Fish Finder/Depth Sounder

[Yearwood]

About 15 year old stand alone Garmin unit is producing weak signals. Time for an upgrade. Any recommendations for a depth sounder/fish finder for use on the Chesapeake on an Albin 28 would be appreciated.

[Norseman]

I installed the Garmin 1040SX, an external antenna and a transducer with 2 different frequencies, one for finding fishes and one for reading the bottom in details.
Very happy with the combo, and no, the screen does not block forward sight or visibility.

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[Yearwood]

Thanks. I have in the past preferred different screens for depth and charts. Current (same age) chart plotter will display depth digitally, but I did not wire it.

[Norseman]

Thanks. I have in the past preferred different screens for depth and charts. Current (same age) chart plotter will display depth digitally, but I did not wire it.

Ok, your choice, but on the above machine you can split the screens.

[DCatSea]

Know the feeling about upgrading, but have been happy with our cheapo five-year-old Lowrance Chirp 5 split-screen for depth / fish finding and position keeping. I also use an ancient original equipment SiTex Depth gauge. which usually seems to agree with the Lowrance give or take a few inches. All I need to do to both is clean off the transducers very occasionally. A nice shiny new combo with a bigger screen may be in order, but I'll probably stay with Lowrance.
Regarding position - I also use Navionics Boating HD on a helm-mounted tablet as backup (usually primary)
That said, regarding said fish-finding capabilities - i apparently have a gentleman's agreement with the fish throughout the entire Chesapeake Bay; they leave me alone with my Kindle, and I, despite having all the common instincts of the hunter and several lines out in the briny sea, don't distract them from doing fishy things.

[Yearwood]

I could join the club on your gentlemen's agreement.

[DCatSea]

Maybe we should get a burgee?

[Pitou]

On my 28 TE and now my 31 TE I've gone with stand alone sounders even though having combo split screen unit MFD's. I just prefer it. On the 31TE I went with one transducer and a switch box to be able to display the single transducer's soundings on either screen.

For stand alone sounders, I really like the Furuno equipment and went with the Furuno 620 series:
the now FCV620 legacy unit on the 28 and now I have the FCV628 on the 31TE. Both are 5.7 inch screens and mounted uptop in the same location above the windscreen on RAM mount double socket arms with a round ball mount to the hull. I used AirMar tilted elements on both though some prefer a traditional ducer with a fairing block. These are powerful little units that have performed very well.

Furuno 620 (old style).jpg