I like to play with lower and upper limit.
I hope it can help

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

Kamel, I know it's not a Garmin but a nice model is this one from Lowrance:
http://www.lowrance.us/Products/Marine/ ... te-5-Gold/

Sonar-Gps and it include a build-in map with many lakes and I'm pretty sure Champlain is include.

[jusgrinnin]

Bought the Elite-5 last year love it navionics premium is great.
BARRY

[Crazy Ivan]

Kirk .
Remember looking at the fish before it hit..........? Lorance HD...... You and me Thompsons point,....... Move over Mike P were are coming through...... nothing like calling your shot.
Todd